Junk Plant Indian Point: Another Trip

Chickens coming home to roost. Excessive shutdowns create tremendous stress on a plant and prematurely wears out safety equipment.

Indian Point 2 reactor shuts down during electrical testing

BUCHANAN >> One of two nuclear reactors at the Indian Point power plant in Westchester County shut down automatically Wednesday during testing of electrical systems.

The cause of the morning shutdown of Unit 2 was being investigated. Plant owner Entergy Corp. said it occurred as workers were testing electrical systems that are designed to automatically shut down the reactor if needed.

Entergy said no radioactivity was released and public safety was not affected.

The company said its other reactor, Unit 3, remained in operation and has been online for 203 consecutive days.

Indian Point is located in Buchanan, about 50 miles southeast of Kingston. It provides 2,000 megawatts of electricity to New York City and Westchester County.

Junk Dead Ender Pilgrim: More Of The Same

They should send these valves out to a laboratory to see if there are age related subtle defects in in the valves.

If there was ten inspectors sitting around being bored, one just wonders the amount of secret violation they would find.

Is there any engineering studies on testing relays ...failures...once past the self life?

This is inexcusable with computers today...

NUCLEAR POWER

NRC: Pilgrim let safety gear lapse 

Relays controlling safety valves should have been replaced 12 years ago, inspectors find.

By Christine Legere

Posted Jul. 5, 2016 at 6:58 PM

PLYMOUTH — Electrical relays at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, relied on to shut safety valves in the reactor building should an accident occur, had long exceeded their shelf life when checked by federal inspectors last week.

The role of the relays is to close so-called containment isolation valves to prevent a release of radioactivity into the environment.

Federal inspectors found the relays were 22 years old. According to the product vendors, those relays are supposed to be switched out every 10 years.

After the discovery, plant owner Entergy Corp. declared the relays inoperable because their age did not "provide reasonable assurance" that they would work if called upon, said Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

“Based upon an NRC inspection sample, it was identified that scheduled replacements of the six safety-related components (relays) were not occurring,” Sheehan said.

As a precaution, the valves have been closed and deactivated while the electrical relays are replaced, Sheehan wrote in an email. “Our resident inspectors at Pilgrim will be following up on the repair work.”

The reactor was operating at 100 percent power when the outdated relays were found, and it continues to operate while relays are changed. Sheehan said there is no reason to shut down since leaving the valves in the closed position eliminates the possibility of a radioactive leak if an accident happened.

Pilgrim management is now reviewing how the

“NRC’s inspectors discovered that some nuclear plants in the Midwest were leaving safety components in service until they broke,” Lochbaum wrote in an email. “Then they would replace the broken components.”

I think this above is extremely dangerous. These aging plants are massively complex to the tune of 1 to 5 parts or components in the plant. The valves would have to be tested under the severe environment and stress in a accident. The worry is with these kinds of standard with a 5 million parts plant...The operators would get confused with the magnitude components failure showing up in the stress of a accident. Even a minuscule percentage  of 5 million parts failing in a accident, this would translate into many problems at a plant all at the worst time.  

Plant owners must have a program to ensure the reliability of safety components as plants age. “The program could be as simple as replacing components within the service lifetime recommended by the vendors,” Lochbaum wrote. “Or the program could be more sophisticated by monitoring component performance and replacing the components when performance drops below a pre-determined level.”

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission produced a draft “Regulatory Issue Summary” in May to stress the obligation of plant owners to monitor and replace safety components.

NRC staff had reviewed five years of operating experience from 2007 to 2011 at nuclear power plants in the U.S. as part of the drafting process.

In its summary, the agency said the NRC staff found a notable increase in the number of inspection findings and in licensee event reports related to plants not following safety equipment monitoring required by federal regulation. Among the infractions was the failure of safety-related components that had been installed in the plant for longer than the amount of time specified in the operator’s license or in vendor documents.

Lochbaum said Entergy deserves “partial credit” even though the discovery of the relays was made by federal investigators, because the company didn’t debate the NRC’s finding. Entergy closed the safety valves and set to work on the relays.

“When NRC inspectors found components at

“When NRC inspectors found components at other plants that had been in service longer than recommended, those plant owners took a harder stance,” Lochbaum wrote. “They argued that it’s unlikely that multiple failures could occur at the same time, so they should be permitted to wait for components to wear out and fail before replacing them.”

Entergy spokesman Jerry Nappi said in an email that plants like Pilgrim are designed with several layers of backup protection.

"Although there were no performance issues identified with these electrical relays during their most recent testing, Pilgrim Station notified the NRC that these relays are no longer being relied upon to perform their safety function because they should have previously been replaced in accordance with vendor recommendations," Nappi wrote.

Diane Turco, one of the founders of the Cape Downwinders and current president, expressed frustration over the plant, which she pointed out is currently classified by federal regulators as one of the three worst in the nation. Pilgrim is set to permanently shut down in mid-2019.

