Minor water leak reported at NC State's nuclear reactor

Raleigh, N.C. — North Carolina State University officials said Thursday that there is a low-level water leak in the liner that surrounds the campus nuclear reactor, but that it poses no danger to the public.

University spokesman Keith Nichols described the leak, discovered Saturday, as the size of a pinhead and that it was leaking about 10 gallons per hour from the 15,000-gallon tank.

“This is a research reactor and considerably smaller than a commercial power reactor,” said Gerry Wicks, the university’s reactor health physicist. “Its design significantly limits the possibility that, even under the worst circumstances, this facility presents any kind of danger."

Nichols said it would be considered a public threat if the reactor were leaking at 350 gallons per hour.

The university is in the process of repairing the leak and has notified the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, North Carolina Radiation Protection Division and North Carolina Division of Water Quality about it, Nichols said.

The reactor has been in operation at N.C. State since 1972 and is one of about 20 university-operated reactors in the country. It is in operation about 1,000 hours annually for nuclear research, the school said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspected the reactor in February and found no significant issues.

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My earlier attempt to comment was moderated out for calling out people to support their positions on eliminating nuclear energy production and research. Apparently WRAL mods don't mind dissemination of unsupported, vague, and largely ignorant opinions in the GOLO section, and that rubs my fur the wrong way as a scientist and seeker of facts. So instead I'll conform to apparent policy and make a layperson's observation that nuclear research and energy provide large-scale energy production with a small carbon footprint and excellent safety record, and played a significant part in diagnosing and curing my father's cancer. Understanding and carefully applying the energy of unstable nuclei is an important part of the present and future.

scifion
July 8, 2011 3:07 p.m.

I have a feeling most of the people who are freaked out have never been in the building. Our reactor is *tiny.* A total meltdown wouldn't even be -that- big a of a deal.