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As usual, last week there was an interesting article in the Nuclear Weapons & Materials Monitor. In "Pu Work Curtailed Because Of Fire Sprinkler Issues," the Monitor's Todd Jacobson reported that "Los Alamos National Laboratory [LANL] curtailed programmatic work in the lab's Plutonium Facility, putting the facility in 'standby mode' for a month from early October to Nov. 5 because of concerns about the adequacy of fire sprinkler coverage." On the bright side, the problem that 13 of 100 areas (130 sprinklers) in the facility were not adequately covered by the sprinkler system was discovered before there was a fire in one of those areas. On the not-so-bright side, two weeks ago, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) found that the facility would be vulnerable to a catastrophic fire in the case of a severe earthquake. However, it does not take an earthquake to start a fire in a glove box that could spread.

As usual, last week there was an interesting article in the Nuclear Weapons & Materials Monitor. In "Pu Work Curtailed Because Of Fire Sprinkler Issues," the Monitor's Todd Jacobson reported that "Los Alamos National Laboratory [LANL] curtailed programmatic work in the lab's Plutonium Facility, putting the facility in 'standby mode' for a month from early October to Nov. 5 because of concerns about the adequacy of fire sprinkler coverage." On the bright side, the problem that 13 of 100 areas (130 sprinklers) in the facility were not adequately covered by the sprinkler system was discovered before there was a fire in one of those areas. On the not-so-bright side, two weeks ago, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) found that the facility would be vulnerable to a catastrophic fire in the case of a severe earthquake. However, it does not take an earthquake to start a fire in a glove box that could spread.

Fire events provide a unique source of historical data, but only when the lessons learned provide advancements in safety. When these lessons are learned but not preserved, they are often repeated. The PURPOSE of this brochure and DVD is to preserve the history and impact of the fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear (BFN) Power Plant on regulations and to educate future generations of safety professionals. Fire protection in commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs) has been a longstanding challenge since operations began. In the 1960s and 1970s, when most of today's nuclear power reactors were being constructed, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) predecessor-the Atomic Energy Commission-began adopting rules and regulations to ensure fire safety. The first adopted fire protection regulation was General Design Criterion (GDC) 3, "Fire Protection," as Appendix A of 10 CFR Part 50 in February 1971. The GDC 3, in part, states that:

The Columbia Generating Station in Richland remained off-line Monday after a "brief, minor fire" forced operators to shut down the nuclear energy plant manually Friday, an Energy Northwest official said Monday. Rochelle Olson, Energy Northwest's corporate communications officer, said dripping oil sparked a fire in insulation around the plant's turbine system around 7:50 p.m. Friday. Operators used water and fire extinguishers to put out the flames, which Olson estimated at 1 to 2 inches tall. "This was more like combustion material," she said.

The Columbia Generating Station in Richland remained off-line Monday after a "brief, minor fire" forced operators to shut down the nuclear energy plant manually Friday, an Energy Northwest official said Monday. Rochelle Olson, Energy Northwest's corporate communications officer, said dripping oil sparked a fire in insulation around the plant's turbine system around 7:50 p.m. Friday. Operators used water and fire extinguishers to put out the flames, which Olson estimated at 1 to 2 inches tall. "This was more like combustion material," she said. No hazardous materials were released and no injuries occurred. The fire was extinguished at 8:06 p.m. Friday, Olson said. She described the oil as "typical oil," saying it "lubricates bearings and things."

Exelon Corp's (EXC.N) 619-megawatt Oyster Creek nuclear power station in New Jersey shut from full power on Feb. 1 due to a main transformer fire, the company said in a release. The company declared an unusual event because the fire lasted longer than 15 minutes. The fire was extinguished within 20 minutes with help from the offsite fire department. An unusual event is the lowest of the NRC's emergency classifications. The company said the fire did not damage anything but the transformer

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is conducting a special inspection at the DC Cook Nuclear Power Station to review circumstances around a turbine generator fire and degradation of the fire suppression system. The two-unit plant is operated by American Electric Power and is located in Stevensville, Mich. On Sept. 20, 2008, a malfunction in the Unit 1 turbine generator resulted in a fire and caused the operators to manually shut down the reactor. The turbine generator transforms steam into electricity. All nuclear safety systems functioned as expected and were not affected by the fire which occurred in a building separate from the nuclear reactor. The utility declared an unusual event, the lowest of NRC's four emergency classifications, when the fire could not be extinguished within 15 minutes. The fire was extinguished 25 minutes after it started. There were no injuries and no hazard to the public.

