Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion. – Isaiah 52: 1
Two thousand megawatts of strength, that is. That`s enough to supply a million power-hungry residences with electricity each day.
That`s how much wattage Zion Station, Commonwealth Edison`s nuclear power plant in northern Lake County, and its 828 employees churn out. Described by many nearby Zion residents and merchants as a ”friendly and necessary neighbor,” the plant is described by its operators as a safe, two-unit, pressurized water reactor (PWR).
It operates quietly, virtually unnoticed amid the hubbub of Lake County except by the neighbors, who are keenly aware of it but show little apparent concern despite the terrible publicity that nuclear power often gets.
Completed in 1973 for $450 million, a 10th of what a nuclear power plant would cost today, Zion Station is situated on 97 acres, including 3,000 feet of Lake Michigan shoreline. The plant, 54 miles up the shore from Chicago, where 50 years ago this month the first controlled nuclear reaction was achieved, is one of Illinois` seven nuclear power plants, six belonging to Commonwealth Edison. On a clear day, the plant`s two 200-foot-high containment buildings, each built 3 feet thick ”to withstand tornadoes and aircraft collisions,” according to plant experts, can be seen from the beaches of Chicago`s north suburbs. The containment buildings, which resemble water towers, each house a reactor, with the nuclear core equipped with fuel rods actually placed at about eye level, rather than 200 feet up, as many would assume.
We hope we will never know how the plant might fare against a chance jet collision or tornado, but Zion Station sees that other threats are not left to chance by taking great measures to prevent access to unauthorized people. Every employee entering the building must pass through an explosives detector and one of four powerful metal detectors, remove their watches, empty their pockets, and place all metallic belongings onto a conveyor belt, like those at O`Hare International Airport, to be X-rayed. Wearing photo ID`s, they pass at least two security guards and go through a one-way gridded gate like those at Chicago`s elevated-train stops.
And that`s just getting in. Getting out of the plant is complicated by the fact that radioactive dust can adhere to the clothes or skin of those working in radiated areas of the plant. Kevin McEvoy, a contamination-control coordinator, is armed with a radiation monitor to maintain clean areas of the building, keeping them free of smearable, or loose, radioactive contamination. ”I have to clear a series of three monitors before I leave work,” said McEvoy, who is married, has an 8-year-old son and lives in Johnsburg, on the Fox River. He`s been with the plant for 15 years. ”Starting from the inner plant working out, I first go through a whole body monitor with my protective clothes, or PC, which are yellow cotton coveralls. I`ll be wearing cotton booties over my street shoes, with a rubber covering over the booties. My hands are protected by rubber gloves, which fit over a liner. There`s a protective hood over my head.”
The first monitor resembles a photo booth in a mall, but instead of sitting on a stool, you stand, tummy pressed against the monitor, and slip each hand into a slot. When you hear a simple beep you`re radiation-free.
Kevin carefully removes his PCs, which are then separately tested, and heads through the auxiliary building exit to a second full-body monitor.
This location is a common point for catching workers exiting the containment building and fuel building who may have come into contact with radiation. McEvoy explained that the second monitor is more sensitive to radiation than the first. ”The alarm set points are lower than those in the first monitor, which can`t be set as low due to background radiation. The third monitor is at the security guard house. It is small and even more sensitive than the previous two.” Rarely does he set off the alarm at the guard house. ”It would happen more commonly at the first monitor. When it does, I contact the radiation protection department for a technician to come.”
He said that removing the contamination is simply done with mild soap and water, ”not like those wire brushes used in the `Silkwood` movie. Contamination would most likely come from the bottom of my shoes.”
Does this complicated ritual mean Zion Station is a dangerous place to work and risky to live near? Not according to Zion Station employees, who echo the mantra ”We have backup systems for our backup systems.”
”People`s first response to atomic power was fear,” said Gary Wald, Commonwealth Edison spokesman. ”Fear of the bomb. . . . Nuclear power had its birth in the weapons of World War II, but we think nuclear is one of the most benign forms of electricity.”