 "With Pilgrim continually degrading and one step from federally mandated shutdown, what is it going to take for the NRC to pull the plug on Pilgrim?" Turco said. "An accident?"

— Follow Christine Legere on Twitter: @chrislegereCCT.

Junk Plant Cook: Steam Explosion Damaging Turbine Building

05000315/316

update 10 pm

This is a lot better than a main steam line. These guys are notorious for vapor bubble eroding the piping. How thin was the pipe wall the last time it was tested? Was it scheduled for replacement?   

The Cook nuclear power plant in Bridgman has shut down its Unit 2 reactor due to a rupture in a moisture separator reheater. The problem occurred after midnight Wednesday. Cook plant spokesperson Bill Schalk says the rupture led to the release of non-radioactive steam. 

I know there are whistleblower out there who has issues with main steam line high energy line breaks (HELB), where the licensees aren't keeping up to plant designs. These plants have a host of barriers to prevent a damage to other safety equipment. Cooper is the plant. Basically and more troublesome, the NRC resident inspectors don't have the skills to evaluate MSL HELB accidents.    

Cook reported it as "no radioactive" release!

update 1:43pm

Sounds like they assume there is a radioactivity release. If a wall fell down, it bypasses radioactivity detection. Did the wall falling down damage equipment.

Got to hear out of the News, no release of radiation...

Cook Nuclear Plant Main Steam Line Break AST Radiological Analysis

This calculation evaluates the control room dose to plant operators and the offsite radiological consequences at

the Exclusion Area Boundary (EAB) and Low Population Zone (LPZ) for a main steam line break (MSLB) event using the Alternative Source Term (AST) Methodology.

Update 12:45

Mlive

Bridgman's D.C. Cook nuclear plant steamline ruptures

By Rosemary Parker | rparker3@mlive.com The Kalamazoo Gazette
Follow on Twitter
on July 06, 2016 at 11:23 AM, updated July 06, 2016 at 11:25 AM

BRIDGMAN, MI – A steam line rupture in the turbine building at D. C. Cook Nuclear Plant Wednesday morning damaged a wall in the plant's Unit 2 turbine building, but has had no effect on the nuclear reactor or public safety, authorities said.

Viktoria Mitlyng, senior public affairs officer for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Chicago area office, said the steam pipe rupture happened on the secondary, non-nuclear side of the plant, where the the turbine is located.

"As far as we know no one was hurt" in the pipe rupture, Mitlyng said. The incident happened at 12:38 a.m. July 6.

The steam line that ruptured was fairly large, she said. She was not immediately sure the extent of damage to the turbine room wall.

The plant operates two units. Unit 1 continues to operate at full power Wednesday; Unit 2, where the incident occurred, was taken off line manually until repairs are made.

NRC inspectors are on site evaluating the plant's response to the situation, and investigators are looking into what caused the steam pipe rupture.

At this point there is no evidence of foul play, Mitlyng said. 

Attempts to reach a representative of the plant by telephone were not successful.

Rosemary Parker is a reporter for MLive. Contact her at rparker3@mlive.com.

***These guys typically electrical short tons of electrical equipment.

Here is a 1986 game changer in the nuclear industry:

Surry Accident Raises A-Plant Deterioration Issue:

By Michael Specter December 22, 1986

The industrial accident that killed four workers at Virginia Power's nuclear plant here two weeks ago has forced industry officials and federal regulators to confront the deterioration of the United States' aging nuclear power stations.
 
The workers were conducting routine maintenance Dec. 9 when, with a pop heard throughout the sprawling plant, a pipe at Surry Unit 2 ruptured, twisting metal girders and dumping 30,000 gallons of superheated water in the turbine building. Eight men, including the four who later died, were injured.
 
Since Surry opened in 1973, the walls of the pipe, which is expected to last the 40-year life of the reactor, have in some spots gone from a half-inch thick to thinner than a credit card, and no one knows why. Tests on the corresponding pipe in Surry's other nuclear unit revealed similar erosion.

Sounds like a burst of a big steam line. Could it be the main steam line. I doubt any plant in the USA has ever gone down the explosion procedures over a steam pipe break. Most of the times this comes from either the high or low pressure "heaters". Basically then walled pipes.    

Power Reactor	Event Number: 52065
Facility: COOK Region: 3 State: MI Unit: [ ] [2] [ ] RX Type: [1] W-4-LP,[2] W-4-LP NRC Notified By: BRANDY WARK HQ OPS Officer: DONG HWA PARK	Notification Date: 07/06/2016 Notification Time: 01:02 [ET] Event Date: 07/06/2016 Event Time: 00:38 [EDT] Last Update Date: 07/06/2016
Emergency Class: UNUSUAL EVENT 10 CFR Section: 50.72(a) (1) (i) - EMERGENCY DECLARED 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B) - RPS ACTUATION - CRITICAL 50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A) - VALID SPECIF SYS ACTUATION 50.72(b)(2)(xi) - OFFSITE NOTIFICATION	Person (Organization): PATTY PELKE (R3DO) CHRIS MILLER (NRR) BILL GOTT (IRD) CYNTHIA PEDERSON (R3RA) BILL DEAN (NRR)

