Nuclear security

Nuclear plant declares emergency, second breach reported at coal ash site amid Florence’s rains

A second breach was reported at a coal ash landfill site in North Carolina on Monday according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the latest impact from Hurricane Florence’s heavy rains. That update comes amid a state of emergency declared at a nuclear power plant overseen by the landfill’s operator, Duke Energy, as the extent of the damage from Florence — now a tropical depression — slowly becomes apparent.

The first Duke Energy Corp. coal ash landfill site experienced a breach on Saturday following an initial spill at the company’s Sutton Power Plant, which is near Wilmington where Florence first made landfall.

Reggie Cheatham, the EPA’s director for its Office of Emergency Management, told reporters Monday that the second spill occurred when some of the landfill’s water eroded, Bloomberg reported. The location of the second breach is not currently known to the EPA.

Duke, however, has disputed the EPA’s characterization that there had been a second breach. “This is all part of the same erosion event from heavy rains, but does not represent a second slope failure,” spokesperson Paige Sheehan told Bloomberg.