Posted: Friday, August 10, 2012 12:00 am
PALO, Iowa -- Iowa's only nuclear power plant plans to dredge a section of the drought-shrunken Cedar River to ensure access to enough water to operate the plant.The Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo is one of the largest users along the river, drawing 6,000 gallons a minute. The water is used to cool steam after it has been used to generate electricity in the plant's turbines.
Millstone today with emergency request Aug 10...
They should have required a certified deal to permanently fill the cooling problems...
In its supplement dated August 9, 2012, the licensee stated that a prolonged hot weather in the long Island Sound, in conjunction with high humidity during the day and minimal cooling at night, has resulted in sustained elevated cooling water temperature supplied to the plant from long Island Sound. Ambient air temperature in July were the hottest on record in the contiguous United States since record keeping began in 1895 according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and temperature continue to remain high in August. Water temperatures in long Island Sound have been averaging 1.7 of higher than normal. Current trending projections of the water, wind direction, and tidal conditions indicate the maximum allowed Technical Specification (TS) UHS temperature limit will be exceeded on August 10,2012 at approximately five o'clock in the evening. However, the TS UHS temperature limit may be reached earlier of later as weather conditions change. Without approval of the proposed change, TS 3/4.7.11 would require the unit to shutdown in the TS UHS temperature limit of 75 of is exceeded.
This emergency situation results from prolonged adverse environmental conditions in the area. Under these conditions, ONC could not have reasonably applied for this emergency license.
So that is 13 out of 17 Exelon plants which have cooling water impaired to their nuclear fleet. I just think this is a broader symbol with how fragile our society has become. Our thinking and acting...our national collective ideaology or set of rules or customs concerning and that defines potential threats to our society is as throttled and overheated as the water going to Exelon's nuclear plants. It is the energy or will of the great river causing us to think in our heads creativily and anticipation that has stopped flowing in the drought of our hearts that is the problem. Yep, I seen that terrible Byron inspection report.
I keep thinking about is this our best and brightest engineers going to these nuclear or are they the third stringers going to the Chicago clubs...
8/1/2012 4:54:00 PM IEPA extends Exolon warm-water discharge permit for La Salle Station |
GRAND RIDGE — The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has granted the Exelon Generation’s La Salle power station in La Salle County an extension to its provisional variance from the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System water-discharge-permitted-temperature limits, due to recent continued warm weather conditions and high electricity demand. The variancWednesday, Aug. 15; all other NPDES permit requirements will remain in effect. Exelon Generation’s NPDES permit places limcan use if its discharge exceeds the temperature. These thermal limits are measured at its River Screen House. |
Don't you even think for a moment the Byron insulator problem is a isolated event...it is a widespread indication of severe plants and corporate wide problems with Exelon nuclear.
I count 11 of their fleet of 17 nuke plants today that are bumping up to heat sink limits...
Is my campaign working:
Limerick nuke plant’s second reactor now off-line for repairs
LIMERICK — Less than 48 hours after returning one of the nuclear generators at the Limerick Generating Station to full lower, Exelon Nuclear has taken the second reactor off-line to conduct some repairs.
Send Corrections Unit 2 was taken off-line at about 12 noon today to allow workers to replace “a main steam valve, which is a component of the plant’s steam piping system,” Dana Melia, the plant’s communications director, wrote in an email to The Mercury.
“This valve protects the main steam line from over-pressure conditions. Like all plant equipment and components, steam valves are continuously monitored,” she wrote. “In this instance, a slight rise in steam temperatures indicated a potential valve malfunction and therefore, operators made the decision to pro-actively replace the valve,” according to Melia.
She also wrote that, “the station’s extremely low tolerance for variances in pressure, temperature and flow rates helps us identify issues before they become problems, resulting in a safe and preventative approach to equipment maintenance.”
These repairs can only be made when the reactor is off-line.
The repair comes on the heels of some unscheduled repairs that took place this week on the plant’s Unit 1 after the reactor was shut down on July 18 due to a problem in one of the plant’s electrical transformers that meets the Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner’s definition of an “explosion.”
In addition to replacing the transformer with a spare the company had on site, workers also took the opportunity presented by last Wednesday’s unscheduled shut-down to replace seals on the reactor recirculation pump shafts “that were showing signs of degrading,” according to an NRC report on the July 18 shut-down, also called a “scram.”