Unit	SCRAM Code	RX CRIT	Initial PWR	Initial RX Mode	Current PWR	Current RX Mode
2	M/R	Y	100	Power Operation	0	Hot Standby

Event Text

MANUAL REACTOR TRIP AND UNUSUAL EVENT DECLARATION DUE TO STEAM LEAK IN TURBINE BUILDING "On July 6, 2016, at 0038 [EDT], DC Cook Unit 2 Reactor was manually tripped and at 0050 [EDT] an Unusual Event (N-7 'Unanticipated Explosion') Emergency Declaration was made due to steam leak and associated damage to the turbine building. "In accordance with Emergency Plan procedures, notifications of Berrien County and State of Michigan were completed. The licensee has notified the NRC Senior Resident Inspector. The Unusual Event was terminated at 0207 [EDT]. "This notification is being made in accordance with 10 CFR 50.72 (a)(1)(i) due to declaration of an emergency class. Original notification to NRC made at 0100 EDT via ENS. This event is reportable under 10 CFR 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B), Reactor Protection System (RPS) actuation and 10 CFR 50.72(b)(2)(xi) Offsite Notification, as a four (4) hour report, and under 10 CFR 50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A), specified system actuation of the Auxiliary Feedwater System, as an eight (8) hour report. The DC Cook NRC Resident Inspector has been notified. Press release is planned. "Unit 2 is being supplied by offsite power. All control rods fully inserted. Decay heat is being removed via Steam Generator PORVs [Power Operated Relief Valve]. Preliminary evaluation indicates all plant systems functioned normally following the Reactor Trip. DC Cook Unit 2 remains stable in Mode 3 while conducting the Post Trip Review. No radioactive release is in progress as a result of this event." Notified DHS SWO, FEMA Ops Center, DHS NICC. Notified FEMA National Watch and Nuclear SSA via email.

Junk Dead Ender Plant FitzPatrict: Something Fishy Going on?

It is not actually a LER :) It is a immediate event report. The LER would come out in a few months or more. 

From: Paul

Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2016 9:23 AM

To: William Huston

Cc: Paul Blanch; DENTEL, GLENN T <Glenn.Dentel@nrc.gov>; HAAGENSEN, BRIAN C

Brian.Haagensen@nrc.gov

Subject: [External_Sender] Re: Paul, do you know what's going on at Fitzpatrick?

This LER is intentionally vague and I suspect there is more going on that isn’t being discussed. I am copying Glen Dental of the NRC to see if he is willing to provide any more information and look into the possible radiation from this event. Unlikely but I am asking anyway.

Paul Blanch

MANUAL REACTOR SCRAM DUE TO REACTOR RECIRCULATION PUMPS DEGRADATION

"At 1215 [EDT] on 6/24/2016, James A. FitzPatrick (JAF) was at 100% power when Breaker 710340 tripped and power was lost to L-gears L13, L23, L33, and L43. These provide non-vital power to Reactor Building Ventilation (RBV), portions of Reactor Building Closed Loop Cooling (RBCLC), and 'A' Recirculation pump lube oil systems. Off-site AC power remains available to vital systems and Emergency Diesel Generators (EDG) are available. "Due to the loss of RBV, Secondary Containment differential pressure increased. At 1215 [EDT], Secondary Containment differential pressure exceeded the Technical Specifications (TS) Surveillance Requirement SR-3.6.4.1.1 of greater than or equal to 0.25 inches of vacuum water gauge. The Standby Gas Treatment (SBGT) system was manually initiated and Secondary Containment differential pressure was restored by 1219 [EDT].

"The 'A' Recirculation pump tripped at 1215 [EDT] and reactor power decreased to approximately 50%. 'B' Recirculation pump temperature began to rise due to the degraded RBCLC system. At 1236 [EDT], a manual scram was initiated. Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) water level shrink during the scram resulted in a successful Group 2 isolation. All control rods have been inserted. The RPV water level is being maintained with the Feedwater System and pressure is being maintained by main steam line bypass valves. A cooldown is in progress and JAF will proceed to cold shutdown (Mode 4). Due to complete loss of RBCLC system, the Spent Fuel Pool (SFP) cooling capability is degraded but the Decay Heat Removal system remains available. SFP temperature is slowly rising and it is being monitored. The time [duration] to 200 degrees is approximately 117 hours.

"The initiation of reactor protection systems (RPS) due to the manual scram at critical power is reportable per 10 CFR 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B) and 10 CFR 50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A). The general containment Group 2 isolations are reportable per 10 CFR 50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A). In addition, the temporary differential pressure change in Secondary Containment is reportable per 10 CFR 50.72(b)(3)(v)(C), as an event that could have prevented fulfillment of a safety function."

The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector and the State of New York.

