Heeding the lessons of Fukushima, US nuclear industry braces for damage inflicted by Hurricane Irma
Hurricane Sandy in 2012 caused three reactors in the US Northeast to shut but inflicted no serious damage
Hurricane Irma will pose the toughest test yet for US nuclear power plants since reactors strengthened their defences against natural disasters following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in Japan in 2011.
Irma was on course to hit South Florida early on Sunday after slamming Cuba as a category 5 storm. It weakened to a category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 210km/h on Saturday, but was expected to strengthen before reaching Florida, bringing a storm surge to a state home to four coastal nuclear reactors.
The National Hurricane Centre’s forecast track shows Irma making landfall on the southwest side of the Florida Peninsula, west of the two nuclear reactors at the Turkey Point plant.
The operator, Florida Power & Light (FPL), has said it will shut Turkey Point well before hurricane-strength winds reach the plant. The reactors are about 42km south of Miami.
FPL said it will also shut the other nuclear plant in Florida at St Lucie, which also has two reactors on a barrier island on the state’s east coast, about 193km north of Miami.
“We will shut the reactors down 24 hours before category 1 force winds are forecast to hit,” FPL chief executive Eric Silagy told a news conference.