“Limerick operators continuously monitor and inspect hundreds of components on a daily basis to ensure plant systems operate at peak performance,” Melia wrote. “Nuclear power plants are complex and highly monitored facilities. Repair and upgrades are performed using state of the art equipment and new technologies to ensure long-term equipment reliability and safe operations of the plant.”
Plant personnel will complete the maintenance and test the system before returning Unit 2 to service, however no information on how long the repair may take was provided.
So Dresden and Peach Bottom doesn't have adequate cooling water?
...Lets say there are the Chattahoochee River economic and political water flow interest. I mentioned the agriculture, power plant/electric and environmentalism/oyster interest. I surmised they might be competing with each other under the table with river flow. More, the agriculture, power plant/utility and environmentalism/oyster interest would secretly collude together through putting their hands on the throttle valve locks of the Chattahoochee River flow (the Army Corps of Engineers) to keep the flow excessive against the recreation, drinking water and business interest with a empty Lake Lanier as the outcome in a exceptional drought. Lake Lanier is absolutely huge lake...it is a engineering infrastructure wonder. Whatever the political and economic interest in Georgia that was in play, you never could see who had their hand on the throttling flow of the Chattahoochee River. Say the oyster/environmentalism could shapeshift as the interest of the power plant utility interest...the utilities might be putting money secretly into these interest to boost river flow to their power plants?
And the dysfunction of the "Army Corps of Engineers" in controlling and managing the Chattahoochee River in this was a future indicator of Katrina and their New Orleans levees.
...Written to a NRC official on July 17:
"The big question asked, what will the region look like in the middle of August? We are approaching the middle of Aug 1988 drought levels within days...who knows what it will look like in the middle and end of 2012 August. It is shocking how much the drought world has changed in a week and I am certain in another week we will be hit by another concussive drought shock wave."U.S. State of Illinois Sees over 70 Percent of Land Suffer Extreme Drought.
Report shows US drought rapidly intensifying
By JIM SUHR, Associated Press–57 minutes ago
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The widest drought to grip the United States in decades is getting worse with no signs of abating, a new report warned Thursday, as state officials urged conservation and more ranchers considered selling cattle.
The drought covering two-thirds of the continental U.S. had been considered relatively shallow, the product of months without rain, rather than years. But Thursday's report showed its intensity is rapidly increasing, with 20 percent of the nation now in the two worst stages of drought — up 7 percent from last week.Heat Sends U.S. Nuclear Power Production to 9-Year Low
By Christine Harvey on July 26, 2012
Nuclear-power production in the U.S. is at the lowest seasonal levels in nine years as drought and heat force reactors from Ohio to Vermont to slow output.
“We’ve had a fast decay of summer output this month and that corresponds to the high heat and droughts,” Pax Saunders, an analyst at Gelber & Associates in Houston, said. “Plants are not able to operate at the levels they can.”
“Heat is the main issue, because if the river is getting warmer the water going into the plant is warmer and makes it harder to cool,” David McIntyre, an NRC spokesman, said
...Competing political powers controlled the flow of water going down the Chattahoochee River...with the agricultural guys ultimately controlling the flow of water. For a narrow and powerful economic interest in a developing crisis, these guys were moving zillions of acre feet of water down the river to float the barge. Rumors are they intentionally broke the Lake Lanier water level instrumentation to facilitate this barge movement and it was enormous corruption to many 10s of millions of people.
...The day the Atlanta Metropolitan area almost lost municipal water
Another knuckle buster climate disaster we learned nothing from. Not this one now, but the one before this. I lived 15 miles from Atlanta's Lake Lanier from 1993 to 1999. It was amazing how much this lake shrank when i lived in Sugar Hill Ga. It is in the near cards Atlanta is going to lose their drinking water metropolitan wide someday. The Atlanta area never really had a diverse supply of river water and their rivers flows have become amazing fragile for the old wet south for its new population.
They were on the razors edge of a water war between states, a huge conflict between Oysters, sewerage, drinking water, power plants and nuclear power plant cooling. The oyster industry at the mouth of the Chattahoochee River in Florida with low river flow killing lively hoods, almost turned the lights out in Alabama and the oysters nearly killed Atlanta's huge drinking water reservoir. Was Lake Lanier designed for oysters in Florida or drinking water for Atlanta...don't for recreation and big manisons on the lake?