Junk Dead Ender Fitzpatrick: No Radioactivity In Turbine Lube Oil Release to the Lake

Region 1 just called me up. They report no radioactivity, below detectable levels...in the turbine lube oil. I believe the NRC now. It would have been nice to see the agency backstopped them. They independently tested the lube oil on the agency's gear for radioactivity. It as venial sin anyways. So I trust what the agency told me. There was no release of radioactivity during the turbine lube release... 

The big left open question is, what is the level of radioactivity coming out of the Fitz's  turbine lube oil vapor extractor vent piping during normal operation. What is in that plume coming from the vent pipe? The NRC said they will get me that information.

Junk New Coal plant Kemper: It's the Utility Establishment Stupid

I guess the Obama philosophy here is give candy to your friends and enemies alike. It is amazing in the utilities how they are justify secrecy over showing it all. They just have a tremendous concentration of power and throwing money all over the place.

 

These guys are the independent territories of the USA...where everyone hates government. No doubt weak government the electric utilities created is behind this.   

No doubt new nuclear plant Vogtle is like this and everyone has a strict non disclosure contract. Isn't that a  powerful Southern company.

I call this altruism abuse. Justify robing, fraud and deception based on helping people in a emergency by saving the world. Believe me, the green sector including windmills and solar are just as bad as the nukes and coal. At lease natural gas undermines them all with it being so cheap. They all play us so badly...

The news media being so weak plays into it... 

A Model for ‘Clean Coal’ Runs Off the Tracks

A Mississippi project, a centerpiece of President Obama’s climate plan, has been plagued by problems that managers tried to conceal, and by cost overruns and questions of who will pay.

By IAN URBINAJULY 5, 2016

DE KALB, Miss. — The fortress of steel and concrete towering above the pine forest here is a first-of-its-kind power plant that was supposed to prove that “clean coal” was not an oxymoron — that it was possible to produce electricity from coal in a way that emits far less pollution, and to turn a profit while doing so.

The plant was not only a central piece of the Obama administration’s climate plan, it was also supposed to be a model for future power plants to help slow the dangerous effects of global warming. The project was hailed as a way to bring thousands of jobs to Mississippi, the nation’s poorest state, and to extend a lifeline to the dying coal industry.

The sense of hope is fading fast, however. The Kemper coal plant is more than two years behind schedule and more than $4 billion over its initial budget, $2.4 billion, and it is still not operational.

The plant and its owner, Southern Company, are the focus of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, and ratepayers, alleging fraud, are suing the company. Members of Congress have described the project as more boondoggle than boon. The mismanagement is particularly egregious, they say, given the urgent need to rein in the largest source of dangerous emissions around the world: coal plants.

The plant’s backers, including federal energy officials, have defended their work in recent years by saying that delays and cost overruns are inevitable with innovative projects of this scale. In this case, they say, the difficulties stem largely from unforeseen factors — or “unknown unknowns,” as Tom Fanning, the chief executive of Southern Company, has often called them — like bad weather, labor shortages and design uncertainties.

Many problems plaguing the project were broadly known and had been occurring for years. But a review by The New York Times of thousands of pages of public records, previously undisclosed internal documents and emails, and 200 hours of secretly though legally recorded conversations among more than a dozen colleagues at the plant offers a detailed look at what went wrong and why.

Those documents and recordings, provided to The Times by a whistle-blower, an engineer named Brett Wingo, and interviews with more than 30 current or former regulators, contractors, consultants or engineers who worked on the project, show that the plant’s owners drastically understated the project’s cost and timetable, and repeatedly tried to conceal problems as they emerged.

The system of checks and balances that are supposed to keep such projects on track was outweighed by a shared and powerful incentive: The company and regulators were eager to qualify for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal subsidies for the plant, which was also aggressively promoted by Haley Barbour, who was Southern’s chief lobbyist before becoming the governor of Mississippi. Once in office, Mr. Barbour signed a law in 2008 that allowed much of the cost of building any new power plants to be passed on to ratepayers before they are built.

Seeing so many of the problems from the inside, at least one employee felt the need to speak up…

Political Intervention: NRC Commissioners Becoming Chaotic

Beg for a big accident during this. ...

The way this goes is the Democrats will get a benign or neutral commissioner, while the republican will hire one their extremist hard right commissioners. The hard right commissioners always wins. This is the crazy establishment going to war with each other. Why would the democrats bleed over a industry they despise.

How can anyone with a straight face say this is a independent agency?

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Down to Three Active Commissioners

 06/30/2016 | Aaron Larson

Following the end of William C. Ostendorff’s term on June 30, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is now down to only three active commissioners on staff. Ostendorff became a commissioner on April 1, 2010, following a distinguished career as a U.S. naval officer, engineer, lawyer, and policy advisor.
His departure adds another vacancy to the one that already exists on the commission (Figure 1). That spot opened when former Chairman Allison Macfarlane left on January 1, 2015, to take a position at George Washington University. President Obama nominated Jessie Hill Roberson on July 15, 2015, to fill the void, but the Senate has not taken action to confirm the pick.

