Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Junk Plant Grand Gulf Christmas Season Scram

Update Dec 18

update 3pm. The NRC just called me up about my concern. They informed me Grand Gulf's incomplete daily event report is under investigation. The NRC feels it was grossly incomplete and insufficient too. 

The NRC said, the condensate and feedwater system is also under investigation for not functioning right. This is the normal way to keep the core cool. You see what is am saying, the normal way to keep the core cooled failed, there is no mention of this in first daily event report or the update. It almost looks like if it failed, we just don't have to report it.

The NRC says Entergy is spending a tremendous amount of money to upgrade the plant. They are happy with the effort. Well, to me they say it is safe and making a effort, but the agency knows the plant is a day. They can't put as much new gear into the plant, but it is a organizational problem. The people and relationships aren't fixed...  

Reposted...Originally posted on 12/13/2018


Mike Bowling, Entergy communications manager for the utility nuclear region, said plant operators manually took the plant offline at 1:51 p.m. last Wednesday after a turbine bypass valve was opening and oscillating.
Hmm,it looks like the NRC has a beef with the manual shutdown. I doubt this was according to procedure. The safe and conservative thing to do was scram the reactor. A cycling turbine bypass valve places a plant in a unbelievably unstable condition. How do you really know what is broken or degraded...you can a conservative determination that it is only going to get worst. In recent years, to minimize reporting bad information to outsiders, they defer to a slow manual shutdown than at scram. Did they take the slow shutdown solely to minimize reporting requirements to outsiders? These guys have all sorts of special inspections for scrams and  huge down powers in recent years. This kind of behavior ends in downgrading grades of a plant. This is the worst preforming plant in the nation. Downgrading the scores of a plants means more inspections and they are very expensive. Maybe management's strategy to the ops department was it is cheaper to take a manual shutdown than a scram. Maybe saving money was the watchword than being safe and conservative.          

SO Grand Gulf was "shutdown". I am not sure if it was a slow normal shutdown or a scram. see how poor the wording is with it being a normal shutdown or a scram? 

What concerns me magnitudes more than all the broken and degraded equipment, the horrendous profitability and being unsafe is the extremely skimpy information in the first daily event reports. It prettifies the event by only telling us the equipment that worked at the plant. They are sterilizing the bad information coming out of the plant. I just gave  call to Mr. Dricks. Check out the new information in the special inspection notification.

This plant shouldn't be at power in this condition. The NRC should require to plant stay shutdown until the report comes out. That is what they do in Europe...a kind a incentive to keep your organization coherent or we will put you in the sidelines.

As a cautionary note, I think the NRC thinks this is a emergency situation. In recent years, they notify the outside a special inspection is coming 1 to 2 months after the plant shreds the bad information and they got a good coverup story going. In recent years, the NRC has drastically cut back doing special inspection and similar inspection. I don't think the on site inspectors were really doing their jobs.        
December 18, 2018 Contact: Victor Dricks, 817-200-1128that   
NRC Begins Special Inspection at Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Plant 
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has begun a special inspection at the Grand Gulf nuclear power plant to review events that led to, and occurred following, an unplanned shutdown on  December 12. The plant, operated by Entergy Operations, is located in Port Gibson, Miss. The plant was operating at full power when operators noticed an unexpected increase in reactor power and decided to shut down as a precautionary measure. The reactor was safely shut down but some equipment issues occurred that the agency wants to better understand. The two-member NRC team will spend about a week on site developing a chronology of the event, and evaluating the licensee’s cause analysis and the adequacy of corrective actions. An inspection report documenting the team’s findings will be publicly available within 45 days of the end of the inspection.

Honestly, can we afford a nuclear plant meltdown or nuclear industry shattering event in our current national tribulations? 

Did anyone notice how long it takes to fix a declining and dangerous plant? It takes many many years like: Pilgrim, ANO and Grand Gulf. 

So it is a coverup. Again where is the feed system. From a professional's perspective, not notifying the NRC properly and incorrectly filling out the paperwork is a direct indication how incompetent these guys are. These guys in recent years was required to stay shutdown for 6 months, basically because their licensed operators were unsafe and incompetent. Entergy brought nuclear experts from far and wide in the USA to analyzed what is wrong with the organization and high intensity retraining for the control room operator. Missing the checkmarks in the paperwork is a indication these guys where in a rattled state.

I have been monitoring the nuclear area of LinkedIn. The headhunters are always advertising about getting professional(college degreed)staff to work in their southwest nuclear plants. It is unbelievable how short staffed they are with these people. It is more about not getting the professional people to work at the plant, than not getting enough college educated people to come to their plant. And by no means is getting degree people to come to the plant is sufficient to keep a plant safe. It takes a tremendous amount of training to bring these degreed people up to speed.        


