Friday, August 12, 2016

Junk Watts Bar 1 Hasn’t Exceeded 90% Power Since End Of May 2016

Update according to the NRC
Watts Bar has troubles with their low pressure turbine. Bet you it was blading erosion. So they swapped out their LP turbine with Sequoyah's LP turbine. I asked if it had a LAR on it. Resident said its not safety related...I'd disagreed with him. Basically the Sequoyah LP turbine is poorly designed for the Watts Bar Unit 1 duty. The Sequoyah LP turbine doesn't draw sufficient energy out of the steam...too much core energy (thru the SG) is overloading the main condensers. Basically not enough circ water leading to the high condenser back pressure. The plant now has a very poor mile per gallon rate.  
He wondered how I came upon the information. Told him I got it from the daily power history. The NRC queried me concerning this wondering if a employee got me to pose the question to the NRC.
The top 10% power is the gravy money. These guys definitely hasn’t been profitable since May 2016.
Having condenser back pressure issues is code words for the plant isn’t designed for the climate. It usually means the heat sink- the stream or pond- is too hot for the condenser and plant design.
If they having problems keeping unit 1 up at 100% then I have little hope of they getting unit 2 into production.
These are the guys that intimidate their employees from making safety concerns.  
Hmm, the unit didn't have these issue last year. It seems like component problems...

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