In April, Politico reported that because Roberson is a Democrat, she would presumably not be confirmed until a Republican nominee is put forward to take Ostendorff’s spot. The story quoted Environment and Public Works Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) as saying, “I’m gonna make that real clear that … personally I think it’s a good Democrat that’s been nominated, but we want to make sure that they nominate a Republican too.”

Rebecca Kern, blogger for Bloomberg BNA (Bureau of National Affairs), interviewed Ostendorff earlier this month. She noted that one of Ostendorff’s regrets is that little headway was made during his term on a long-term repository for high-level radioactive waste.

Kern quoted Ostendorff as saying, “I’m not a zealot for Yucca Mountain. I’m not politically charged to move toward a Yucca Mountain, but I do know the nation needs a repository and I’ve been very disappointed in the lack of progress.”

According to a story posted by the Morning Consult, he is leaving the NRC to teach at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Dead-Ender Junk Plant FitzPatrick: Radioactive Discharge to Inviroment

Update

I bet you on the outfall, where the roof drains into a site sewer system, then flows out to Lake Ontario, the Lake mud in the vicinity of the outfall  is radioactive. I would take a set of mud samples, bet you it would be radioactive.  

Fitz is a "incredibly well run facility". The NRC seems to got silent for some reason.

Entergy spokesperson Jerry Nappi said FitzPatrick employees proactively shut the reactor down Friday after discovering a power supply loss to one of its pumps. The incident was related to a malfunction of one of the plant's oil tanks that caused an estimated 20 to 30 gallons of non-radioactive lubrication oil to spill into Lake Ontario.
It's the latest in a string of mishaps at FitzPatrick and Entergy's other New York plant, Indian Point outside of New York City, but Nappi said both facilities are operating reliably. 

"FitzPatrick is an incredibly well run facility," Nappi said. "It operates very reliably. It's designed to shutdown automatically and operators are trained to shut it down if any of 100 things is not operating the exact way it should and that's what happened in this case."

****This below is my picture of VY in 2011. There is a plume of steam from their turbine lube oil vapor extractor vent line. The turbine building is the short, long green building behind the tall concrete reactor building. The vent pipe plume is on the right side of the turbine building on the roof.

This is a BWR. We had no steam generator in this design acting as a radioactivity to the secondary system. Steam is produced by the core, it flows up the steam line into the turbine. The turbine shaft seals keep this steam in the turbine, not in the people space. The turbine lube oil is a integral part of this system. The steam is pretty radioactive. The radioactivity levels varies significantly over the life of the plant. A fuel failure would significantly jack up the radioactivity in the steam.

Basically plant early 1970s licensing and technical specification gives permission with this being a non monitored release of radioactivity. A new plant wouldn't be allowed to have this. It is a flaw in the nuclear professionalism and the NRC continuing to allow this.

The philosophy in the 1970s, if a nuclear accident occurred at the plant, the main steam isolation valves would trip automatically on high steam radioactivity. I don't think they have this trip today. So the MSIVs would bottle up the reactivity in the core and stop the release out of this vent line. I could make the case one of the MSIVs and turbine stop might be leaking. There you would get a unfiltered release to the environment.

But this vent line spews out radioactivity day in and day out. I think it would have a significant effect on the total release of radiation reported to the public.

Bottom line, me yanking out this picture and the memo by Vanags is shocking to the NRC about Fitzpatrick. I am trying to draw attention with this to NY and NRC.  

Fitzpatrick has the same plume coming out of their plant. The Fitz turbine system is fundimentally the same model as VY and Pilgrim.  Like I said, turbine lube oil comes in direct contact with main steam.  The oil absorbs radioactivity. This oil went into Lake Ontario.












A nuclear professional outfit would consider the turbine lube oil a special system. It is potentially radioactivity at least. The would sample new oil on the site for background radiation as a reference. Then sample it say on a monthly or quarterly bases. 

I am going to make the NRC officials swallow their tongues on this one. I gets you to ask the right questions. Water in direct contact with fuel pins turns into steam and flows down the main steam lines into the turbine stop valves and turbine control valves. The high and low pressure turbines converts this steam into power though this steam. Lots of steam passes though the steam turbine. The radioactive steam makes the turbine stop and control extremely contaminated with radiation. During outages when overhauling the valves and turbine, this is a high radioactive contamination area. The got a a tape barrier all around the turbine area and with a step off pad. The people who work on these components have to wear heavy duty anti c clothing and sometimes respirators. The state should query Entergy about what kinds of radiation and radiation contamination levels are involved in a turbine overhaul. Don't even get me talking about radiation contamination levels in the condensate and feed steam system. The steam that contaminates the turbine and components is the same steam seen in the steam plume in my picture. Fitzs has the same LO vapor extractor plume as Vermont Yankee.  The steam coming out of the Fitz's lube oil vapor extractor vent pipe atop of their turbine building is the same steam that craps up the turbine valves and blades. So Fitz has the same steam plume as Vermont Yankee. The shaft seals wear out over time. The size of the steam plume is dependent on turbine shaft seal wear and vibration levels. Ask the NRC what barrier does Fitz have to prevent radiation discharge to the outside (coming from main down steam), as seen in heavy radiation contamination seen in the turbine overhaul. Does this same radiation escape out the vent line plume? This is the vent line where they leaked out the oil. I suspect they is a much more oil put on the roof than what was reported.