"Facing South reports: Emergencies were declared at two Progress Energy nuclear power plants in the Carolinas over the weekend due to fires. There was also a fire at a nuclear power plant in Ohio on Sunday that sent two firefighters to the hospital. The blazes were put out and disaster averted, but the incidents underscore concerns about U.S. nuclear plants' failure to comply with fire safety regulations. The first incident happened on Friday night at the Brunswick plant near Wilmington, N.C. At about 10:45 p.m., a fire broke out in the turbine building on the plant's non-nuclear side, burning for more than 15 minutes. Plant personnel determined that the fire was caused by electric blankets used for post-weld heat treatments, fueled by tape used to hold the blankets together."

No injuries and minor damage were reported in a Thursday fire in an inactive cooling tower at the Piketon uranium enrichment plant. Advertisement According to the Department of Energy, the fire was reported at 4:30 p.m. on the east side of the plant. At 5:15 p.m., the fire was said to have no off-site impact. The fire broke out in some decking of the cooling tower, which was being removed after high winds in Saturday's storms damaged the tower. The cooling tower is one of several at the site scheduled to be decontaminated and decommissioned in the coming months with aid from American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds.

Berlin - Swedish electricity giant Vattenfall admitted Thursday to additional problems at one of its German nuclear power stations, which caught fire several days ago just after a two-year refit from a previous fire. Blunders at the Kruemmel power station have turned nuclear safety into an election issue in Germany. Though neither of the fires was in the reactor itself, Vattenfall said it had also discovered at least one of the 80,000 rods of uranium inside the reactor was "defective." The defect was not connected to the shutdown of the reactor during an electrical transformer fire on Saturday. Engineers are to take the lid off the idled reactor on Friday to search for the rods, Vattenfall said. Tuoma Hatakka, chief executive of Vattenfall Europe, the German subsidiary which runs several of the 12 nuclear power stations in Germany, insisted in Berlin, "My summary is simple: Kruemmel is safe."

FIFTEEN fires or coolant leaks have been reported in Cumbrian nuclear installations - accounting for almost 10 per cent of the total across the country, according to the government. Information released by the Department for Energy and Climate Change shows there have been 81 coolant leaks and 80 fires recorded at UK nuclear installations since 2001 - with almost one in ten in Cumbria. Four fires are listed for Barrow, including two from earlier this year when there was a fire on the submarine Ambush during welding/grinding operations and another on the bridge fin of Astute.

"Idaho Cleanup Project officials are continuing to investigate the cause of a fire that was confined to the engine compartment of a vehicle called a telehandler, Tuesday at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex of the Department of Energy's Idaho Site. There were no injuries and no release of contamination. The fire was believed to be caused by an electrical short in a telehandler being used to transport radioactive and hazardous waste that was buried in the 1960s in an area of the RWMC's Subsurface Disposal Area called Pit 5. A telehandler is a forklift with an extendable arm (or boom) utilized in the waste exhumation process to transport waste trays. Once the fire ignited, the telehandler operator activated the equipment's fire suppression equipment, which temporarily extinguished the flames in the engine compartment. "

The call came in just after 11 p.m. from a passing motorist on Interstate 94, who reported a grass fire. When Texas Township firefighters arrived, they instead found a large pole barn on fire at 10135 West O Ave. The property owner, Donald Haugen, a garden hose in hand, told firefighters he had it under control and that they could leave. Firefighters were skeptical. "The walls were beginning to collapse inside, as well as portions of the roof," Texas Township Fire Chief Jim Williams said in a report on the Aug. 19 blaze. "Looking inside of the structure, I could see many unidentified barrels, as well as barrels that were on fire. I had also heard several small explosions from within the barn."

