Newspapers / The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, … / Jan. 17, 1991, edition 1 / Page 6
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CP&L's Unit 1 Could Restart Early After Scheduled Outage BY TERRY POPE Carolina Power and Light Co. of ficials say plans to start up a second reactor unit at the Brunswick nucle ar plant in South pert are running about four days ahead of schedule. Unit 2 at the plant is already run ning at 100 percent capacity, and Unit 1 should start up around Feb. 23. Both units were taken out of commission last August by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission af ter mistakes by two licensed control room operators led to an automatic shut down. "This has been a very major out age, but it has gone very well," said Joseph Harness, plant general man ager, during a tour of the plant last week by area news personnel. Last Wednesday marked the 105th day of a scheduled 150 day outage for Unit 1. During the outage workers are completing 58 sched uled modifications. Riser piping on both reactors was experiencing stress fractures. Harness said the entire nuclear power industry is having problems with the 12-inch pipes that weigh about a ton each. To prevent future problems with radiation leakage, they had to be replaced. Those on Unit 1 were replaced in 37 days, which is considered a record for the industry, he said. "With a changing of metals, we don't believe we'll have this prob lem in the future," said Joe Holder, an assistant plant manager. The plants were also shut down for several weeks in May after 23 of 47 licensed operators tested by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission failed. For each dav that one of the com pany's units is shut down, about 5250,000 more in fuel is used at a "fuel-driven plant" ? such as one of the company's coal or hydroelectric plants ? to provide customers with electricity. Holder said. That cost "flows right to the customer,*' he added. "We just completed, this morn ing, putting the last bundle in for re fueling," Holder said of Unit 1. Brunswick is the largest of the three nuclear power plants operated by CP&L. It is responsible for 15 percent of the company's total pro duction capacity. The combined units contain about 537 bundles that serve as fuel rods inside the two boiling water re actors. About a third of the uranium bundles are replaced every 15 months during refueling, which takes about six weeks. A unit must be shut down for refueling. The bundles are about 15-fcet long and each weighs about 700 pounds. The company has kept track of about 4,000 individual items that have undergone repairs during the 150-day outage. Control room oper ators have also gone back to the training simulator more often. Holder said. "We did struggle last summer," Holder said. "We now send people back to training more often. We thought we had a good program be fore, but the conditions change and the requirements change and we got caught up in that" Every five weeks, control room operators go into 40 to 80 hours of simulator training. Each year, all operators must pass an annual test that Holder said is very strict. "This site is quality driven," said Jack Spencer, an assistant plant manager. The Brunswick plant was given a 40-year license to operate. Unit 2 began operations in November 1975 and Unit 1 began in March 1977. "These plants probably have a much greater life span than 40 years," said Elizabeth Bean, CP&L spokesperson. "The feeling is, why shut them down when you've got a longer life expectancy." National Guard Units Seek Support Of Local Community The role of the Army National Guard and the need for community support of local units will be the topic of a meeting Wednesday, Jan. 30, at 7 pjn. at the National Guard Armory in Shallotte. Topics covered at the public meeting will include an N.C. Army National Guard mission briefing on "Operation Desert Shield." Also planned are presentations on the stale and federal mission of the N.C. Army National Guard and a National Guard video. Speakers will discuss the history of the 1st Battalion 120th Mechan ized Infantry and the local National Guard unit, as well as benefits pro vided through membership in the N.C. Army National Guard. The Shallotte Army National Guard company commander and his staff will be introduced. There will be lime for open discussion. Ll Col. Jolin T. Hoffman, commander of the 1st Battalion 120th Mechanized Infantry, will fceii the meeting. It is one of six such "town meetings" scheduled this month across southeastern North Carolina. Others speakers will include Lt Col. Baron G. Hignite, public affairs officer with the N.C. National Guard, and Lt Col. Coy E. Branch, re cruiting and retention manager with the N.C. National Guard. Terminal Cancels All Sales All sales of lumber and railroad crossiies at Military Ocean Term inal, Sunny Point, have been can celed until further notice. The notice applies to both regular and special sales, said Myrtle D. Meade, public affairs officer. The notice came just in advance of the Jan. 15 deadline set by the United Nations for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to withdraw his troops from Kuwait in order to avoid military intervention. Sunny Point is the largest ammu nition port in the free world and is the only U.S. Department of De fense ammunition terminal specifi cally designed to handle container ized ammunition shipments. It's 9,250-acre reservation is surround ed by another 7,000 acres of buffer and easement zones. Cargo arrives at the port by either rail or truck for shipment from the terminal's three 2,200-foot wharves. The terminal is also responsible for management of Department of Defense cargo going through the State Port Authority facilities at Wilmington and Morehead City. CHECK THE WOODMEN DIFFERENCE INSURANCE IS ONLY A PART OF THE WOODMEN STORY. The Woodmen provides its membership with a broad variety of insurance programs at most competitive rates. Tiie Society's financial rating and stability are unquestioned But another part lies in the fraternal benefits offered with Woodmen membership: the social and patriotic activities, civic recognition awards. and a national youth program. See your Woodmen representative for your insurance needs and enjoy being a part of America's Family Fraternity. Jimmy Marshall 754-8400 Brunswick Square Hwy. 17 S., Shallotte 9 Larry