• Nuclear plants in Florida and Texas withstood Hurricanes Harvey and Irma
• Highly trained operators work in storm crews to guide plant through severe weather
• Plants protected by layer-upon-layer of safety systems and robust response plans

After working seven days straight at the South Texas Project (STP) Electric Generating Station, Jason Berrio couldn’t get into his own house. His wife had evacuated because of Hurricane Harvey and he didn’t carry a key.

But after a week bearing up under Harvey, Berrio was unfazed.

“I made some command decisions and cut a hole in our door big enough for me to reach inside and unlock my house,” he said. “[My wife] had come up with alternate suggestions like putting the key in the mail but I really didn’t want to wait another three days to get in my bed.”

Berrio is an operations manager at the STP nuclear plant, near the coast between Houston and Corpus Christi. He was one of nearly 250 employees who worked, ate and slept at the plant for a week straight to guide it through one of the worst hurricanes Texas has ever seen.

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma caused tremendous damage on the Gulf Coast, but nuclear plants in Texas and Florida were prepared for the storms thanks to their robust designs, multilayered safety systems and to dedicated people like Berrio who operate them.

When hurricanes occur, electric utilities take specific actions for nuclear plants mandated by U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission guidelines and the plant’s emergency response plan, including monitoring weather reports and conducting “walkdown” inspections of the plant to secure equipment in case of high winds.

“The way I look at it is: we’re always operating the plant” during a storm, said Mike Schaefer, plant general manager at STP. “Sometimes we’re generating electricity, sometimes we’re shutdown, but we’re always operating the plant.”

Regulatory standards dictate that plants shut down at least two hours before the onset of winds at or above 73 miles per hour on the site. As Hurricane Harvey developed though, the National Weather Service predicted severe flooding instead. Harvey made landfall Aug. 25 and inundated southeast Texas over the next week.

As the storm poured more than 60 inches of rain in some regions, STP’s control room was “very calm” like any other working day, said Schaefer.

“I’ve been through several [storms] out here: Hurricane Claudette [in 2003], Tropical Storm Bill [in 2015] … and then Hurricane Harvey” and it’s critical to maintain normal operations, he said.

Instead of heading home after a successful shift, the storm crew stayed and slept on-site. After spending the day working at the plant, Berrio would push the desk in his office aside at night to inflate an air mattress.

“I brought my own pillow from home; that was a lesson learned from previous storm crews. Just give yourself those little creature comforts because you don’t know how long you’re going to be here,” he said. “I participated in the storm crew … when Hurricane Rita came out here [in 2005]. ... Rita prepared me mentally for what it was going to be like, but no hurricanes are exactly alike.”

When Harvey subsided and additional staff could safely arrive at the plant, the storm crew could finally go back home and assess the aftermath in their neighborhoods.

“I ended up spending the next five days fighting a flood to prevent it from coming in the house,” Schaefer said.

The drive home was “surreal,” he added.

“You might drive for two or three miles and see nothing but water where normally you would see farmland or pastures,” said Berrio.

“I am proud of the dedication of our Storm Crew teammates,” STP President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Koehl said this week. “Through great personal sacrifice, these individuals provided safe, reliable electricity to millions of Texans throughout Harvey.”

Just a week after Harvey, Hurricane Irma brought strong winds and up to 16 inches of rain to Florida, making landfall Sept. 10 as one of the most intense storms to hit the state since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. However, the storm did not linger as long as Harvey. Storm crews at St. Lucie and Turkey Point nuclear plants stayed on-site from Sept. 9 through Sept. 11.

Serving on a storm crew is “a little bit like camping in some ways,” but everybody recognizes how important it is, said Peter Robbins, generation communications manager and spokesperson for NextEra Energy Inc. NextEra owns Florida Power and Light Co., which operates St. Lucie and Turkey Point.

“You can see [a hurricane] coming, so we were able to start our site preparations in earnest a full week before we felt any of the storm’s impacts. We started early once [Irma] was a named storm and it was still thousands of miles away out in the Atlantic,” Robbins said.

NextEra also holds a companywide storm drill before hurricane season, “a weeklong series of exercises and preparations,” he added. “We do additional readiness at our nuclear plants and once we see the storm coming, we can do more preparation."

Early preparation is just one aspect of the layer-upon-layer protections that plants have against emergencies. Every operator is required to routinely train for emergency scenarios in their plant’s control room simulator and every nuclear plant boasts multiple, redundant safety features designed to withstand hurricane force winds and flooding.

“Nuclear power plants are among the most hardened and secure critical infrastructure in the United States. We build plants to withstand the worst that Mother Nature can throw at them, including hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes and more. South Texas Project, Turkey Point and St. Lucie all sustained no damage to safety systems thanks to their robust designs,” NEI Director of Incident Preparedness Bill Gross says.

In the event of a loss of electricity off-site, every plant maintains permanently installed diesel generators that can power their systems. After the 2011 Fukushima accident, the industry implemented its FLEX strategy, which provides additional portable backup equipment and the ability to receive even more equipment and generators within 24 hours from two national response facilities. In addition, utilities coordinate emergency response plans for every site with the NRC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency that are tested multiple times every year.

As of Sept. 28, Hurricane Maria was heading out to sea after devastating Puerto Rico and Hurricane Jose has moved up the East Coast. But history shows that nuclear plants have maintained safety during major storms. When Hurricane Andrew hit Florida in 1992 as a category 5 storm, Turkey Point 3 and 4 withstood the direct impact of the storm. In 2004, St. Lucie withstood Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne back-to-back.

As the 2017 hurricane season winds down as one to remember, America’s nuclear plants and the men and women who operate them will continue to demonstrate the resilience of nuclear energy.