This was the drought Atlanta almost lost municipal and regional water supplies...they were contemplating a huge metropolitan city losing drinking water for extended periods of time. Let alone the emergency plan design was to turn off water to the businesses first. Yikes, all the pipe suctions almost were uncovered...they had a emergency construction project for this.
A barge of i think of grain or corn going down the Chattahoochee River nearly drained Lake Lanier through river locks/ gate mismanagement (secrecy) and the regional water supply started the knuckle buster drought at perilously low reservoir level while moving the barges. The stupid river lock guys were trying to float the barges down stream without scraping bottom and the Lake Lanier water level instrumentation they used was broken. (Holy shit, we almost drained the lake by mistake!) All the water drinking reservoirs in the region were struggling! This was about explosive economic and population growth over the decades with the inability of the regional politicians to gin up the guts to build out the water reservoirs system to support the growth.
You know, them god damn short sighted extremist southern republicans and teabaggers that don't have farsighted bone in their body! They just got a Supreme Court decision on this southern fiasco?
Humm, a unplanned and unintended interaction ( both Exelon's plants) between a pump storage project and two nuclear plants.
"NOEDs coming like a pan of pop corn popping"...\
Dated July 12...came out today
I count 9 plants of their plants as being cooling water heat impaired or the plant not being maintained for the expected climate.
(Today) Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Units 2 and 3 Renewed Facility Operating License Nos. DPR-44 and DPR-56 NRC Docket Nos. 50-277 and 50-278
The Muddy Run Pumped Storage Plant, which is owned and operated by Exelon...
...during periods of low river flow, operation of the Muddy Run Pumped Storage Plant has
During the summer of 2012, the NHS temperature for the intake of PBAPS, Units 2 and 3 has approached gooF earlier than expected. The cause for the temperature increase to the NHS has been a long period of time with low precipitation (rain) resulting in a sustained reduction in Susquehanna River flow. The abnormally hot weather conditions for an extended period of time have resulted in NHS temperatures that were close to gooF, which would have resulted in entering the Required Action which could lead to a required shutdown of PBAPS, Units 2 and 3.
As a result of challenges to the NHS temperature limit in the Summer of 1999 (knuckle buster drought), station procedures have been implemented that limit Muddy Run pumping cycles during periods of high NHS temperature (greater than or equal to 87°F) and low river flow (less than 5,000 cfs) thus minimizing the impact of Muddy Run pumping operations on PBAPS NHS intake temperature.
Currently, the PBAPS TSs allow plant operation to continue if the NHS temperature remains below 92°F. When the temperature goes above 90°F the current TS requires that the water temperature over the previous 24-hour period be averaged to ensure the average temperature does not exceed 90°F. The proposed change is to revise TS Section 3.7.2 to remove the maximum 24-hour average of 90°F with no change to the peak maximum NHS of 92°F. . This approach is consistent with the PBAPS design basis analyses since they already show that safety related components will continuously perform their design function at a NHS temperature up to 92°F.
For one, based on San Onophe and a host of other troubles with computer modeling safety issue, I don't trust the companies and I don't trust the NRC oversight of engineering computer modeling ..."PBAPS design basis analyses since".
You get what going on here, the NRC had been allowing these utilities to paper whip or computer modeling analysis whip their heat sink or cooling water limits. For decades, and over and over again, they been allowing these utilities to paper whip away problems instead of building bigger cooling systems...
When does everyone fall off the cliff together like lemmings..?
...But you missed last year's early New England Oct snow storm with green leaves still on the trees...I was out of electricity for 3 days and my brother in Springfield Ma was out of electricity for two weeks with all the knocked down trees. We all thought we would have a horrible snowy winter and all our knees were shaking as we entered winter. To top it off, we then didn't get a winter and no snow.
With the Springfield's unheard of tornado in the spring, my brother said seriously, "it's been just like a disaster movies around here Mike".
I keep thinking about huge "systems thinking" with systems interacting and changing, our weather, our complex organizations and infrastructures....emergence phenomena just pops out of my head. A new property just pops out of these huge system interaction unlike the progenitor systems and unpredictable.
"We can now see that the whole becomes not merely more, but very different from the sum of its parts."?
Came out after I wrote about Emergence Phenomena.
