Fukushima plans stir memories for Fermi 2 water release

Apr. 19—NEWPORT, Mich. — Japan's announcement that it intends to dump radioactive wastewater from its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex into the Pacific Ocean has rekindled memories of what happened on a much smaller scale north of Toledo nearly 30 years ago, following a Christmas Day 1993 fire inside the Fermi 2 nuclear plant's turbine building.

In that case, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission let Fermi 2's owner-operator, Detroit Edison — now DTE Energy — slowly release 1.5 million gallons of slightly radioactive water into western Lake Erie between late February and late March of 1994.

The water, used to snuff out Fermi 2's blaze, picked up radiation from the turbine building's concrete walls and metal equipment inside it. It was released into Lake Erie in three batches, the first being about 596,000 gallons.

The mess from that fire included 17,000 gallons of oil in the basement that was at the plant to lubricate and seal turbines. The utility filtered out as much as it could during a two-week treatment process before disposal.

While there are many differences between what happened at Fermi 2 and what happened at Fukushima, there's a common denominator: What options do regulators have to avoid large releases of radioactive water when they are faced with post-accident dilemmas at nuclear plants?

The debate rages on, and now involves people from around the world.

Japan's accident at its Fukushima Daiichi complex in March of 2011 was the nuclear industry's most dramatic since the 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant near the city of Pripyat in the former Soviet Union, the worst in nuclear history.

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It was triggered by an earthquake, which created a tsunami that overwhelmed Japan's six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi complex. At least three of them experienced full meltdowns.

More than 2,000 people died from the evacuation itself. More than 15,000 people are believed to have died from the tsunami, with only one confirmed as a result of radiation poisoning. Radiation from Fukushima is believed to have traversed the globe, and the number of cancers attributed to it is unknown.

"The ocean is not Japan's trash can," China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said in expressing outrage over Japan's plan to dump wastewater into the Pacific.

During a news briefing and in a tweet, he encouraged Japan's deputy prime minister to drink Fukushima's treated wastewater if it is so safe.

According to the Washington Post, Japan wants to start dumping Fukushima's 300 million gallons of wastewater into the Pacific two years from now, and phase in the releases over several decades.

Though obviously much smaller, Fermi 2's Christmas Day 1993 fire was no minor event.

John A. Martin, the NRC's Midwest regional administrator at the time, told reporters back then that Detroit Edison was lucky it had no worker fatalities.

"You can speculate all you want. It was a serious issue and could have come out otherwise," he said after visiting the plant days after the accident.

"It looked like an earthquake, of magnitude six, had hit," Mr. Martin said, comparing it to earthquake scenes he had seen during a portion of his career that was spent in San Francisco.

But there was no earthquake.

A large, steel turbine blade broke off from the back row of a low-pressure turbine at high speed, flying through the air like a machete and with such force it wound up going through the floor and into the basement 75 feet away.

That triggered a series of events which severely damaged the plant's three low-pressure turbines, its high-pressure turbine, and a major voltage device for the generator that's known as an exciter.

Also damaged was the generator itself and the plant's brushgear, which channels electricity into transmission lines.

Each of the plant's turbines are about the size of a homeowner's garage.

One of the largest machines inside that part of the plant looked like a steel can pried apart by a can opener, an NRC official stated back then.

The sprinkler system and other backup systems worked as designed to help put out the fire.

The plant's fire brigade was criticized by the NRC for not responding fast enough. But the regulator lauded it for containing the fire and keeping it from reaching the reactor building and other radioactive areas.

There were no injuries.

There were so many gallons sprayed on the fire that parts of the basement had six feet of standing water.

But, much like what is happening in Japan now, the perception of releasing even slightly radioactive water into Lake Erie — the world's 11th largest freshwater lake and part of the Great Lakes, which hold 20 percent of the world's surface water — was a hard sell.

The public was skeptical, despite assurances to treat the oily-water mixture before its release in order to remove as much of the oil and radiation as possible.

Val Osowski, who at the time was the Michigan Department of Natural Resources assistant press secretary, said the agency received "a bazillion calls" about Detroit Edison's plans. Former Frenchtown Township Supervisor Jim Spas likewise said back then he had been "overwhelmed" with calls.