Lake Michigan water is the key to getting nuclear power in Zion Station. The nuclear reaction creates high-pressured steam in a sealed loop. The loop carrying this highly radioactive steam comes in contact with a second sealed loop carrying water. The water in the second loop turns to steam that rotates a turbine shaft that powers an electric generator. The second loop water continuously recycles through the steam turbine process, but it must be cooled first by water drawn from Lake Michigan. The cooling water is discharged back into the lake, 20 degrees warmer.
”People may think that Zion Station somehow pollutes the lake, but in fact the water is purified before it enters our clean system,” Wald said.
”So in a way, we help clean the lake. People need to understand that the lake water does not touch the radioactive water.” Wald noted that in spring and fall as many as 50 fishing boats can be seen floating upon the slightly warmed and rippled waters over the discharge pipes on the lake.
As for thermal pollution, a spokesman for the Sierra Club said studies have shown little effect on the lake as a whole. ”It`s a lot like a campfire in Antarctica. The lake is so big, the heat just dissipates,” said Albert Ettinger, conservation chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Sierra Club. He added that thermal problems occur in rivers, where fish have little chance to escape a radical change in water temperature.
Joan Muraro, a spokeswoman with the office of public information at the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency in Springfield, said of thermal pollution, ”We haven`t done any detailed study. But as far as sports fishing, raising the water temperature has been beneficial.”
”Our population is reaching the point where we are having an extreme effect on the ecosphere, the place where we all live, and we need methods of generating electricity with a minimum effect on the environment,” said Wald. He believes that nuclear energy can one day power electric cars, eliminating carbon-dioxide emissions and dependence on oil. ”This would be to our country`s advantage and to the world`s,” Wald said, adding, ”Nuclear power is still relatively new.”
But Zion Station, as nuclear plants go, is relatively old. Of the 108 nuclear power plants operating in the United States, Zion is one of only four plants on the watch list, a status the Nuclear Regulatory Commission bestowed upon it almost two years ago as a result of friction between management and workers and some problems with backup generation and the water system, according to the NRC. Zion, like other plants built before the 1979 partial meltdown at Pennsylvania`s Three Mile Island reactor, has the stigma of being outdated compared with the new generation of plants built ”post-TMI,”
because of many safety improvements required of the newer plants.
As a result of Three Mile Island, the Zion plant built a technical support center (TSC) on its premises. In an emergency, the station director takes charge there.
Wald explained that a disaster like the one in Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union could never occur here because that plant used graphite, a flammable material, to contain the chain reaction rather than water, which Zion uses. ”Chernobyl had a power surge and the graphite and nuclear fuel caught fire, burning off the top of the reactor,” he said. ”The containment building was like a little shack, and the operators had been turning off safety sytems for experimentation. They`d never allow that in this country.” By ”they” he means the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which put Zion Station on the watch list. ”We view the watch list as an early warning system,” said Jan Straasma, regional NRC spokesman, in Glen Ellyn. The U.S. is divided into five regions. The Midwestern states fall in Region 3 with 28 nuclear power plants. Since getting on the watch list, older equipment has been replaced by state-of-the-art instrumentation and monitoring equipment, and Zion Station`s diesel backup generators have been overhauled, ready to power the plant`s safety systems if it experiences a loss of power.
Zion has also suffered some morale problems. Straasma explained, ”There was tension within the control room between the operators and supervisors. That`s been resolved through training and reorganizing, and Zion has since made other signifigant improvements.”
Unit One supervisor Keith Dryer agreed. ”We now have two unit supervisors, one per unit,” said the Beach Park resident. ”I can concentrate on plant activities. I used to supervise both units and would get buried in paperwork.”
”To get off the watch list, we`re looking for sustained levels of improved performance,” said J.D. Smith, senior resident inspector for the NRC who, with two other inspectors, has a permanent office at the plant. To avoid conflict of interest, they cannot receive a cup of coffee from a Zion plant employee, do lunch, share a car ride or socialize in any way.
Smith, a congenial Alabaman, explained, ”We`re public servants, and to avoid the perception we might be on the take, we stay at arm`s length.”
Commonwealth Edison is hoping to get off the watch list in January, when NRC`s senior management meet at their Washington headquarters. ”They`ll discuss the plants, including Zion,” said Smith, who reports to the regional office in Glen Ellyn. ”If the plant continues at the same rate of improvement, they should get off (the list) in January, or in July when the NRC meets again. You`ve got to be a declining performer to get on the watch list. Then you`ve got to be much better than average to get off because the government agency is very conservative. We`re here like cops.”