A Monday morning fire at Port Gibson's Grand Gulf nuclear power plant has left the facility operating at 65 percent capacity. The fire was not considered major and ranked in the lowest of the plant's four emergency levels. Jami Cameron, the site's communication specialist, said the fire started in a water pump turbine when an oil-saturated piece of insulation ignited.

All U.S. plants are in violation even though fire is 50% of meltdown risk WASHINGTON, DC - Deliberate bureaucratic negligence has left millions of Americans exposed to unnecessarily high risks from fire hazards at the nation's nuclear power reactors for more than a decade, and Congress must demand either the enforcement of fire protection regulations or the suspension of operating licenses. That's according to three watchdog organizations that today sent a new report, Fire When NOT Ready, to eight congressional committee chairs.

Fire broke out in a chemical laboratory near India's financial capital Mumbai. The incident that took two lives and left one person injured happened in a lab at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre on December 30th. According to authorities fire broke out on the third floor of the lab at the research centre and the dead are said to be the research students who couldn't escape the laboratory in time. Officials have ruled out any radioactive leakage but incident has many worried about the safety of the Indian Nuclear program.

Fire broke out in a chemical laboratory near India's financial capital Mumbai. The incident that took two lives and left one person injured happened in a lab at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre on December 30th. According to authorities fire broke out on the third floor of the lab at the research centre and the dead are said to be the research students who couldn't escape the laboratory in time. Officials have ruled out any radioactive leakage but incident has many worried about the safety of the Indian Nuclear program.

"Federal regulators warned the Tennessee Valley Authority on Thursday about "apparent violations" involving fire safety at the utility's Browns Ferry nuclear plant in north Alabama. Officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the findings don't pose an immediate safety risk but are urging TVA to fix the three-reactor plant, which suffered a nearly disastrous fire in 1975 and later had to shut down for more than two decades due to problems. The latest concerns were raised in an NRC inspection report and accompanying letter to TVA that said equipment necessary for shutting down the plant in case of a fire was not properly protected. The NRC said the plant also had flawed procedures that could delay fire response. "

"An investigation has been launched following a fire at the Dounreay nuclear plant in Caithness. Fire alarms alerted the site's firefighters to the blaze at the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) at about 0040 BST on Friday. The fire involved sodium which had earlier been removed from pipe work and stored in a small tented enclosure. Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) said the fire was extinguished. The company, which is l"

"A fire at the nuclear power station Sizewell B on the Suffolk coast was made safe by firefighters after six-and-a-half hours. The fire broke out just before 2100 BST in the building housing a charcoal absorber which is used to filter out gases. It was brought under control by 0330 BST after the charcoal absorber was flooded. Eight fire crews attended the blaze at the power station near Leiston."

U.S. Rep. Edward Markey is using a fire last week at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth to turn up the heat on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Markey sent a letter to the federal agency on Friday, posing a long list of questions about the Oct. 29 fire in an outbuilding at the plant property that the plant operator says was contained to one room.

A small fire broke out Friday at a nuclear fuel plant in the village of Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, but did not cause any injuries or environmental damage, said the operator of the plant, which was scolded for delaying the report. The Ibaraki Prefectural Government told Mitsubishi Nuclear Fuel Co. to promptly report fires to local authorities in the future after learning that the company waited for about 30 minutes to report the fire, prefectural officials said.

On Mother's Day in 1969, Stanley Skinger and William Dennison bent to tape the cuffs of their coveralls, pulled on their rubber gloves, adjusted their masks, looked at each other and thought, "Let's go." Then, without knowing anything about how to fight a fire, the pair waded into the worst industrial conflagration the country had ever seen. It wasn't safe, Skinger knew, but the alternative was far worse. Forty years ago, when Building 776-777 on the Rocky Flats campus eight miles south of Boulder caught fire, it contained 7,600 pounds of plutonium, enough for 1,000 nuclear bombs.