Storms Threaten Ozone Layer Over U.S., Study Says
Strong summer storms that pump water high into the upper atmosphere pose a threat to the protective ozone layer over the United States, researchers said on Thursday, adding that the risk of damage may increase as the climate warms.
“This problem now is of deep concern to me,” said James G. Anderson, an atmospheric scientist and the lead author of the study. “I never would have suspected this."
Emergence Phenomena:
“I never would have suspected this".
..This is the kind of far sighted article I love...
Weather Extremes Leave Parts of U.S. Grid Buckling
Matt Wald
WASHINGTON — From highways in Texas to nuclear power plants in Illinois, the concrete, steel and sophisticated engineering that undergird the nation’s infrastructure are being taxed to worrisome degrees by heat, drought and vicious storms.
Excessive warmth and dryness are threatening other parts of the grid as well. In the Chicago area, a twin-unit nuclear plant had to get special permission to keep operating this month because the pond it uses for cooling water rose to 102 degrees; its license to operate allows it to go only to 100. According to the Midwest Independent System Operator, the grid operator for the region, a different power plant had had to shut because the body of water from which it draws its cooling water had dropped so low that the intake pipe became high and dry; another had to cut back generation
because cooling water was too warm.
Op-Ed Contributor
Will Drought Cause the Next Blackout?
By MICHAEL E. WEBBER (NYT)
Published: July 23, 2012
WE’RE now in the midst of the nation’s most widespread drought in 60 years, stretching across 29 states and threatening farmers, their crops and livestock. But there is another risk as water becomes more scarce. Power plants may be forced to shut down, and oil and gas production may be threatened.
The government can collect, maintain and make available accurate, updated and comprehensive water data, possibly through the United States Geological Survey and the E.I.A.
The government should also invest in water-related research and development (spending has been pitifully low for decades) to seek better air-cooling systems for power plants, waterless techniques for hydraulic fracturing, and biofuels that do not require freshwater irrigation...
Biofuels...is this guy nuts!
...Has Exelon been holding onto their marbles instead of investing in their nuclear plants. You can't get past they are artificially inflating their stock price or limiting its fall with the 3 billion dollars.
Exelon (NYS: EXC) carries $3.1 billion of goodwill and other intangibles on its balance sheet. Sometimes goodwill, especially when it's excessive, can foreshadow problems down the road. Could this be the case with Exelon?
..This summer’s heat wave caused ComEd customers to use approximately 40 percent more electricity than they use under normal July conditions, the company said.
...Guy's got a lot of balls.
NRC meets at Byron for public comment and questions
Posted: Jul 18, 2012 11:41 PM EDT
By Matt Groves
Everyone knows at the beginning of the week I spent considerable time talking to the Byron site VP and his aid about the plant not being designed for the climate. Can you image what the agency and Exelon's management is thinking. Did i drive this?
I was looking around for a NRC phone bridge on this meeting...I would have listened and participated if the agency had one.
"An employee blows the whistle on issues he claims the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is neglecting at Byron's generating station.
That employee's name is Barry Quigley. He's worked at the Byron power plant for more than 25 years and has often voiced his concerns. Wednesday, he held nothing back."
...The hollowing out of the newspapers and media, they are becoming extremely evidence based and reactionary, and not anticipatory. The is a classic right wing ideological structure.
...Midwest drought and heat increase water supply worries
By Judy Keen, USA TODAY
CHICAGO – Water worries are springing up across the Midwest amid worsening drought conditions.
Demand is approaching record levels in some areas, forcing voluntary and mandatory usage restrictions as utilities strain to pump enough water while reservoirs and other sources shrink.
Des Moines issued a peak water alert after demand Wednesday reached 90.6 million gallons, nearing the 2006 record of 92 million gallons, says Des Moines Water Works assistant general manager Gary Benjamin.
If the situation gets worse, he says, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could be asked to release water from the Saylorville Lake reservoir. "We're just asking people to use water wisely," he says.
All of Indiana is under a water-shortage warning, and many communities there have implemented mandatory restrictions. A water-shortage watch is in place for more than two dozen Kentucky counties, and Nebraska farmers have been ordered to stop using rivers and streams to irrigate their crops because of dropping water levels.
"You have the worst of all worlds: very little supply and an absolute straining of the system," says Les Lampe, vice president of Black & Veatch, a global engineering and consulting company specializing in infrastructure. It's a reminder, he says, of the need to replace aging and leaking water distribution systems...