Although Smith and his crew do not intermingle with plant employees, Zion workers sometimes mingle among themselves. Denise Cleveland, a nuclear station operator who works in the control room, operates the reactor and other systems from her post. She has experienced reorganization not only in the control room but also in her personal life.
”I was married to an operating engineer at the plant. We got divorced. I just got remarried,” she said. Her new husband, Steven, is an equipment operator at the plant. ”I didn`t want to date anyone at the plant after the divorce, but it just kind of happened. It`s tough to meet other people when you`re on these crazy hours,” she said.
Denise and Steven, who live in Winthrop Harbor, are often on opposite 12- hour shifts, one working 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., the other 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., only seeing each other on days off. ”It`s frustrating,” she admitted. ”We`ll try to get on the same crew next year.”
Zion plant operations employees are experimenting with 12-hour shifts four days a week, which they believe is less stressful than eight-hour shifts five days a week. They work days one week, nights the next, and train every fifth week. This reduces an awkward rotation of three different schedules changing weekly and creating a sort of a jet-lag problem. Avoiding that is crucial for those working the control room, such as Denise Cleveland, who need to remain alert.
Said Cleveland, who has been with Zion for more than 10 years, ”I could cause a lot of problems if I don`t do my job right.”
The complex control room is really two rooms in one, controlling both reactors. Its enormous four walls pulsate with activity, as highly trained fingers control valve switches, handles for pumps and large dials and gauges for instrumentation. Telephones are ringing for busy people who are circulating on the newly color-coded carpet indicating who is permitted to walk where. To the untrained eye, it`s like a futuristic set on the Starship Enterprise.
Highly trained eyes, however, fix on the ”black box,” which ”indicates the immediate shutdown of the reactor, either to refuel or if something goes wrong,” Broccolo said. ”The operators activate the control rods (not to be confused with the fuel rods) to interrupt the nuclear reaction. When all the lights go on in the black box, we know the plant has shutdown.”
According to Smith of the NRC, this occurs on average twice a year at all American nuclear plants, but last year at Zion, for the first time in the plant`s history, it didn`t happen at all.
Resident NRC inspector Roy Leemon said that a shutdown occurs when system pressure or temperature fluctuates but that most of the time the operator on duty can intervene to correct the problem beforehand.
Every 15 to 18 months one of Zion`s two reactors is refueled. One third of the fuel assemblies are removed from the reactor and put into a 35-foot-by- 70-foot spent-fuel pool, about half the size of an Olympic swimming pool. The other two-thirds are rearranged within the assembly to stimulate more radioactive energy. It may seem remarkable that 20 years of spent nuclear fuel consumed by a million people fit in such a small area, compared with the waste from spent coal. The problem is there is no place to store the spent fuel rods once Zion Station`s fuel pool, and the pools at the nation`s other plants, are filled to capacity.
”They`re going to put the rods in bedrock, in salt mines, where land has not been disturbed for millions of years and won`t be for millions more,”
said J.D. Smith. He is referring to Yucca Flats in Nevada, the designated location for all of our country`s fuel rods. The site preparation has experienced numerous delays, but it should accept radioactive waste in a few years.
Said Smith: ”I`ve been in the nuclear program since 1958, starting with Navy nuclear submarines, and I feel very strongly that nuclear is a safe, viable power source. The most important thing to me is my family, my grandchildren, and it wouldn`t bother me if they lived alongside the plant.” It certainly doesn`t bother David McAdams, Zion`s fire chief, who lives a half-mile from the plant: ”I don`t think many people in town worry about living close to the plant.” He`s used to it, having grown up on the Ohio River near the country`s first nuclear plant, Shipping Port, Pa.
McAdams` department of 24 is specially trained to cope with fires and other hazards at the plant.
”At least twice a year we have a class on radiation-problem experience, usually by the Com Ed people,” he said. ”It includes background on radiation hazards as well as instruction on putting on and removing protective clothing in a way that won`t contaminate us. Radiation is invisible and a real nuisance. If there is a radioactive source, chances are the plant will seal it off and we won`t go in there.
