On July 12 2015, Christopher Le Cun said he was sucked into an intake pipe at the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant in Southern Florida. In a video posted on the WPTV news website Christopher recounts the terrifying experience as he was sucked into the intake pipe.
The whole experience lasted five minutes before Christopher emerged into a reservoir pond at the nuclear plant. He looked around for help and found an employee who was stunned to see the man in full dive gear in the pond. The pipe Christopher was in is 16 feet across, a quarter mile long and sucks around 500,000 gallons of water per minute and is used to cool the plant’s nuclear reactor.
Christopher and a friends were scuba diving off their boat in Southern Florida when they found a large yellow buoy moored in the ocean. They tied up their boat and decided to dive in the area. What they didn’t know was that buoy was making the intake pipes for the nuclear plant. Christopher is now suing the Florida Power & Lights for the ordeal.
This incident is a good reminder to make sure you always obtain a proper orientation for any new dive sites or a local orientation when you are diving in a new area. This is especially important if you are piloting your own boat, it’s a good idea to brush up on your nautical buoys and rules of the road (the nautical road). A quick search online turned up this information about yellow buoys.
Yellow buoys. Yellow represents caution on these buoys. Usually meaning to stay away from them. They are used to indicate pipes, dredge lines, traffic schemes, an isolated danger. The rule for yellow buoys: Stay away.