..Yep, will the historic drought be equivalent to the sub prime mortgage mess. Will the banks withdraw loans and will the banks be on the hook over a lot of economic drought loses...or great fear of same ..."New data from U.S. Drought Monitor issued Thursday shows the drought has worsened in the past week, and now ranks as the second worst drought in U.S. history over the lower 48 since records began in 1895."
...The "mighty Mississippi" has lost some of its might with the season's epic drought taking its toll on river levels, which are falling to near historic lows
July 18: "My activities led to $400 million dollar fraud and bankrupting the forth largest paper maker in the USA. Executives went to jail."
Man, can you imagine the electric grid gambling monies that can made on a national drought?
They can make more money on gaming electricity in crisis than in making paper or flipping paper mills.
Silkman allegedly advised Rumford Paper to reduce its internal power generation and purchase energy for a five-day period, to set an artificial baseline. That benefited the paper mill when it was called on to reduce consumption over six months in 2007 and 2008.
Market GamblersBy Kasia Klimasinska on July 19, 2012
The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission proposed penalties of $29.8 million for alleged manipulation of New England’s power market in the agency’s expanding investigations that also ensnared JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Rumford Paper Co. and Lincoln Paper and issue LLC, two paper mills, along with consultant Competitive Energy Services LLC and an employee were ordered to pay fines and give up financial gains made by claiming “phantom” cuts in electricity use in 2007-2008, according to documents released July 17.
Since January 2011, the agency announced 11 investigations of alleged manipulation in electricity and natural-gas markets and reached a record $245 million settlement with Constellation Energy Group Inc. this year. The agency on July 2 sued New York-based JPMorgan to release e-mails in a probe of possible gaming of power markets in California and the Midwest. The company denies the FERC allegations....
...This ain't a drought crisis...this isn't a climate change, profit, cooling water, drinking water, food or energy crisis...this is a crisis in our ability to tell the truth! To tell the truth for it own merits!
...Along with Limerick there was Nine mile in NY, Clavert Cliffs in MD and Oconee in SC also Vermont Yankee slipped in power due to hot water out of the river.
The Endless Summer
I just think we need a much wider discussion other than CO2 emissions....we desperately need new ideas and new leadership. CO2 leads us down the rat hole of people figuring out how gouge us in crisis and making ungodly profits over climate. To date, all the solutions with CO2 with green energy is about people figuring out screw other people and it sadly inhibited the plant in dealing with this enormous problem. Our lives are about extracting profits from another without really doing any good or work. I could make the case the outcome of CO2 emissions is selling newspapers and gain media viewership without doing any good...it makes us feel good without doing good. We are all about talking about and conning ourselves about doing altruism...all of us...but nobody wants to do the hard work of doing altruism. We want the profits in our bank account before we would even start doing good, altruism or starting work.
All the green co2 emissions crew is as bad or worst than Exxon or all the established energy purveyors. Selfishness and extreme profit and self advantage is a dead end.
We just got a much bigger problem than the green crowd realizes! The Exxon crew and the Green environmental crew are the same guys. They are all us!
We all got to think different than we have in the past! This is a desert of eduction and creativity that is causing this. Somebody once said it, it is a spiritual problem in each of us. How do we talk truth to each other?
...They don’t know what cause it, as the investigation is on going...but Exelon know one thing to Mike Mulligan, that it wasn’t climate related. They want you to know one thing, their nuclear fleet is designed for the climate. Did you see the grid disruption this caused? I question the fragility of our whole electric grid.
“Exelon spokesman Dave Tillman said the hot weather didn't cause the transformer explosion. An accident investigation is under way by Exelon and the NRC. He said it was unclear when the reactor would be back online."
At one point the NE grid prices was at $192 megawatt hours.
Power output at VYdecreased
July 19, 2012 11:2 AM GMTUpdated: 07/19/2012 07:02:31 AM EDT
Thursday July 19, 2012
BRATTLEBORO -- Power output at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon was decreased to 83 percent early Tuesday due to low flow and higher temperatures in the Connecticut River. By Tuesday afternoon, power output was back up to 92.6 percent.
Because of river conditions, the plant was switched over to closed-cycle cooling utilizing the plant's cooling towers to cool the water necessary to prevent the plant's reactor from overheating.