Heustess WHOLE LIFE UNIVERSAL LIFE TERM INSURANCE ENDOWMENTS. -MORTGAGE PROTECTION ANNUITIES HOSPITAL SUPPLEMENTS DISABILITY INCOME "THE FAMILY FRATERNITY WOODMEN of the WORLD LIFE INSURANCE SOCIETY HOME OFFICE OMAHA NEBRASKA PHOTO CONTWBUTtO ?Y Cf?L INSIDE THE CONTROL room at the Brunswick nuclear plant in Southport. Plant managers stepped up training for control room oper ators after 23 of 47 licensed operators failed a test administered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. New Policy To Require Fees For Water Lines BY TERRY POPE The board that oversees the coun ty's water expansion projects wants property owners who live in neigh borhoods where future main trunk lines are planned to help pay for those lines. The Utility Operations Board will recommend to Brunswick County Commissioners four possible meth ods for assessing people who live where main trunk lines are to be in stalled. Presently, there is no county policy for assessing property own ers who live along main distribution lines. However, persons that live in Spe cial Assessment Districts (S A.Ds) are assessed the cost of running lines from adjacent water mains into their neighborhoods based on either the square footage or road frontage of their lots. SAD water customer think it's unfair that property owners on main lines do not have to pay. UOB members voted 6-1 Mon day, with Richard Trexler objecting, to present four options to county commissioners that would end the "freebies," as one county official said. The board plans to recommend a policy that imposes either a fee or an assessment based on the acreage of the property. An ad hoc committee of UOB members and Director of Utilities Jerry Webb worked to draw up a "It gets progressively less costly as the road frontage goes up." ?Robert Nubel, UOB On acreage fees plan that would equitably charge the owners of large tracts of land along future water lines. That plan was presented to the full board Monday. The option UOB members will ask commissioners to adopt charges property owners of large tracts on a rale schedule. If the road frontage exceeds 100 feet, the boundary line for measuring the depth of the prop erty would remain a variable. The greater the road frontage of the lot, the shorter the boundary depth line would expend from the road for de termining the square footage to be assessed. For example, a property owner with a road frontage of 100 feet would also have a boundary line on that property of up to 100 feet. Assessments would be based on a lot of 10,000 square feet. However, a neighbor with a road frontage of 400 feet would have a boundary line on that property of 96 feet, or 28,800 square feet of property liable for assessments or fees. "It gets progressively less costly as the road frontage goes up," ex plained UOB Vice Chairman Robert Nubcl. Board attorney Michael Ramos said if the county adopts a policy to assess property owners then the ex pansion projects wouid have to un dergo two public hearings. If fees are imposed rather than assess ments, only those property owners who desire county water would ha?e to pay the fee in addition to the usual tap-on fees. Since the county will have al ready decided where the main trunk lines are to be installed under iis capital improvements project, pub lic hearings on assessments "would be a farce," Nubel said. Planning Director John Harvey said charging land owners along main trunk lines differently from residents in SADs would not be come a "double standard." At the UOB's December meeting, Com mission Chairman Kelly Holden asked that a policy be recommended to the county for charging residents along main lines an equitable rate. 'This is a progressive step," said UOB Chairman AI Morrison of Sun set Beach, who was elcctcd Monday to succeed D.V. Jones as board chairman. "This is an exciting period ahead of us," Morrison said. "There arc a lot of things we've got to get done if we're going to stay in existence." At their Jan. 7 meeting, county commissioners voted to hire Jay Houston and Associates of Shallotte as the engineering firm to design Phases III and III-A of the capital improvements project for the county water system. An estimated $6 mil lion will be spent in 1991 to extend a main water line from Shallotte to the Seaside area and from N.C. 179 to the Shallotte Point community. Houston and Associates has also been hired to design SAD 12, the county's latest district which in cludes 10 subdivisions between Ocean Isle and Calabash to feed off of the water main along N.C. 179. The county is still negotiating a contract for that project with the en gineering firm, Webb told the board Monday. Webb asked that the con tract discussion be deleted from the meeting agenda. In other business, Walter Golds berry of Gray Bridge Road present ed the board with 36 additional names from the Shell Point commu nity that have petitioned the county to become the next SAD. Next Medifast Classes Start March 5 Call today to sign up. Marilyn J. Boehm, M.D., Ph. D. Village Pines, Shallotte 919-754-5581 919-754-9949 cvifi tzSaundsrii, (D.!2\ Family Optometry ? Comprehensive Eye Examinations ? Ocular Emergencies ? Contact Lenses and Glasses Prescribed ?Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases of the Eye Suite 3, Promenade Office Park 143 Holden Beach Road, Shallotte Office hours by appointment. Evening and Saturday appointments available. Phone 754-9687 Member American Optometric Association C1990 THE HUMgWtCK MACON RE-OPENING THURSDAY x \ JANUARY 17 V Serving... Veal ? Lamb ? Beef Chicken ? Seafood (Charbroiled & Sauteed) in a relaxed, casual atmosphere. Serving Hours: Lunch 1 1 AM Fine Dining 5 PM, Lounge 'til 2 AM |Hwy. 179 ? Calabash ? 579-3511 l^No & u^1 Reservations Accepted C1M1 THE BRUNSWICK BEACON i.yj Santa Forgot?! 0 ...or maybe It Just couldn't fit down the chimney. Choose from many styles, colors and fabrics In stock! RECLINERS AND SWIVEL ROCKERS Direct Factory Outlet - ? . _ , For High ?Check US Out! Point Bedding WAREHOUSE FURNITURE DISTRIBUTORS Easy Financing Terms ? 90 Days Same As cash Wholesale/Retail ? Delivery Available 803-249-8874 Hwy. 90 Nixon's Crossroads. 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The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, N.C.)
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Jan. 17, 1991, edition 1
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