ML24093A006
| ML24093A006 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Oconee  |
| Issue date: | 04/01/2024 |
| From: | Public Commenter Public Commenter |
| To: | NRC/NMSS/DREFS |
| NRC/NMSS/DREFS | |
| References | |
| 89FR10107 | |
| Download: ML24093A006 (3) | |
Text
From: frank powell <fmpowell3@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, April 1, 2024 6:11 PM To: OconeeEnvironmental Resource
Subject:
[External_Sender] comment attached in Word Attachments: NRC ONS comments 324.docx
Federal Register Notice: 89FR10107 Comment Number: 8
Mail Envelope Properties (CALppcO2EnUppbd4PQF-QdKrxcf8-XbrKryUiaHLsdb3p1TFQag)
Subject:
[External_Sender] comment attached in Word Sent Date: 4/1/2024 6:11:27 PM Received Date: 4/1/2024 6:11:48 PM From: frank powell
Created By: fmpowell3@gmail.com
Recipients:
"OconeeEnvironmental Resource" <OconeeEnvironmental.Resource@nrc.gov>
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Post Office: mail.gmail.com
Files Size Date & Time MESSAGE 0 4/1/2024 6:11:48 PM NRC ONS comments 324.docx 15482
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NRC-2021-0146 It was 11 years ago that Dave Lochbaum, nuclear scientist from the Union of Concerned Scientists turned my idyllic life living 26 years on Lake Keowee, UpSide Down! The SC Chapter of the Sierra Club brought Dave Lochbaum to Clemson, SC to speak about the intolerable risk of Jocassee Dam failure leading to near certain three-reactor meltdown at the Oconee Nuclear Station built over 350 below Lake Jocassee. In these last 11 years I have tried to get answers to my questions and to better understand the probability of a Fukushima disaster in the Upcountry of SC.
Would the NRC approve today a new license request for a nuclear reactor built over 350 below two earthen dams?
Why has the NRC considered Jocassee Dam failure and subsequent reactor flooding out of the scope of interest in making a new, never tested, and unprecedented decision to keep an inherently dangerous nuclear facility open until 2054?
Since Duke Energy announced in 2021 that they wanted to keep the ONS open for 80 years, I have looked into what information will be provided to the NRC to demonstrate that flooding of the ONS will be mitigated by diversion walls around the nuclear plant. I was told by a Duke Energy representative during a tour of the FLEX protocol facilities that it was diversion of flood waters from Lake Jocassee around the ONS that would prevent reactor meltdown. He pointed to the area where the walls were built on the Southside of the ONS. He said they were not visible because of terrain and vegetation. Nope, no meaningful diversion walls were built.
It is a fact. Earthen power dams fail. They are silently hard at work resisting the massive pressures of mega-tons of rising and falling water. with turbine plumbing, drainage systems, and with years of yielding to the massive pressures of water, they often fail. And there is always the mega storm*, an atmospheric river, an earthquake event, or both. I ask the NRC to ensure that Duke Energy protects 1.5 million people from the probable meltdown of the three Oconee Nuclear Reactors due to the increasingly likely chance of a Jocassee Dam failure over the next 30 years.
- 1916: Altapass, NC (Mitchell County) received a record 22.22 inches of rain in 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> from July 15-16, 1916. Altapass, NC is under 100 miles NE from Lake Jocassee and is in line with the watersheds and river systems that now form Lake Jocassee.
Four rivers flow into Lake Jocassee: Whitewater River, Thompson River, Horsepasture River, and Toxaway River. The dam is 385 feet tall and 1,750 feet wide. The full pond elevation on the lake is 1,100 feet and the average depth is 158 feet deep. At 1,115 feet lake level the dam is overtopped. That additional 15 of water (~150,000-acre ft) must be accounted for in environmental and flooding modeling.
Frank M. Powell, Ph. D., Professor Emeritus, Furman University, Greenville, SC 29672
fmpowell3@gmail.com NRC-2021-0146