”It is more likely we`ll be dealing with problems of common hazardous materials and flammable liquids. If we see smoke coming from the plant, we`ll put out a call for Winthrop Harbor, Bonniebrook in Beach Park, Newport in Wadsworth, and possibly Gurnee, to assist. The plant has its own fire brigade, and we train together.”
McAddams and his department responded to a serious fire call at the plant two years ago when a short inside the plant caused a transformer outside to catch fire. The flames were out within four minutes of their arrival, McAddams said. The damage amounted to $4 million.
Judy Smith, Zion`s city clerk, participates in emergency planning zone drills the NRC conducts every two years. The EPZ falls inside a 10-mile radius of the plant. The NRC states that danger from radiation lessens with time and distance and says those within 10 miles of the plant would be more vulnerable. Residents in the zone receive booklets in the mail dealing with emergency procedures should a nuclear accident occur.
Said Smith, ”In an emergency I would be called to an emergency station because while everybody wants to leave, some of us must stay behind to make sure the others leave safely.”
Eugene Latz, superintendent of elementary schools in Zion, sees Zion Station as a great educational opportunity: ”Our school kids will be able to make greater use of the facility with its new Powerhouse Energy Museum.”
”It`s been a good neighbor,” said Ron Crawford, Commonwealth Edison district manager of Waukegan, referring to Zion Station. Crawford manages employees who read meters, maintain power lines and install new service. ”The biggest concern in the city of Zion is what would happen if they closed the plant down in, say, 20 years,” he said? ”It`s been a good employer and tax base.”
James J. O`Connor, chairman of the board of Commonwealth Edison, is not so quick to write off Zion Station in 20 years, but, he said, ”If Zion is to continue to operate beyond the turn of the century, certain major expenditures will have to be made, such as replacing the steam generator.” O`Connor, who visits the plant at least once a year, said it is among the most modernized and reliable in the country.
”This year 83 percent of electricity used in northern Illinois is produced by our six nuclear plants,” he said. ”France, Japan, Korea and other emerging superpowers have a lot of faith in the future of nuclear power. So do we.”
Gary Lloyd, a carpenter who lives in Zion and has worked on construction projects at the nuclear plant, said, ”They are so safety-conscious, they don`t take any chances. Everyone should go through the plant to see what it`s like. I work with concrete so I know,” he said of the plant`s solid construction.
Tom Fortner, who owns Fortner`s Jewelry in downtown Zion, said, ”It makes you wonder sometimes, but you can`t let it bother you if you`re here.” He added that he is more concerned about the safety of heavy corporate air traffic out of Waukegan Memorial Airport.
Is there anyone out there with serious concerns about 8 million people living in the shadow of a nuclear plant? Did the chant ”No More Nukes!” go the way of eight-track tapes? When Judy Smith said, ”Zion doesn`t have any local opposition to the plant right now,” was she echoing the sentiment of every nuclear and non-nuclear community?
”I`ll tell you what`s wrong with nuclear power: It`s dangerous,” said Marvin Golden of the Greenpeace International Atmosphere and Energy Campaign, which educates the public on alternative energy sources. ”Radioactive waste lasts hundreds of thousands of years. They still have nuclear waste from the first atomic tests they don`t know what to do with. It`s in dry cask storage, essentially cement, which can crack and seep into ground water when buried.” Golden, whose organization cites several examples of Zion plant violations resulting in stiff fines from the NRC back in the 1970s and 1980s, said Greenpeace believes there are better ways of producing energy, with renewable sources such as solar, wind and bio-mass methane from landfills.
”Illinois would be a prime candidate for wind farms,” Golden said from his Windy City office. ”It`s more labor intensive than nuclear power, which means more jobs per energy unit. Why doesn`t Com Ed dedicate more money to conservation and energy efficiency?”
”Every option should be considered-wind, solar, bio-mass-all the renewables,” O`Connor said. ”But we have to view their commercial applicability. We`ve had some experiments in the Freeport area on wind-powered facilities and have found Illinois not prime for wind-related (energy).”
Com Ed does contribute money to the research of renewable energy, O`Connor said, and ”we watch very carefully what is happening in our areas on these various technologies.”
