Entergy-Arkansas Nuclear One

April 28: Was Waterford A Precursor To Arkansas Nuclear One?

April 19: Personally, you know what is ahead of us...there are going to drop a fuel cast from the refueling floor to the first floor...with the refueling floor as the top floor.

























Updated April 26: Is Entergy lying to the stockholder and the financial people? Bet you the NRC won't allow them to start up until the investigations are over with.

Maybe OHSA and the NRC has found malicious rule breaking and fraud...they need permission for restart...

You get it, they don't have the skills to know how damaged their plant is...

Entergy says Arkansas Nuclear Unit 2 to restart in May

April 26

HOUSTON (Reuters) - One of two shut reactor units at Entergy Corp's Arkansas nuclear plant will return to service in May, Entergy chairman Leo Denault told investors on Thursday.

Both reactors at the Arkansas Nuclear One station have been down since March 31, when an industrial accident related to a refueling shutdown at the 834-megawatt Unit 1 killed one worker and injured eight others.

Denault said Unit 2, rated at 989-MW, will restart in May.

He said it is too early to know when Unit 1 might be repaired and restarted.

Entergy Plans for Restart of Unit 2 at Arkansas Nuclear Plant

Published April 04, 2013

Dow Jones Newswires

Entergy Corp. (ETR) said it is making plans to restart one of its units at an Arkansas nuclear-power plant, a process that is expected to take several weeks, after the unit shut down automatically following an accident on Sunday that left one worker dead....

April 8:

So the NRC gave them a week to shred incriminating documents or back date missing documents...everyone wink wink, along with their corporate lawyers, now got their story straight....

 NRC SENDS AUGMENTED INSPECTION TEAM TO ARKANSAS NUCLEAR ONE

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will send an Augmented Inspection Team (AIT) to Arkansas Nuclear One to review the circumstances surrounding an industrial accident in which a heavy load fell onto the Unit 1 turbine deck, causing a loss of offsite power to Unit 1 and an automatic shutdown of Unit 2.

Workers were moving a massive generator stator out of the plant’s turbine building during maintenance activity when a lifting rig collapsed about 7:45 a.m. on March 31, killing one person and injuring eight others. Entergy Operations Inc., which operates the plant, declared a Notice of Unusual Event, the lowest of four emergency classifications used by the NRC, but terminated it after taking corrective actions to stabilize the plant’s power supplies.

“An AIT is used when the NRC wants to promptly dig deeply into the circumstances surrounding an operational event,” said NRC Region IV Administrator Arthur T. Howell. “We want to make sure that all the circumstances that contributed to this event are well understood in order to prevent a recurrence.”
...We know that this event will change us forever, and that we have a huge task before us as we recover the units and continue preparations to bring them back to service. It will be a challenge, but we will not be facing it alone. We’ll have the support of the Entergy nuclear fleet and experts in the industry.

“We have even had some of our Entergy retirees offer to come back and work for free if they could be of help,” she continued. “This incident has served to draw us closer together.”

Gregory acknowledged the community’s concern, but reinforced Entergy’s commitment to safety.

“We understand that our industry is unique and special,” Gregory said. “Our top responsibility is ensuring the health and safety of the community and our workers. Our commitment to that is stronger than ever.”

April 5: It baffles the mind why they were using the temp crane for the stator. Entergy says the new stator is out of the building waiting to be moved into the turbine deck. Maybe they needed the main crane to remove components of the turbine or other large components.
You know, maybe these super fast outages needed two main cranes?

April 4: It sounds like they severely flooded the lower levels of the turbine building...

Entergy Corp. (ETR) said it is making plans to restart one of its units at an Arkansas nuclear-power plant, a process that is expected to take several weeks, after the unit shut down automatically following an accident on Sunday that left one worker dead.

Freaking crazy Southerners!

UPDATE: Ga. Power reports total of 4 minor injuries at Plant Bowen

Update:Georgia Power is now reporting a total of four minor injuries in an explosion Friday at Plant Bowen in Euharlee.

Bartow County Sheriff's Office officials have reported that a generator turbine exploded at Plant Bowen this afternoon causing "major structural damage" to one of the units. All roads around the plant are closed at the moment and motorists are advised to stay away from the area. Currently, the Bartow County Fire Department and Georgia Power have command centers set up on scene and the sheriff's office is supplying perimeter security for the roads leading to the plant.

April 3:

I  had a transcipted 2.206 meeting with the NRC yesterday with many NRC officials. I spent much time inarticulately explaining since Entergy purchased VY, in the lead up to the tritium issue and  hen the craziness of the palisades before the red finding.  I documented...this was a giant nuclear utility spinning totally out of control and everyone knew it. If you listened to me, more disclosed truth and accurate documents...these deaths and injuries over in Arkansas would never have occurred.   

...Just human tissue being fed into a meat grinder! 

OFFSITE NOTIFICATION DUE TO ELECTRICAL FAULT IN SWITCHYARD RESULTING IN PERSONNEL INJURIES

"At 1707 CDT on 4/2/13 an arc flash occurred at the 'B' safeguards transformer (XMDV24) in the plant switchyard at Callaway. At the time of the flash, ground straps were being placed on the 'B' safeguards transformer which had been removed from service for maintenance. The event resulted in a loss of power to areas/buildings outside the power block. There was no impact to equipment and systems in the plant.

"Four workers were injured or affected by the flash. The extent of the electrical-related injuries has not been determined. However, based on reports from the scene, all of the workers were conscious and walked away from the scene. One person was transported by helicopter and two by ambulance to a local hospital. The fourth person experienced only a minor injury.

At the end of the day, this building went through a severe vibration event. The question asked, did this damage the other stator, turbine and other equipment...

With Arkansas one, this sounds like a repeat of the Vermont Yankee cooling tower collapse. It became the most damaging negative image and icon of the anti nuke establishment in the history of Vermont Yankee. I bet you these pictures will be the same for the Arkansas Nuclear.  

You can't help noticing...are they hiring cheap second string employees and contractors...the low cost WalMart world.

Because of the stress on the grid, we will begin to see nuclear employees as human detritus  and waste sacrificed on the altar of profits and a financially unstable electric system.

Callaway Nuclear plant: Ameren Missouri is part of St. Louis-based Ameren Corp., which reported a 2012 net loss of $974 million on total operating revenue of $6.83 billion. Ameren Corp. is led by President and CEO Thomas Voss.

Generally, the NRC is the on scene arm of the federal government...OSHA and the NRC have a memorandum of understanding...effectively nuclear plants aren't covered by unbelievable weak OSHA.

So you get it, this is the secondary system that unimportant to nuclear safety and risk analysis, the NRC doesn't oversee heavy loading. So effectively there is no government employee safety oversight... 

1988:

In recognition of the agencies' authorities and responsibilities enumerated above, the following procedures will be followed:

Although NRC does not conduct inspections of industrial safety, in the course of inspections of radiological and nuclear safety, NRC personnel may identify safety concerns within the area of OSHA responsibility or may receive complaints from an employee about OSHA-covered working conditions. In such instances, NRC will bring the matter to the attention of licensee management. NRC inspectors are not to perform the role of OSHA inspectors; however, they are to elevate OSHA safety issues to the attention of NRC Regional management when appropriate. If significant safety concerns are identified or if the licensee demonstrates a pattern of unresponsiveness to identified concerns, the NRC Regional Office will inform the appropriate OSHA Regional Office. In the case of complaints, NRC will withhold, from the licensee, the identity of the employee. In addition, when known to NRC, NRC will encourage licensees to report to OSHA accidents resulting in a fatality or multiple hospitalizations.

With Arkansas one, this sounds like a repeat of the Vermont Yankee cooling tower collapse. It became the most damaging negative image icon of the anti nuke establishment in the history of Vermont Yankee. I bet you these pictures will be the same for the Arkansas nuclear...

Again, lower level and middle level employees are MALICIOUSLY sabotaging senior management by releasing these pictures... 

You can't help noticing...are they hiring cheap second string employees and contractors...the low cost WalMart world.

Because of the stress on the grid, we will begin to see the nuclear employees as human detritus waste sacrificed on the altar of profits and a financially unstable electric system.

Generally, the NRC is the on scene arm of the federal government...OSHA and the NRC have a memorandum of understanding...effectively nuclear plants aren't covered by unbelievableYweak OSHA.

So you get it, this is the secondary system that unimportant to nuclear safety and risk analysis, the NRC doesn't oversee heavy loading. So effectively there is no government employee safety oversight...
 
April 2Look at how flimsy the turbine deck floor looks around the hole...see the far floor at a steep angle from the horizontal.

I mean, they had an installed gantry crane on a rail and they brought in a temporary crane. Was something wrong with the installed gantry crane?

I bet you they did this to speed up the refueling outage. The rented the temporary crane. They used the main crane to haul up the new stator. Parked it in a distant corner. Took out the old stator from the generator with the temporary crane. Once the old stator got out of the way, they quickly move the new stator into it position as they were moving the old stator out of the building. Meanwhile with the temp, they were moving the old stator to the railway door.

1) The operator ended up putting most of its weight on one leg and it collapsed.

2) The turbine floor wasn't designed for the rollers or wheels of the lifting crane...one leg punched through the floor.

3) They wouldn't be that stupid to put both stators in the same area of the floor...and they both collapsed the floor?  

Direct quote from my Feb 2011 2.206!

"Palisades: Request Emergency Palisades Shutdown"

Feb 22, 2011(Pg 19)

Dear Mr. Borchardt,

"In the 1942 movie Casablanca:

Rick Blaine: How can you close me up? On what grounds?

Captain Louis Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here."  

.
.
.

"Wouldn't you want to be on the Palisades refuel floor for the heart thumping loud bang and vibration coming from a dropped reactor head by a crane? How neat would that be for worker with industry bragging rights? I was there for the ten seconds it took for the head to rattle and smash through multiple floors to the basement floor. They could be saying by my age, that was the neatest 10 seconds in my life, besides when I was alone with Linda Lue when I was seventeen. News at lI pm? I see Entergy thinks it smore efficient to not follow procedures in an outage."

