April Fools, it ain't an April Fools Joke, and it ain't funny

Today was April fools day. My friend Dave Paulson wrote a long article on the current state of America called "Common Nonsense" that shows just how far we've drifted from the America that resisted the East India Company, and in the process found independence. But the news is what gets me. There was a major incident at a nuclear power plant, and two massive oil spills in Arkansas, and they barely got a peep from the major media. You see there is a disaster going on in a nuclear power plant there, and it barely got a footnote in the news. Amazing.

The Report says:

"At 0750 [CDT] on 3/31/2013, during movement of the Unit 1 Main Turbine Generator Stator (~500 tons), the Unit 1 turbine temporary lift device failed. This caused a loss of all off site power on Unit 1. The ANO Unit 1 #1 and #2 EDG [Emergency Diesel Generator] have started and are supplying A-3 4160V switchgear and A-4 4160V switchgear. P-4A Service Water pump and P-4C Service Water pump has been verified running. Unit 1 has entered [procedures] 1202.007 - Degraded Power, 1203.028 - Loss of Decay Heat, and 1203.050 - Spent Fuel Emergencies. Unit 1 is in MODE 6.

Mode Six is pretty serious. I was talking to someone and she said it means "they can't switch the steam loop from the turbine.. is issue.. so running water over loop.. let-out as steam through the turbine pressure relief valve.. not made for this" -- which means that while the problem is stable, it isn't over.

"ANO-1 entered TS 3.8.2 A, 'One Required Offsite Circuit Inoperable'. All required actions are complete. The event caused a loss of decay heat removal on ANO Unit 1 which was restored in 3 minutes and 50 seconds.

Apparently the problem isn't over yet, even though cooling has been restored. But if the unit is in mode 6, that means that the situation is still serious. Apparently the primary loop is still offline so they'll have to "keep feeding the secondary loop new water.." and this will" [piss] "out the over-pressure relief valve to outside until they get the pumps and internal power back on." So they are minimizing a problem that could rapidly cascade to further issues.

...."At this time, the full extent of structural damage on Unit 1 is not known. There was one known fatality and 4 known serious injuries to workers. The local coroner is on site for the fatality and the injured personnel have been transported offsite to local hospitals. Investigation into the cause of the failure and extent of damage is ongoing."

Probably nothing. Seems they dropped the stator on a generator and damaged the power lines in the process, causing 3 minutes of loss of cooling on the reactor. Is that serious? Will we ever know?

Meanwhile two oil spills seem to be warning us of the stupidity of approving that pipeline for the Canadians.

April Fools? Who?