John Tedesco

The San Antonio Express-News has been delving into many story angles about the proposed expansion of the South Texas Project nuclear plant near Bay City. CPS Energy wants to invest more than $5 billion for two new reactors, which has touched off a heated debate in San Antonio.

For today’s story about nuclear safety, I mostly relied on government reports to learn about the industry’s safety record. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission offers vast archives of official material online. And the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, has published several reports about problems at some plants, such as guards sleeping while on duty. The GAO’s search page is a great resource for just about any topic.

But government records aren’t the only resources out there. One incident I came across was documented by the local newspaper, the Bay City Tribune, which had learned through word-of-mouth about a bizarre day at the plant. The incident became the lede of my story:

BAY CITY — On a gusty October day last year, two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled at Ellington Airport in Houston and raced toward rural Matagorda County — home of the South Texas Project nuclear plant.

A small civilian plane was flying near the plant without broadcasting a proper transponder code, raising the specter of a 9-11-style terrorist attack. STP employees saw one of the F-16s roar past the nuclear reactors near Bay City on Oct. 23 at 1:30 p.m., company spokesman Buddy Eller said.

Minutes later, plant personnel dealt with a potential danger on the ground. At 1:40 p.m., a man was spotted in the parking lot carrying a rifle case. Security officers detained him.

Both incidents — first disclosed by the Bay City Tribune, a local newspaper — turned out to be unrelated false alarms. The civilian plane landed, and authorities determined that the pilot had made an innocent mistake. And the man detained at the plant was an STP employee who had bought an empty gun case at the facility’s company store, which catered to hunters.

“They’re not selling rifle cases at the company store anymore,” said Victor Dricks, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Since the NRC does not release details about many security-related events at nuclear plants, the initial news story in the Bay City Tribune was the only way the public learned what happened that day. So the local journalists deserve a pat on the back for chasing down the story, and kudos to STP for answering their questions.

The friendly staff at the South Texas Project nuclear plant gave me a tour for my story about nuclear safety, which is running tomorrow. This video just went live on mySA.com and it gives you a sense of how the plant looks and sounds.

More food for thought about the South Texas Project nuclear plant, which has applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build two new reactors:

If you missed this week’s debate about nuclear energy, Public Citizen posted complete videos of the Clean Tech Forum at the Pearl Brewery.

At issue is whether CPS Energy should invest at least $5.2 billion in two new reactors at the South Texas Project nuclear plant in Matagorda County.

Here’s my article today that was prompted by alert Express-News readers, who questioned claims by CPS Energy that there’s never been anyone harmed by nuclear power plant operations in the United States.

The South Texas Project nuclear plant

Have you heard of the nuclear accident at the SL-1 military facility that killed three men in 1961?

Some readers of the San Antonio Express-News know about it. And today they questioned claims by nuclear plant owner CPS Energy that no one has ever been harmed by operations at a nuclear plant in the United States.

Check out the sweeping claims by CPS Energy in the story here, and look at the response by two readers who offered links to articles and reports about the deadly, Jan. 3, 1961 steam explosion at an experimental nuclear facility in Idaho.

Today I asked a CPS Energy official about the accident. While noting the military facility was a prototype that pales in comparison to today’s commercial nuclear plans, he acknowledged that CPS’ sweeping claims need to be scaled back.

I wrote a story about the issue that’s running tomorrow — kudos to our readers for the great tip.

The South Texas Project nuclear plant

You can check out what we’ve found so far, and also submit information in an online forum. We’ll plug relevant events into the chronology.

Over the past two decades the plant has won industry awards for its track record. But we also found:

I did most of the research and mySA’s Mike Howell plugged the information into the online database. Feel free to contact us if you have any suggestions.

The San Antonio Express-News set up a Web page with links to sites and news stories about CPS Energy’s plans to invest $5.2 billion in a proposed expansion of the South Texas Project nuclear plant in Matagorda County.

Here some more resources about the project and the nuclear plant: