Nuclear reactor shutdown kills fish in nearby waters The Associated Press 01/23/00 6:29 PM Eastern FORKED RIVER, N.J. (AP) -- At least 100 fish died after pumps at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station automatically shut down, triggering a controlled shutdown of the reactor. As of early Saturday evening, about 100 dead fish -- mostly striped bass -- had been collected from the reactor's cooling water canal. The fish died after the shutdown caused the water to turn suddenly cold. Officials at GPU Nuclear Inc., which operates the 30-year-old nuclear reactor, said no radiation was released, and no one was injured when the controlled shutdown occurred at 10:48 a.m. on Friday. But fish congregate near the drainage canal of the reactor, which is cooled by 1 million gallons of seawater an hour. The water temperature of the canal is about 10 degrees above that of water in nearby lagoons, and fish in the area die of thermal shock when the plant shuts down and water temperature drops by only a few degrees. Workers from the state Department of Fish and Game will remain on the scene through Monday to collect any more fish killed by the cooler waters. Plant shutdowns in recent winters have killed as many as 1,000 fish at a time. Before Friday's shutdown, the plant had been operating for a record 434 days. Plant operators said they do not know when operations at Oyster Creek would resume.

Link to story:

http://www.nj.com/news/stories/0124nuclear.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 24, 2000

Answers

This sounds more important than some other minor shutdowns. The choice of words above indicated that an automated control stopped the pumps and the response was a controlled shutdown.

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), January 24, 2000.

I drive by that nuke plant all the time. It's VERY close to me. An interesting note: People FISH in that water, right there by the plant. I see them out there all the time. Plenty of fish to be had there...but I sure wouldn't trust that water.

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), January 24, 2000.