Power Plant Refuelling

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32233, 27 February 1970, Page 1

Power Plant Refuelling

Ihe nuclear power -plant on Observation ! Hill, overlooking Mci Murdo Station, will be refuelled for the third time in six years this winter. Lieutenant-Commander T. Crane, of the United States Navy’s nuclear power unit at I Fort Belvoir, Virginia, said in Christchurch yesterday that the low enrichment core ltd be used was of a new type which would have a four-year life. Previous cores had only had twp. years life each. Commander Crane, who has been studying the power plant since January, said that the new core was taken to MeMurdo Station in the supply be ship John R. Towle. After extraction the spent core will be-put in a tank of water for a year to permit the radioactivity to decay. It will probably be taken back to the United States in the 1971-1972! summer season. Commander Crane said that i in the United States the old -cores were buried on land! set aside for the purpose and regulated by the Atomic EnPi’ffv C nmmiccinn

Because of operating expert ence, new techniques an< technological know-how tin McMurdo Sound plant wai providing an extra 10 per cen increase in its power output He said that the plant me' the station’s full power rc quirement for more than' 1( months of the year. !| The biggest pull on power ! said Commander Crane, wa: in the peak summer seasot , when the plant was workini , very 'close to its designed out , put. . Since it began working , there had been no radioactivi fall-out in the area whicl could be attributed to th< > power plant, he said. Th< 1 radioactive fall-out increase: ! that were reported wen ■ caused by nuclear testing it ’ the Pacific and elsewhere. Great care was exerciset I in external monitorini f for contamination. “Th: : soil, water and air an I'l regularly analysed to see how '■ or if, we are affecting the en ! |vironment,” he said. Internal monitoring cov I'ered all fluids in the plant • Distilled wastes were pack • aged and sent back to th: I United States in special con ' tainers in accordance with in

1 plant will be installed at Mc- ' Murdo Station next season, I although three plants will not run at one time. One will be i used for emergencies such as occurred this summer when II one plant broke down and the ; station was put on limited i water hours for a period. The nuclear plant at Mcr Murdo Station was assembled , in the United States and trans- ! ported to the Antarctic aboard a cargo ship which arrived at its destination in December, ! 1961. It began power opera- [ tions with an all Navy crew . on June IQ, 1964.