Power Reactor Event Number: 53788 ting
Facility: GRAND GULF
Region: 4     State: MS
Unit: [1] [] []
RX Type: [1] GE-6
NRC Notified By: GERRY ELLIS
HQ OPS Officer: JOANNA BRIDGE
Notification Date: 12/12/2018
Notification Time: 17:29 [ET]
Event Date: 12/12/2018
Event Time: 00:00 [CST]
Last Update Date: 12/14/2018
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(2)(iv)(A) - ECCS INJECTION
50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B) - RPS ACTUATION - CRITICAL
50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A) - VALID SPECIF SYS ACTUATION
Person (Organization):
NICK TAYLOR (R4DO)

Unit SCRAM Code RX Crit Initial PWR Initial RX Mode Current PWR Current RX Mode
1 M/R Y 100 Power Operation 0 Hot Shutdown

Event Text



EN Revision Imported Date : 12/17/2018

EN Revision Text: MANUAL REACTOR SCRAM DUE TO FAILED OPEN TURBINE BYPASS VALVE

"At 1351 CST, the reactor was manually shutdown due to 'A' Turbine Bypass Valve opening. The Main Steam Line Isolation Valves were manually closed to facilitate reactor pressure control. Reactor level is being maintained through the use of Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System, Control Rod Drive System, and High Pressure Core Spray System. High Pressure Core Spray System was manually started to initially support reactor water level control. Reactor Pressure is being controlled through the use of the Safety Relief Valves and the Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System. The plant is stable in MODE 3.

"The cause of the 'A' Turbine Bypass Valve opening is under investigation at this time.

"The NRC Resident Inspector has been notified."

* * * UPDATE ON 12/14/18 AT 1140 EST FROM GERRY ELLIS TO TOM KENDZIA * * *

"This is an update to EN # 53788 to correct an error on the event classification block of the form. The original notification did not have the block for 8 hour notification for Specified System Actuation checked. The actuation of Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System was discussed in original notification."

The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

Notified R4DO (Taylor). 


Update

Remember, River Bend and Grand Gulf by the USC are considered unprofitable. See, Entergy doesn't want to spend enough money to keep the nuclear industry respectable.   

This already looks like a coverup. They doing a lot less public reporting than just a few years ago. The Core Spray system was terribly unreliable as far as a few years ago. What would happen if the high pressure core spray system would have failed yesterday. It already looks like a tremendous quantity of equipment  failed yesterday. 

"High Pressure Core Spray System was manually started to initially support reactor water level control."   

This is very problematic. Why didn't the normal feedwater system work? This is the normal way to feed the core. What is wrong with the normal reactor feed system. So the turbine control system failed...why is Do this guys have a HPCI system. These guys are notorious for poorly training their employees and maintaining the their safety equipment. Did they initially only have Core Spray to feed their vessel?      

***I am convinced all these scrams, down powers and startups are setting up the nation for a reactor accident we never seen before.   

Well, since the beginning of Nov 2018, I have been looking for a scram. Here it is. River Bend had the last Christmas scram. So far this is the Christmas season scram. There is plenty of time left for a Christmas day scram. 

These guys are notorious for extremely slow startups to full power. Usually equipment troubles causing it. Going to watch them closely this startup.   

There is a high probability we could get two scrams. Everything has changed, as news media and the state grid regulators have been highly sensitized over poor capacity factor.

Basically this is where financial and southern business ideology override the facts and engineering. This is the limited money we apportion to a plant, we don't care how erratic the plant has become. We got captured the local news media, the politicians, the local regulators and Feds, they don't give a shit how erratic our plant becomes.  
Power Reactor Event Number: 53788
Facility: GRAND GULF
Region: 4     State: MS
Unit: [1] [] []
RX Type: [1] GE-6
NRC Notified By: GERRY ELLIS
HQ OPS Officer: JOANNA BRIDGE
Notification Date: 12/12/2018
Notification Time: 17:29 [ET]
Event Date: 12/12/2018
Event Time: 00:00 [CST]
Last Update Date: 12/12/2018
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(2)(iv)(A) - ECCS INJECTION
50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B) - RPS ACTUATION - CRITICAL
Person (Organization):
NICK TAYLOR (R4DO)

Unit SCRAM Code RX Crit Initial PWR Initial RX Mode Current PWR Current RX Mode
1 M/R Y 100 Power Operation 0 Hot Shutdown

Event Text

MANUAL REACTOR SCRAM DUE TO FAILED OPEN TURBINE BYPASS VALVE

"At 1351 CST, the reactor was manually shutdown due to 'A' Turbine Bypass Valve opening. The Main Steam Line Isolation Valves were manually closed to facilitate reactor pressure control. Reactor level is being maintained through the use of Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System, Control Rod Drive System, and High Pressure Core Spray System. High Pressure Core Spray System was manually started to initially support reactor water level control. Reactor Pressure is being controlled through the use of the Safety Relief Valves and the Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System. The plant is stable in MODE 3.

"The cause of the 'A' Turbine Bypass Valve opening is under investigation at this time.

"The NRC Resident Inspector has been notified."

No comments: