Carolina and Virginia electric utilities are warning customers to be prepared for widespread and lengthy outages in the wake of Hurricane Florence. At the same time, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is ramping up inspections and reviewing storm operations of nuclear plants that could be affected by the storm.
In a news release, the NRC specifically called out Duke Energy's 40-year-old Brunswick Nuclear Plant, south of Wilmington, N.C., as one that could face "winds, major storm surges and heavy rain." The plant has two General Electric Boiling Water Reactors, the same reactor technology that was used in Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Unlike the Fukushima plant, which was right on the ocean, the Brunswick plant is perched on the bank of the Cape Fear River a few miles upstream from its mouth and the Atlantic Ocean.