"In this kind of hot and humid weather with low river flows, we reduce power to insure the plant's systems remain within administrative limits," said Rob Williams, spokesman for
Yankee.Right, the Illinois-EPA water permit variances for the Braidwood and the Byron plants are based on the worst-lowest river 10 year flow. That means when they issued the permit it was the last 10 year lowest flow. A 50 year drought has a lot lower flow.
...Water Shortage Warning issued for all Ind. counties
POSTED AT 07:45 PM ON Jul. 18, 2012\
Because of drought conditions, the Department of Natural Resources and the State Department of Homeland Security have issued a Water Shortage Warning for all Indiana counties.
Water Shortage Warnings intend to prepare a coordinated response to potential water supply problems and initiate voluntary conservation measures, according to a press release by the Department of Natural Resources.
State law defines a significant water withdrawal facility (SWWF) as one capable of withdrawing 100,000 gallons of water per day from all sources -- ground water, surface water, or a combination of the two.
...I worked on paper mill pollution case from about 1998 to 2002. It was now the defunked American Tissue corporation. It all began in the Winchester NH-Ashuelot paper mill. They had a defective and unlined lagoon...our drought made it easier to see the leakage. The low flow made you easily see the grayish-white water in the river. The owners were flipping the mills and fraudulently borrowing on the business. They didn't care if the lagoon was leaking. My activities led to $400 million dollar fraud and bankrupting the forth largest paper maker in the USA. Executives went to jail.
I was out on the banks of the river with the state pollution regulator...whitish water was leaking from the embankment and going into the drought trickle of water in the river. The NH regulator said it is natural ground water and that is what is leaking from the side of the hill. I told him I don't have a education like you, you see the dry river bed of the Ashuelot river behind you. We are in a ripping 50 year drought. Wells are going dry all around our region There ain't leaking underground water around here and you know that. The lagoon was 50 feet right above our heads on a bluff.
This is the fraud and corruption I am talking about....
..Pathetic, you people think a drought just uncovers the low rocky shoals and sand bars of our baking steams, river and water ways. I know a drought mostly uncovers a staggering build up and amount of fraud and corruption in our society. A 50 and 100 year drought of staggering dimensions is really a amazing transparency device or tool...
...Jesus, I am getting so confused with the Exelon plants in Illinois and what river supplies them. I getting my rocks mixed up...got Quad City and Byron facilities mixed up too. And all this coffee ain't helping, so says my wife. So Byron is on the Rock River and they are down stream of Rockford Illinois. Rockford is irked about the low water level in town and the late summer water levels in middle of July. And Com Ed-Exelon is fiddling with the Rockford Rock River gates and the upstream reservoir. The connection I was trying to bring out is Com Ed is desperately trying to supply Rock River cooling water to the Byron nuclear facility...that is why they are fiddling with the Rockford Rock River gates and the up stream reservoir gates.
I am just saying, everyone is desperate for water and cooling water...
Wait till the municipal and big city drinking supplies go belly up? Wait till there becomes a deluge of media stories with town and cites drinking supplies going dry. In the last NE drought, the drinking supplies designs didn't keep up the population growth. Worst, the river pollution, thermal limits or permits are based on the worst last 10 year river low flows. That is what the whole system is built on, the last ten year worst river low flow event. We going pass the last 50 or 80 year worst low river flow at warps speeds. Welcome to what the money going to congress buys you...they screw us all in droughts. The sewer or city waste water, let alone all the permitted pollution of all sorts, the river flow are so low there is no river or stream dilution. In other words, there is a really higher and possibly astronomical concentration of pollution in our stream and river during these 50 year or 100 year droughts.
Baby you better buckle your seat, cause you ain't seen anything yet...
It's 100 degrees in King of Prussia Pa?
...I count 7 of 17 Exelon's nuclear fleet as being climate impaired. The 50% was wrong and my error. Sorry. At 41% today with Limerick's transformer explosion we are working up to 50%.
...I am calling this climate related?
Explosion at Limerick power station, public not at riskJul 18, 2012 11:20 AM EDT
There was an electrical fault in a transformer at the Limerick Nuclear Power Station on Wednesday. A Montgomery County spokesman says the public is not at risk.
"We did get an alert that there was an unusual event over there ... there was an explosion inside a protected area of Unit 1 but it does not affect public safety," said Frank Custer, communications director for Montgomery County.
