Dirty laundry averts nuclear disaster
SUFFOLK, ENGLAND - A nuclear leak in Britain that could have caused a disaster was averted by a chance decision to wash some dirty clothes, according to a newly obtained official report, The Guardian says.
On the morning of Sunday, Jan. 7, 2007, one of the contractors working on decommissioning the Sizewell A nuclear-power station on the Suffolk coast was in the laundry room when he noticed cooling water leaking onto the floor from the pond that holds the reactor's highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel. The pond water level had dropped as much as 30 centimetres, yet none of the sophisticated alarms in the plant sounded in the main control room.
By the time of the next scheduled inspection, the pond level would have dipped enough to expose the nuclear fuel rods – potentially causing them to overheat and catch fire, sending a plume of radioactive contamination along the coastline.
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Fire in manhole leaves thousands of Hydro-Québec customers without power
MONTREAL - Hydro-Québec says a power outage affecting Montreal is connected to an underground explosion and a fire in a manhole in Rosemont—La Petite–Patrie.
The fire started in underground pipes belonging to Hydro-Québec on Bélanger Street between Boyer and Saint-André streets, according to Montreal firefighters, who arrived on the scene at 12:18 p.m.
The electricity had to be cut so that firefighters could get into the manhole where the equipment was located.
At the peak of the shutdown, nearly 41,000 customers were without power. As of 7:00 p.m., 10,981 clients still had no power.
Hydro-Québec spokesperson Louis-Olivier Batty said the utility is being strategic about how it restores power.
Because of the cold, it anticipates that…