Basically Areva is bankrupt and has a lot a quality issues with reactor vessels and components. They are not a trustworthily contractor or vendor. Bet you VY told Areva these are the kind of radiation levels we want told in your independent investigation. They are French whores...

NY and the NRC have to take their own samples of the lube oil and measure radioactivity.

France Warns of Nuclear Industry Shake-Up After Areva Loss

PARIS — France's energy minister said on Monday that an overhaul of the country’s state-controlled nuclear energy industry was imminent, after one of the country’s main builders of nuclear power plants warned of a loss that could hamper its ability to continue operating independently.

The minister, Ségolène Royal, told reporters that France’s main nuclear power companies “should organize themselves to refocus on their core business, to forge alliances between major French enterprises and to win bids at the international level.”

You see how I finally got VY to admit their turbine lube extractor turbine building plume was radioactive in 2011. Basically VY was shutdown because the state no longer trusted anything the NRC and VY said. This memo helped Vermont see the light.   

VERMONT

State of Vermont

Department of Public Service [phone] 802-828-2811 112 State Street [fax] 802-828-2342 Drawer 2O [tty] 8οΟ-734-839ο

Montpelier, VT o562o-26o1 http://www.publicservice.vermont.gov

October 25, 2011

To: VSNAP members Cc: Bernard Buteau, Vermont Yankee State Liaison Engineer

From: Uldis Vanags, DPS Nuclear Engineer

Subject: VY Turbine Oil Vapor Extractor Vent

At the last VSNAP meeting (October 19, 2011), during the public comment period, Mr. Mike Mulligan provided information on a petition (Attachment 1) he submitted to the NRC on August 26, 2011 where he expressed a concern that the Turbine Oil Vapor Extractor Vent was an unmonitored radiological release path and not accounted for in the Vermont Yankee (VY) effluent release report or the environmental radiation report. Mr. Mulligan filed this concern to the NRC per 10 CFR 2.206 and the NRC has not completed its determination to date.

Mr. Mulligan inquired to me (on October 17, 2011) whether the visible vapor from the Turbine Oil Vapor Extractor Vent had any radioactivity associated with it. I posed this question to Vermont Yankee and learned that Vermont Yankee reviewed Mr. Mulligan's petition to the NRC and the question of whether the Turbine Oil Vapor Extractor Vent was an unmonitored radiological release path. Vermont Yankee found that there wasn’t adequate information to answer this question, so VY generated a Condition Report (CR-VTY-2011-03628) on September 12, 2011 which creates a process for investigation and corrective actions. The investigation into this matter so far has determined that based on a 2006 Engineering Review of plant systems, it is likely that the Turbine Oil Vapor Extractor Vent contains tritium, a radionuclide. However, evaluation of the vapor from the vent is need prior to determining whether this is a release pathway that would require reporting. Thus the actions to be taken are:

1) Develop and proceduralize a method for testing the Turbine Oil Vapor Extractor Vent for radionuclide content. Due by November 28, 2011.

2) Perform a sampling of the Vent for radionuclides, including tritium. Due by December 10, 2011.

3) Using the results of the vent radionuclide analysis, conduct a dose analysis to determine

the radiological significance. Due on February 27, 2012.

4) If the dose analysis requires reportability update the Vermont Yankee Off-Site Dose

Calculation Manual (ODCM). If an ODCM revision is not necessary document the justification. Due on March 13, 2012.

Junk Dead-Ender Plant Fitzpatrick: The NRC Cover-up and Unethical Employees In The Public Affairs office.

Update 6/30

Michael Mulligan <steamshovel2002@yahoo.com> Dear Sir, I had a problem yesterday with a NRC employee yesterday. I called and made a complaint to the Region I Administrator’s office. Mr Dorman was out of the office. I made the complaint to the office secretary. She said a employee would further talk to me about these events. “There is no radioactivity in turbine lube oil on the roof. It is a closed system” Here is my version of these events and a analysis of why this occurred. It is my blog. It will be my talking points to the investigator. Could

To

allegation@nrc.gov allegation@nrc.gov

Today at 11:50 AM

Dear Sir,

 

I had a problem yesterday with a NRC employee yesterday. I called and made a complaint to the Region I Administrator’s office. Mr Dorman was out of the office. I made the complaint to the office secretary. She said a employee would further talk to me about these events.

“There is no radioactivity in turbine lube oil on the roof. It is a closed system”

Here is my version of these events and a analysis of why this occurred. It is my blog. It will be my talking points to the investigator.