Limerick among four nuclear power reactors shut down Wednesday
...This is my message to a senior region III officials yesterday afternoon (July 17):
"Asked whether he viewed Braidwood’s difficulties as a byproduct of global warming, Mr. Nesbit said: “I’m not a climatologist. But clearly the calculations when the plant was first operated in 1986 are not what is sufficient today, not all the time.”"
Hmm, my calculation says the Braidwood lake evaporation rate is 20 million gallons per day and the make up rate is 4 million gallons a day. I am thinking a big well is making up the difference and I hope that is not draining the aquifer or reducing the well levels.
My take is 35% of Exelon fleet is not designed for the climate and indicates gross mismanagement of this huge electric utility to many tens of millions of peoples. Com Ed has been here before!
Right, at the end of this, I am going to get a humongous Exelon construction program, maybe cooling towers for Quad City and Braidwood.
Maybe a huge federal program, stimulus and public works program hardening the nuke plants and other power plants against climate change.
I hope you would read down on my blog to find the 1988, right, we are back to the 1956 drought level..
"Edison To Tap Lakes To Keep Plant Running":
The big question asked, what will the region look like in the middle of August. We are approaching the middle of Aug 1988 drought levels within days...who knows what it will look like in the middle and end of 2012 August. It is shocking how much the drought world has changed in a week and I am certain in another week we will be hit by another concussive drought shock wave. Yesterday I spent an hour taking to the Byron site manager and Paul Dempsey. I like these guys! I am on the site managers side making Exelon spend more money on his nuke plants!
My blog: http://steamshovel2002.blogspot.com/
Was this not a neat article:
July 17, 2012, 2:34 pm
So, How Hot Was It?
By MATTHEW L. WALD
It's the fleet, stupid!
..."But clearly the calculations when the plant was first operated in 1986 are not what is sufficient today, not all the time.”
Another two plant Dresden nuclear facilty had a Illinois-EPA water permit variance since early July and repeated power downs for hot weather. I wonder how much total megawatts Exelon is going to lose this summer for hot water...it must be record breaking. That is up to 50% of the Exelon fleet who are in engineering design hot water?
...Kind of blew it with the Rock River and Quad City...it is on the Missouri River.
Quad City: Drought Conditions Affect Rock River Water Levels in Stateline
Today's New York Times article:
So, How Hot Was It?
July 17, 2012, 2:34 pm
MATTHEW L. WALD
It was so hot last week, a twin-unit nuclear plant in northeastern Illinois had to get special permission to continue operating after the temperature of the water in its cooling pond rose to 102 degrees
It was the second such request from the plant, Braidwood, which opened 26 years ago. When it was new, the plant had permission to run as long as the temperature of its cooling water pond, a 2,500-acre lake in a former strip mine, remained below 98 degrees; in 2000 it got permission to raise the limit to 100 degrees.
The problem, said Craig Nesbit, a spokesman for Exelon, which owns the plant...
Asked whether he viewed Braidwood’s difficulties as a byproduct of global warming, Mr. Nesbit said: “I’m not a climatologist. But clearly the calculations when the plant was first operated in 1986 are not what is sufficient today, not all the time.”
I am basing the 35% of fleet not designed for the climate on heat related power downs, Illinois-EPA water permit and NRC water permit heat variances.
US program to harden nuclear/power plants against climate change.
We need federal funding and new rules to facilitate hardening power plants against climate change.
An emergency funding and job stimulus program!
Quad City had to power down yesterday to the mid 90%...they have ben doing at this year!
35% of Exelon's nuclear fleet have degraded cooling water systems...at least 35% of their fleet of nuclear plants are grossly and inadequately designed for their climate.
6 plants with degraded cooling systems....total of 17 plants
no cooling towers... Mississippi River.
another variance till July 25
July 5 to July 15:
1824 megawatt
Hot weather affects water discharges at nuclear plant: The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has granted Exelon Nuclear’s Quad-Cities Generating Station a variance to discharge water at higher than normal temperatures because of the hot weather.
The discharge variance was permitted through July 15 because of warm weather and high demand for electricity, according to a release from the Illinois EPA.
The Quad-Cities station is a nuclear-fueled steam electric generating facility located on the Mississippi River near Cordova. Circulating water used to cool and condense steam from the generating process is ultimately discharged into the river. It does not come into contact with any radioactive components and does not have any impact on radiation risk.
