The Gary Null Blog

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/08/26-2

NEW YORK -- More than a dozen nuclear reactors along the U.S. East Coast are being prepared for potential loss of power and damage from high winds and storm surges as Hurricane Irene bears down on the region.

Nuclear plants in Irene's path continued to operate as workers secured loose equipment, checked diesel fuel supplies for backup generators and stowed cots and food for workers who may be stranded during the storm.

At Dominion Resources Inc.'s Millstone nuclear station, which sits on a narrow peninsula in the Long Island Sound near Waterford, Connecticut, workers were examining flood barriers and submarine doors designed to keep reactors dry from a hurricane's storm surge.

"That's part of our storm preparations: ensuring those flood barriers are in place, ready to do their job," said Ken Holt, a spokesman for Richmond, Virginia-based Dominion, in an interview yesterday.

Irene, a Category 3 hurricane, is on track to become the first major storm to strike the U.S. since Hurricane Ike in 2008, following a similar path to Gloria in 1985, which swept through New York City into New England.