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- <text id=91TT1890>
- <title>
- Aug. 26, 1991: American Notes:Nuclear Power
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Aug. 26, 1991 Science Under Siege
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 23
- American Notes
- NUCLEAR POWER
- Down for the Count
- </hdr><body>
- <p> A sudden power failure struck New York State's Nine Mile Point
- Nuclear Station like a sucker punch last week, knocking out
- vital instruments and warning lights. When backup power systems
- also failed, operators were unable to monitor the reactor core
- for 20 chilling minutes. "It was like losing your speedometer,
- dashboard lights and headlights when you're going down the road
- at 70," said Peter Slocum, a spokesman for the State Disaster
- Preparedness Commission. Plant officials declared a "site area
- emergency," the second highest level of alert under federal
- regulations. It was only the third time such an emergency has
- been declared in the U.S.
- </p>
- <p> Although the three-year-old plant on Lake Ontario, some 40
- miles northwest of Syracuse, was shut down safely with no
- release of radiation, critics are demanding that the plant be
- closed for good. Until June, Nine Mile Point had been on the
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission's list of troubled plants. Last
- week a team from the NRC began an investigation of the shutdown.
- Said NRC spokesman Joseph Fouchard: "We've got a lot of work to
- do."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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