By Lindsay Potter
On January 3, staff at Florida Power and Light’s St. Lucie nuclear power station on Hutchinson Island north of West Palm Beach, reported moving reactor Unit 2 to cold shutdown after showing signs of a coolant system leak that “rendered both trains of high-pressure safety injection inoperable,” according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission incident summary. The incident report attributes the leak to the “degraded condition” of the reactor. The two reactors began operating in 1976 and 1983. In 2003, they were both granted 20-year license renewals, extending operation until 2036 and 2043. Both units are currently in the process of seeking another 20-year extension that would bring their operating lifetime up to 80 years — double the 40-year lifespan originally prescribed for nuclear reactors — whose many parts are subject to degradation by corrosion, heat, vibration, embrittlement, and irradiation. The NRC has yet to issue the current request for a license extension and the Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Safety Review processes are still underway. — nrc.gov, Jan. 4, 2024
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