The Quad-Cities’ National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit sets limits on the temperature of water discharge. Because of the unusually hot weather, the river temperature at the intake has exceeded temperature standards and the river’s ability to dissipate heat is reduced.
So is there something wrong with the rock river Byron makeup water trash racks...was the water so low in the river Byron was picking up gravel and silt from the Rock River spoiling the cooling towers efficiency?
Hmm, the power downs began in mid June?
25% of Exelon's nuclear fleet have degraded cooling water systems...at least 25% of their fleet of nuclear plants are grossly and inadiquately designed for their climate.
...Just talked to Byron Site Vice President Tim Tulon...his plants are down rated because of the defective and degraded cooling towers. Talked to him for about 15 minutes...then I got a immediate call back from a guy name Paul. I got to be truthful, I like both these guys. The message here is the Byron plant have been down rated because of the heat and the degraded towers as we speak. It is a really a important note for their recent newspaper story...they didn't admit their plant was threaten with a down rate or had them in the past. It is a real problem with honestly to the public...selective truth telling. I'd give these guys a A minus with their honesty to me, not so much in corporate with a D minus.
Both Byrons has been banging 70 to 90% mostly since mid June.
All four plants with defective and degraded cooling systems have a total of 4542 megawatt electric...power 4 million homes. That is a mind boggling huge amount of electricity!
All four plants with defective and degraded cooling systems have a total of 4542 megawatts electric...power 4 million homes. That is a mind boggling huge amount of electricity!
Byron 1 is at 88% and Bryon 2 is 85% power!
...Is Byron overheating also and this it utility PR subterfuge...their cooling towers are dangerously degraded? It is just a few days after Braidwood NOED overheating...it just suspicious as hell over this hot and dry summer!
A build-up of silt and debris in filters has prompted Exelon Generation to begin a yearlong maintenance project to upgrade equipment inside both its cooling towers at the Byron nuclear plant.
By Vinde Wells - Editor Thursday, July 12, 2012 4:39 p.m...I'll bet you the site sewage plant is ineffective...its throwing in the Baidwood lake tons of phosphorous and nitrogen leading to the algae blooms.
...My philosophy, I would try and test safety system at their environmental most harshest conditions in a year. You got to bang this equipment around to know how this stuff works. It is a capturing data opportunity. So like when lake pond exceeded 100 degrees I be testing the DGs and other cooling water systems. Certainly when and during when a record is exceeded, I would be out their banging the gear around. I 'd be looking for degradation and system vulnerabilities as the worst limits.
I want to have the absolute confidence that my gear would work at the operational limits...in a accident. I wouldn't want any surprises to show up. I'd want plenty of safety margin to be available. The nuclear industry and NRC dictates when you get even a little close to the limits...stop all testing.
So what is the highest lake and room environmental temperatures they have tested the DGs too?
...What the hell is going on here, the NRC says Braidwood has to be less than 100 degrees by Sunday July 8 at 3:56 pm and Braidwood says they are way underneath the limit? While the Braidwood superintendent the next day is saying the lake water on July 9 on the south side of the lake is over the 100 degrees
The NOED document to the NRC:
"On July 7, 2012, at 3:56 p.m., the plant was implementing TS 3.7.9 involving Surveillance Requirement (SR) 3.7.9.2 that verifies average water temperature of the Ultimate Heat Sink (UHS) to be less than or equal to 100 degrees Fahrenheit (ºF). Temperature of the UHS, measured at the discharge of the running essential service water (SX) pumps exceeded 100ºF, which required both units shut down to Mode 3 per Required Action A.1 within 6 hours.
Blah, blah, blab...less than or equal to 100ºF to less than or equal to 102ºF for a period of 24 hours (i.e. effective until July 8, 2012 at 3:56 p.m.)."While the Chicago-Sun Times on July 9th says"
No major fish kills in northeast Illinois
BY DALE BOWMAN outdoordb@sbcglobal.net July 10, 2012 9:36PMMeents, the site superintendent for Mazonia/Braidwood State Fish and Wildlife Area, said there were some dead floaters at Braidwood, the cooling lake in the southwest corner of Will County, but nothing major. It was mainly threadfin and gizzard shad. On Monday, there was still 100-degree water on the south end."
