How Does Pilgrim Behave in Winter Storm Neptune

The Weather Channel is stationed in Plymouth Ma for Neptune. Can you even imagine them covering an incident at the plant in the middle of the blizzard?

Pilgrim Plays It Safe Finally

‘Pilgrim nuclear power plant shut down for storm” (12:30 pm)

Posted Feb. 14, 2015 at 12:01 AM Updated at 12:50 PM
PLYMOUTH – The Pilgrim nuclear power plant will be shut down during the blizzard on Saturday and Sunday to avoid a repeat of problems that occurred during the Jan. 27 storm, which resulted in a 12-day shutdown. 

“We are following plant procedures to prepare for a potential loss of offsite power or the grid’s inability to accept the power Pilgrim generates," Lauren Burm, a spokesman for Entergy, the own of the plant, said in an email on Saturday afternoon. 

The 680-megawatt plant shut down automatically around 4 a.m. Jan. 27 after an electrical connection used to feed electricity to the grid was interrupted amid the worsening storm. 

It was reconnected to the grid last Saturday.

Originally posted on Feb 13...reposted it.  

Feb 14

12:12 pm: I'd be surprised if they didn't shutdown before the blizzard. I am predicting this as a second LOOP in 2015. They won't survive it. 

Pilgrim is in widespread electrical outage area red zone....high winds. 

You get it, A LOOP is usually a very infrequent and is considered a terrible incident as it strips a lot of safety components from the plant and is a serous precursor for a fukushima station blackout.

What has happened in Pigrim, is they have transferred 'a avoid at all cost' high risk incident, into a normal operation or shutdown regime. It's safe...it's all part of a normal and expected operating mode of the plant. 

The plant never designed a LOOP as a normal operational mode...a lot more engineering would have gone into it.   

4 pm: They have just vastly increased the blizzard warning area on the Ma coast...

The difference from storm Marcus (last one)…Neptune is going to have tremendously more wind than Marcus!!!!

Juno wasn't even a Bomb?

Is the Pilgrim site VP (top dog) going to bunk over at the site for storm Neptune as the Millstone VP did in Juno. I am raising my LOOP probability because the strong wind field. It should be noted they have already increased the snowfall totals from this morning... 

2:30 PM update

As the Blizzard Neptune is predicted now…it is developing far out to sea and it not going to bomb out to well past Boston. I think the possibility are slim Pilgrim will get a LOOP.

Bombogenesis: first time this year we heard this term.  

(The weather Channel) So what happens when a "weather bomb" strengthens? 

Wind speeds increase and precipitation can become more intense, often creating heavy snowfall and potential blizzard conditions during winter storms. Heavy snow rates can also occur during bombogenesis, which is sometimes accompanied by lightning. 

This happened in February 2013, when Winter Storm Nemo dropped 29 mbars within a span of 24 hours (specifically, a barometric pressure of 1000 mbars was recorded at 4 a.m. on Feb. 8, and it dropped to to 971 mbars at 4 a.m. on Feb. 9). Winter Storm Nemo ultimately "bottomed out" with a minimum barometric pressure reading of 968 mbars at 4 p.m. on Feb. 9

If they start drastically jacking up the snowfall totals, it means the bomb started sooner than expected and it is tracking closer to the coast.

There is where I think you will see another LOOP. 

I hope for the future of the 2015 everyone is aware of roof snow loading...especially if in few weeks we get a large rain storm event.

I left a message about Pilgrim’s snow loading with the resident inspectors. Made a complaint to the  NRC Allegation line…they told me the project manager will give me a call back.

Neil Shaheen just called, said everyone else is busy preparing for the storm. He assured me the plant is going to act more proactively this storm. He expects hurricane force winds this time around. He said everyone was or will be well aware of snow loading. He said the NRC asked Pilgrim about the snow loading on their roofs...Pilgrim just hasn't come back with a response yet. He implied their was prior hurricane force winds on the site, he thought all the snow was blown off the roofs.

I asked Neil is Pilgrim going to shutdown this time before the blizzard...he said that kind of information is proprietary.  

The Weather Channel has named Winter Storm Neptune, a winter storm forecast to deliver blizzard conditions to parts of New England still struggling to recover from a series of major snowstorms virtually unprecedented in modern times.

Winter Storm Neptune: Watches, Warnings and Advisories

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Winter Storm Neptune: Watches, Warnings and Advisories

Watches, warnings, and advisories issued by the National Weather Service. This map only shows advisories in effect at least 24 hours from now, in order to exclude short-term wintry weather not related to Neptune.

The National Weather Service has already issued blizzard watches for the entire east coast of New England, stretching from Cape Cod in southeast Massachusetts through the Boston area, the Seacoast region of New Hampshire, and the entire coast of Maine as well as areas as far inland as Bangor.

Winter Storm Neptune's impact will likely be magnified by a large field of strong winds, even in areas outside the heaviest snow, and a sharp drop in temperatures that will lead to dangerously low wind chills in the wake of the storm.