“State of Emergency” Declared at Brunswick Nuclear Plant in Southport, NC

By Daisy Luther

A “state of emergency” has been declared by the staff at Brunswick Nuclear Plant in Southport, North Carolina. Few details are available at the moment, but the emergency is currently classified as “an unusual event” due to flooding from Hurricane Florence. If it’s any comfort, the classification of “unusual event” is the lowest emergency classification in the nuke world.

Local media reports:

Duke Energy’s Brunswick nuclear plant, about 30 miles south of Wilmington, has declared a state of emergency as the 1,200-acre complex remains cut off by flood waters and is inaccessible to outside personnel.

The plant has declared an “unusual event,” the lowest level of nuclear emergency, as required by Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said NRC spokesman Joey Ledford.

The twin-reactor nuclear plant, located 4 miles inland, is stable and poses no threat to public safety, Ledford said. The facility has off-site electricity from the power grid to cool the nuclear reactors and radioactive nuclear waste at the site.

Flood water has not entered the facility and has not exposed critical equipment to risk. (source)

The NRC spokesman assures the public that there’s no need to panic. “The plant is safe. The reactors are in hot stand-by mode 3 shutdown.”

I sincerely hope we aren’t looking at our own Fukushima-style disaster.

How do you prepare for a nuclear plant emergency?

I have not specifically researched nuclear emergencies that occur from industrial accidents but for the time being, my suggestion is to learn what you can about radioactive events. If I lived in the area, I would prepare in the same way that I would for a nuclear strike, less the impact of the missile hitting the earth.

Again, at this time there has been no risk announced to those who live near the Southport plant. Don’t panic but keep a close eye on this and, if you can pass through the local roads, be ready to evacuate quickly with your family should things get worse.

Right now, this is all we know.

I will update you as more information becomes available.

Please feel free to share any information from this site in part or in full, leaving all links intact, giving credit to the author and including a link to this website and the following bio. Daisy is a coffee-swigging, gun-toting, homeschooling blogger who writes about current events, preparedness, frugality, and the pursuit of liberty on her website, The Organic Prepper, where this article first appeared. Daisy is the publisher of The Cheapskate’s Guide to the Galaxy, a monthly frugality newsletter, and she curates all the most important news links on her aggregate site, PreppersDailyNews.com. She is the best-selling author of 4 books and lives in the mountains of Virginia with her two daughters and an ever-growing menagerie. You can find Daisy on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.