Could you pass this e-mail onto the Region 1 Administrators office secretary and also to Chairman Burns’s office?

The Popperville Town Hall: Junk Dead-Ender Plant Fitzpatrick: The NRC Cover-up and Unethical Employees In The Public Affairs office.

The Popperville Town Hall: Junk Dead-Ender Plant Fitzpatrick: The NRC Cover...

"Junk Dead-Ender Plant Fitzpatrick: The NRC Cover-up and Unethical Employees In The Public Affairs office"

Sincerely,

Mike Mulligan

Hinsdale, NH

Steamshovel2002@yahoo.com

1-603-336-8320 

Update 6/29:

The region I(all regions)NRC public affairs officials have become effectively nuclear industry open door mat concierges. They have turned into corporate public relations specialist befitting the nuclear industry. Everything NRC public affairs specialist has turned into the typical corporate model public relations specialist who will automatically sell their souls for a few pennies to the highest bidder. 

You get the word """Public""" in Public Affairs specialist. You are not named nuclear industry Corporate Affairs specialist.

These guys don’t serve our common interest and greater national purpose. They are wholly serving the nuclear industry. The whole ends of this appalling corruption is to continue to make the nuclear industry collectively more fragile. You think you are trying to help-protect your weak buddy-brothers, but you are making them weaker by allowing to "not follow the accepted codes, rules and our common ethics.  

Basically the whole NRC’s public affairs department is not effectively manage towards the greater ends of our country by the EDO and commissioners. I doubt they are really are public servants and they don't serve our collective commons ends and purpose.  

And if the agency’s senior management were smart...the whole exchange by me concerning Fitzpatrick beginning with the trip last Friday has been a plan by me to preserve the NRC’s public credibly.

Ultimately, the NRC has a choice: is the NRC going to consume the NRC’s perilous public credibility on the dead-ender plants or will the agency conserve their precious public credibility to save the plants who might continue to operate for 10, 20 or 30 years and upcoming new plants. All plants and nuclear corporations aren’t the same national worth.
      
***NRC Complaint talking points...this will be my description of the events in my complaint to the NRC! I'd be glad to talk about this to any news media. 1-603-336-8320 Remember, everything is always recorded when talking on a NRC telephone call. I highly approve of this policy.

Think if the news industry first impression was Entergy declared they released radioactive turbine oil to Lake Ontario last Friday. Would their response and the magnitude of the interest be the same? This is what's the concern to the NRC.

Junk Plant Fitzpatrick: Cover-up of Radioactive Leak

(June 27) “By the talk of the NRC spokesmen, the inspectors are too busy monitoring the outcome of the immediate plant trip. They don't have time to take a deep dive into the lube oil radiation contamination documentation. Imagine the fallout if the inspectors go deep into the documentation and discovered the releases was radioactive. I am not saying this level of radiation would harm anyone. I just want to see the facts. I want to make sure everyone is following the establish rules and regulations.”

Region 1 Public Affairs Staff

Senior Public Affairs Officer: Diane Screnci
Field Public Affairs Officer: Neil Sheehan

Implements NRC policies and programs for Public Affairs in the Region.   

6/27/2016@ 4:18pm

Hypothetical conversation between Fitz's senior VP and his slave underlings surrounding the turbine lube oil leak.

“This is Entergy's first declaration there is no radiation in the oil (above normal background). I suspect it went down like this.”

“The VP asked his underlings "is there any radiation contamination in the lube oil". They came back off the cuff, I am certain there is no radiation in the oil. But nobody ever collected a sampled for radiation detection yesterday or never referenced the documented history of radiation sampling in the lube oil.”

I called the NRC's Allegation department early yesterday (6/28 to get my complaint down on the NRC’s paperwork, that the Fitzpatrick leaking turbine lube oil was radioactive. I don’t trust verbal communications with the NRC officials. I highly favor written commutations for this reason and it is publically available. I know the Allegations department would accept my complaint and reply in writing. They declined to accept my allegation. The Allegations person said instead of an official allegation complaint, she would get an expert NRC person to have a talking with me. I found that perfectly acceptable. I was surprised the Allegation department didn’t automatically accept my complaint. I have a lot of experience good and bad with the NRC’s allegation department. I was basing my allegation on my experience and some documents and pictures I had obtained.

Surprisingly I got a quick call back from I think was Senior Public Affairs Officer Diane Screnci later on in the afternoon of June 28. I laid out my rationale why I think it was an uncontrolled radioactive discharge. I think we had about a 20-minute pleasant conversation. I specifically stated many times I need a current sample result on radiation contamination levels in the turbine lube oil to be happy. She told me she would get the information from the Fitz staff. She stated, the Fitz’s staff is extremely busy…don’t think you will get a quick answer back. Mrs. Screnci responses seems very reasonable and I was impressed with the NRC response even though I wasn’t allowed to document my concerns

This afternoon on June 29, I see on my tv screen I getting a region 1 call. I suspect it is about Fitz. It is Mrs. Screnci. She has a very pleasant voice on the phone. She confidently and curtly declares,

“I got this from the Fitz'd staff, there is no radioactivity in Fitz’s turbine lube oil spill.  It is a closed system. The turbine lube oil is completely isolated from the radioactivity”.