This is the Arkansas One stator.

It is not as bad as I thought...



Wow, look at that bent deck concrete floor below the crane beam on the left...

NRC...500-ton component.

The accident happened when a crane fell while moving a large generator, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said

April 1:

"At this time, the full extent of structural damage on Unit 1 is not known. There was one known fatality and 4 known serious injuries to workers. The local coroner is on site for the fatality and the injured personnel have been transported offsite to local hospitals. Investigation into the cause of the failure and extent of damage is ongoing."

So Entergy dropped a turbine stator at a shutdown nuclear...then the plant next door tripped on something caused by the crash...

I am thinking the stator crashed through two or more floors...this is what killed or injured the employees.

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (AP) - One worker died Sunday morning, three others injured in a Sunday morning accident at Arkansas Nuclear One near Russellville according to the power plant's owner Entergy.

Entergy calls the incident a ‘significant industrial accident'. The injured employees were taken to a local hospital.

In a statement from Entergy is says the accident occurred when a generator stator fell as it was being moved out of the turbine building.Unit 1 is in a refueling outage and Unit 2, which was operating at full power, automatically shut down. Both plants are in a stable shutdown condition and there is no danger to the public. The plant is in an unusual event classification, the lowest of four emergency classifications designated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Additional staff has been brought to the site to manage the situation. 

I hope they got a standby stator...it is going to be a long shutdown!

Homeowners around the plant heard the loud crash...that has got to a lot of noise!

Wouldn't that be something if it fell into the main condenser or control room.

So now it is 9 hurt or dead...

An Entergy spokesperson told The Courier the total number of Arkansas Nuclear One employees injured in the Sunday morning accident at the plant was eight, not three, as earlier reported.

What did they take out or crush to cause this...

NOTIFICATION OF UNUSUAL EVENT DECLARED DUE TO A BREAKER EXPLOSION IN THE PROTECTED AREA

"At 0750 [CDT] on 3/31/2013, during movement of the Unit 1 Main Turbine Generator Stator (~500 tons), the Unit 1 turbine temporary lift device failed. This caused a loss of all off site power on Unit 1. The ANO Unit 1 #1 and #2 EDG [Emergency Diesel Generator] have started and are supplying A-3 4160V switchgear and A-4 4160V switchgear. P-4A Service Water pump and P-4C Service Water pump has been verified running. Unit 1 has entered [procedures] 1202.007 - Degraded Power, 1203.028 - Loss of Decay Heat, and 1203.050 - Spent Fuel Emergencies. Unit 1 is in MODE 6.

"ANO-1 entered TS 3.8.2 A, 'One Required Offsite Circuit Inoperable'. All required actions are complete. The event caused a loss of decay heat removal on ANO Unit 1 which was restored in 3 minutes and 50 seconds.

"Unit 2 tripped and is in MODE 3. Emergency Feed Water was initiated on Unit 2 and Unit 2 was in [Technical Specification] 3.0.3 from 0817 [CDT] to 0848 [CDT] due to Emergency Feedwater. Unit 2 is being powered by off-site. Unit 2 Startup 3 [transformer] lock out at 0921 [CDT]. [Bus] 2A1 is on Start up 2 [transformer] and [bus] 2A3 is on #2 EDG.

"10CFR50.72 (b)(3)(iv)(A) - 4-hr. notification due to the ES [Engineered Safeguard Feature] actuation on both Unit 1 and Unit 2.
10CFR50 72 (b)(2)(iv)(B) - 4-hr. notification due to RPS [Reactor Protection System] actuation on Unit 2.
10CFR50.72 (b)(2)(xi) - 4-hr. notification due to Government Notification.
29CFR1904.39a - [OSHA] 8-hr. notification due to death on site.

"At 1033 [CDT] on 3/31/2013, Unit 2 entered a Notification of Unusual Event based on EAL HU4 due to damage in 2A1 switchgear. Notification of the NUE will be made lAW Emergency Plan requirements. Follow-up notifications will be made as appropriate."

At this time, the full extent of structural damage on Unit 1 is not known. There was one known fatality and 4 known serious injuries to workers. The local coroner is on site for the fatality and the injured personnel have been transported offsite to local hospitals. Investigation into the cause of the failure and extent of damage is ongoing.

On Unit 2, all rods inserted during the trip. The core is being cooled via natural circulation. Decay heat is being removed via steam dumps to atmosphere. There is no known primary to secondary leakage.

The licensee has notified the State of Arkansas, local authorities, OSHA and the NRC Resident Inspector.

Notified DHS SWO, DHS NICC, FEMA and Nuclear NSSA (via email).

* * * UPDATE FROM DAVID THOMPSON TO HOWIE CROUCH AT 1934 EDT ON 3/31/13 * * *

The licensee terminated the NOUE at 1821 CDT. The basis for termination was that the affected bus (2A2) is de-energized and no other equipment on Unit 2 was damaged.

The licensee has notified the state and local authorities and will be notifying the NRC Resident Inspector.

Notified R4DO (Pick), NRR EO (Howe), IRD (Gott), DHS SWO, DHS NICC, FEMA and Nuclear SSA (via email).