Many Monroe-area nuns expressed outrage.

More than 200 people attended a forum in which NRC and utility officials explained the plan with help from experts such as Ron Fleming, a University of Michigan nuclear engineering professor who spent more than an hour explaining the results of an analysis he was hired to do for three governmental agencies.

Hecklers periodically interrupted the meeting and booed many of the speakers representing Detroit Edison, the NRC, or those who sided with them. Two hours into the public meeting, at least a dozen were physically removed by local law enforcement officers.

The initial release into western Lake Erie began at 7:21 p.m. on Feb. 24, 1994.

Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside of Fermi 2's main gate for a couple of days of protest. At least two were arrested for blocking employee access to the gates. Many returned for the other two subsequent releases.

Monroe County sheriff's deputies threatened to use Mace on the crowd to disperse it. The group split up, at one point blocking three gates.

At one point, a sheriff's deputy smacked a television camera owned by WTVG, Channel 13, a Toledo station also known today at 13abc, with an open palm after the cameraman holding it disregarded the deputy's demand that he stop filming the rally.

The deputy attempted to overpower the cameraman and wrestle away the recording device, but did not succeed. The station's news director at the time said it considered pressing assault charges against the deputy, but didn't.

Tensions are now high about Japan's upcoming action, not only over in Asia but also here in the United States.

Beyond Nuclear, a national anti-nuclear group based in Takoma Park, Md., said the 300 million gallons from Fukushima — also reported in the media as 1.25 metric tons — is enough to fill 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The wastewater is currently stored in more than 1,000 giant storage tanks.

Fukushima's owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., "wants us to believe that the radioactive contamination in this water will be diluted in the ocean waters," Cindy Folkers, Beyond Nuclear radiation and health hazard specialist, said.

"But some of the radioactive isotopes will concentrate up the food chain in ocean life," she added. "And some of the contamination may not travel out to sea and can double back on itself. Dilution doesn't work for radioactive isotopes, particularly tritium, which research shows can travel upstream."

Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear radioactive waste specialist, said the wastewater "should be stored in robust containers on solid ground for as long as it remains hazardous, even if this means beyond the arbitrary confines of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant property line."

Fermi 2's 1993 fire resulted in a yearlong shutdown and caused more than $60 million in damage.

Unlike Fukushima, the plant has rebounded and is licensed to operate through March 20, 2045.

If there were ill-effects from Detroit Edison's release of slightly radioactive water, they are not well-documented.

Barry LaRoy, Monroe water and wastewater supervisor, said DTE works with that city's water-treatment plant operators to provide and maintain a radiation monitor at its raw water intake.

"Raw water has a normal background of radiation and in my history we have not had any spikes in radiation levels in raw or treated water," Mr. LaRoy said.

Viktoria Mitlyng, NRC spokesman, said both DTE and the NRC "were sampling this water as it was being put through various filtration systems to further reduce radioactivity" and that, in the end, what was released was "a fraction" of what is allowed under that agency's health and safety standards.

"The release into the lake was slow and highly controlled to ensure a great deal of dilution, was continually monitored, and constituted a fraction of the regulatory limits," she said.

Stephen Tait, DTE spokesman, said it is important to note Fermi 2 is a zero-discharge plant, which means it does not routinely discharge anything into the lake.

"It is all reprocessed [under normal operations]," Mr. Tait said. "This is part of our commitment as a company and a plant to be strong stewards of the environment."

The water discharged in 1994 was purified over two weeks and had "very low levels of contamination," he said.

Western Lake Erie — chronic algal blooms and all — never lost its reputation as the Walleye Capital of the World.

There have been record or near-record walleye hatches in recent years, a return to exceptionally high juvenile classes of the 1980s.

Still, some charter boat captains worried about the perception people would have about western Lake Erie, even if the water from Fermi 2 wasn't that radioactive.

Such concerns have been long displaced by the region's anxiety over algal blooms that have occurred almost every summer since 1995, including one in 2014 which caused Toledo's drinking water to be deemed unsafe to drink during the first weekend of August that year.

That infamous Do-Not-Drink order affected nearly 500,000 metro-area residents, some of whom relied on fresh water delivered by the Ohio National Guard.

First Published April 18, 2021, 12:15pm