More refineries lose electricity in Texas City

[dbcooper41]

http://www.wral.com/business/story/9496589/

uh-oh

By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press
TEXAS CITY, Texas — Three refineries, including a BP unit where a
2005 explosion killed 15 people, and a Dow Chemical plant lost electricity in
outages that led to shelter-in-place emergency alerts and the cancellation of public schools Tuesday in Texas City.
The source of the power outages was still being sought, emergency
officials said.A second shelter-in-place alert, advising residents to stay indoors,
was issued around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday after a Valero refinery also lost power,
Texas City Homeland Security coordinator Bruce Clawson said.
A BP refinery, site of the deadly March 2005 accident that also left
170 people hurt, and the Dow Chemical plant lost power around 11 p.m. Monday.

The initial shelter-in-place order took effect after those two outages, but was
lifted around 3 a.m. Tuesday, Clawson said.
Around 4:40 a.m. Tuesday, electricity was lost at the Valero and
Marathon Oil refineries, which activated their flare systems, the Galveston County Daily News reported.
Marathon quickly brought its power situation under control, Clawson
said.
BP spokesman Michael Marr said a fire broke out at the refinery
shortly after the power went out but crews were able to put it out. There were no injuries at the refinery, Marr said.
The city and BP reported no emissions of hazardous materials in the
area, said George Fuller, assistant emergency management coordinator for the
city.
"There was constant monitoring going on at all times and it did not
reveal anything, although there's a strong smell of hydrocarbons in the
air," Clawson told The Associated Press.
At the BP plant, workers were seen going into the plant around
sunrise Tuesday, reporting for their shifts.

[elfismiles]

Raw Video: Alerts Issued at Tx. Refineries

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_EXUld3qzY
www.wptz.com/video/27671942/

[eyeno]

I also considered the possibility that they may be putting plants through emergency shut down procedures on purpose to find problems and make sure things go smoothly in the event they have to be shut down under emergency status.

Is a Rogue Computer Virus Shutting Down Nuclear Plants Worldwide?

Tuesday, April 26, 2011 4:38


It is now common knowledge that the U.S. and Israel developed the Stuxnet computer virus in order to slow down Iran's nuclear program.

As the New York Times noted in January:

Over the past two years, according to intelligence and military experts familiar with its operations, Dimona has taken on a new, equally secret role — as a critical testing ground in a joint American and Israeli effort to undermine Iran’s efforts to make a bomb of its own.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/04/ ... -down.html

[eyeno]

I'm also cynical enough to equate stuxnet with an event such as this, just call me Cynical Sam.

NASA issues warning of solar superstorm 2012

Monday, April 25, 2011 5:21

by Terrence Aym

April 25, 2011
[img]http://www.patriotsteaparty.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/solar-flare.gif
[/img]
Could a superstorm generated by the sun destroy civilization as we know it in 2012?

No less than NASA thinks it's a distinct possibility. In a remarkable move the normally conservative US space agency has taken the extraordinary step of warning the world.

The headlines reverberating around the world speak volumes: 'Leaks discovered in Earth's magnetic field,' Solar storms to wreak havoc,' 'The end of life as we know it,' 'Magnetic shift to cause global superstorms.'
Can such things really happen?

NASA and the European Space Agency say yes.

2012 and the rising specter of doom

Among all the countries with exposure to the solar devastation, the United States is the most susceptible.

As The Daily Telegraph recently observed: "National power grids could overheat and air travel severely disrupted while electronic items, navigation devices and major satellites could stop working after the Sun reaches its maximum power…"

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/587/148/ ... _2012.html

[crikkett]

I'm also cynical enough to equate stuxnet with an event such as this, just call me Cynical Sam.

Do you suspect that viral infections leading to shutdowns of nuke plants and electricity grids will be covered up by calling them solar storms?

Or are you saying that you're cynical enough that the consequences of stuxnet infections would be equivalent to the effects of a massive solar storm?

[dbcooper41]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/29/us-nuclear-power-blackout_n_855424.html

U.S. Nuclear Power Blackout Plans Doubted By NRC Chief

WASHINGTON -- The nation's top
nuclear regulator cast doubt Thursday on whether reactors in the U.S. are
prepared for the type of days-long power outage that struck a nuclear power plant in Japan.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has only required plants in this
country to cope without power for four to eight hours. After that time, it
assumes some electrical power will be restored.
NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko on Thursday questioned whether four to
eight hours is enough time, even though it's unlikely a nuclear power plant would lose power from both the grid and emergency diesel generators as the Japan plant did.
Requirements put in place after the September 11 terrorist attacks
could lengthen plants' ability to withstand a blackout.
"Four hours doesn't seem to be a reasonable time to restore offsite
power if you lost the diesels immediately," Jaczko said at a commission meeting at the NRC's Rockville, Md., headquarters. "In the event there is a station
blackout that is externally driven, I'm not convinced that in that situation four
hours" is enough time to restore offsite power.
An Associated Press investigation last month examined the risk to the
nation's 104 nuclear reactors to a complete loss of electrical power. In the
U.S., such a "station blackout" has only happened once, at the Vogtle Electric
Generating Plant in eastern Georgia in 1990. There, power was restored in 55
minutes.
The Japan disaster showed that it could be days before the
electricity needed to pump water and keep the radioactive core from melting can be turned back on. In Japan's case, the plant operator found other ways to cool the cores without onsite or offsite power.
Of the 104 nuclear reactors in the U.S., 87 can cope for four hours
in a blackout. Another 14 can cope for eight hours, and three can last for
16 hours.
As part of a review initiated after the Japan incident, the
commission is looking at whether the blackout rule needs to be updated. At the time the rule was written in the 1980s, the commission assumed electrical power could be restored in 50 minutes to 2 hours. The NRC added an additional two hours to that time as a safety buffer.
Since then, plants have lost offsite power for longer periods of
time. In every case, diesel generators kicked on and supplied electrical power,
sometimes for days. There also are agreements with power grid operators that
nuclear power plants get first priority as power is restored.

"We have a high expectation you will restore offsite power, restore
emergency diesels or use alternate sources," said Pat Hiland, director of the
NRC's reactor regulation engineering division.
But Jaczko pointed out that the blackout regulation is designed to
deal with a situation where even diesel generators don't work, as in the case of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in Japan.
A top staffer told NRC commissioners Thursday that the Japan
situation "has definitely improved" in recent weeks.
Bill Borchardt, NRC's executive director for operations, said that
while there are still many unanswered questions about equipment failures and
other problems at the facility, the situation is "certainly not as highly dynamic"
as it was.
Overall, Japan is "making progress," he said. "They have a road map
and certainly a good start toward long-term restoration."