Yesterday I thought Entergy was covering-up their illegal discharge of radioactivity into Lake Ontario. Today I think it’s a conspiratorial cover-up by Entergy and NRC, that Fitz’s illegally discharged radioactivity to Lake Ontario contrary to regulations.

When I hear Mrs. Screnci response “it’s a close system” I immediately think I can’t be hearing such nonsense from a seasoned highly trained PA officer and much more educational and experienced NRC staff at a Nuclear power plant. The plant’s NRC staff is highly professional nuclear people and it's in the highly sensitive nature of the business…these guys would never put the agency’s and individual reputation on the line with such nonsense.  

I immediately told her the staff doesn’t know how the turbine lube oil and sealing steam works at Fitze talking like this. I begin thinking she must think I am a typical anti-nuclear dummy. Then it comes to me, she trying to derail my concern and information, she thinks I am a anti nuke dummy by throwing disruptive communication bs at me. How widespread is this in the PA office. But I think, I am absolutely sure she knows who I am. Then it came, she playing the role of a information disruptor, not a federal regulator who supposed to eb a provider of accurate and reliable information to all stakeholders. Her role is supposed to a provided of accurate information to the outsiders, not a disruptor of bad information leaving the plant.

I ask her, “can I show you something”. I am two steps ahead of her, I got my ducks in row. I get this light grunt from her on the phone, a slight delay, then begrudging prolonged OK. She was beginning to unethically dump me from the phone, but thought about who I was and held her tongue. I think she hates me. 

Vermont Yankee has the same turbine lube oil and vapor extractor as Fitz. The radioactivity in the turbine lube oil is a well warn path for me at VY. I show her a picture of the identical VY vapor extractor pipe vent on top the turbine build as Fitz…it’s got a large reactor main steam and vapor plume coming out of the vent line. It is the same line…vent pipe…that turbine lube oil that leaked oil out at Fitz vent line. I showed her the memo I got Vermont's state nuclear engineer Uldis Vanag in Oct 2011. He thinks there is at least tritium getting discharge from the lube oil system and probrably other radionuclides. Basically VY never knew radiation was in the plume…I forced VY to hire Areva to do an independent investigation on radiation in the turbine lube oil. The implication is the yearly environmental radiation discharge report was incomplete. I thoroughly explained the meaning of the VY’s lube oil plume picture and the state’s official memo to me.

Then I get a sheepish Mike from Mrs. Screnci, "I know what happened". I misconstrued your question yesterday(a lie). I thought you were just asking about the lube oil on the roof. This absolutely makes no engineering or system/component sense. It is complete gibberish. I will ask the proper question now to the staff.

Mrs Screnci declaration of no radioactive turbine oil on turbine roof to me (6/29) 

“I got this from the NRC's Fitzpatrick staff; there is no radioactivity in Fitz’s turbine lube oil spill on the roof.  It is a closed system. The turbine lube oil is completely isolated from the radioactivity”.

You notice how closely this tracts with my hypothetical question the Fitz’s VP posed to his staff on June 27. The NRC is doing the same thing with Mrs. Screnci to me. She is intentionally stiff arming me off my investigation of these events. Didn't I do a great job predicting this kind of response:

                                          

My hypothetical conversation(6/27)between Fitz's site VP to is underling slaves:  

“The VP asked his underlings "is there any radiation contamination in the lube oil". They come back off the cuff, I am certain there is no radiation in the oil. (But nobody ever collected a sampled for radiation detection yesterday or never referenced the documented history of radiation sampling in the lube oil.)”  

I thought about what occurred here for a few minutes…then made a call to the region I administrator to file a complaint. He was out of the office for a few days…I suspect a vacation. Basically we are now checking to see if the regional administrator is also participating in unethical behavior and a cover-up. The regional administrator (senior official in region I) is a Mr. Dorman. I had to describe my concern to Mr Dorman Office secretary. She told me a NRC employee will call you to make the official complaint. My aim is to get these concern in the NRC documents. This article is my talking points to that person.
    

Mrs Screnci is the senior office in the region I public affair office. So who could you trust to make this complaint in that office. I wanted to make this complaint to her office. Basically this is corruption in the highest order…a US regulator’s public affairs senior officer is carrying the water of Entergy and the nuclear industry. She participated in an illegal cover-up. She is not a US governmental regulator’s public affairs officer…see is a anti US public Affairs officer. Her action withholds information the public has a right to know and protects bad actor nuclear plant operators.

Can’t you see Mrs. Screnci and NRC’s response, Mike, we were trying to protect a secret NRC investigation…that’s is why we deceived you.