Exelon-LaSalle's Two Plant Trip Is A Mess Over A Lightening Strike (really, lightning)

I am just saying...a known not corrected defect in the industry just lead leads to worst and worst outcomes.   

Vermont Yankee switch yard insulator defect was a precursor to the double hitter Byron insulator failure.  Think about how much money this cost by not forcing a industry wide response.

Vermont Yankee Switch Yard Insulator Defect LER 2005-001-00

 "A root cause investigation team determined that the MOD failure was caused by the failure of a porcelain electrical insulator as a result of a manufacturing defect. A laboratory examination of the insulator was performed by an off-site lab. The examination revealed a void area in the cement that attached the failed section of the insulator to the metal flanges and a geometric off-set in the placement of the insulator in the flanges. Close examination of the void surfaces showed that this void was pre-existing and occurred during the manufacturing of the assembly. These conditions caused a stress riser to occur on the northwest side when wind and other cyclic loads were applied to the insulator. The repeated cyclical loading and unloading produced a stress crack in the porcelain, weakening the insulator and ultimately leading to failure, prior to it's design lifetime of 40 years. The insulator was original plant equipment."

Byron Switch Yard Insulator Defect LER 2012-001-01

Cause of the Events Event l
The Unit 2 SAT-1/2 insulator failure was caused by service propagation of a large manufacturing material defect that covered approximately 40% of the fracture cross-section in one section of the insulator stack. The defect was characterized as poorly vitrified porcelain, which contained a high density of porosity and micro-cracks. 

Additionally design vulnerabilities existed in the protective relaying schemes regarding the lack of single open phase detection that complicated plant and operator response by not automatically isolating all three phases on the affected line.

Event 2
The Unit 1 SAT insulator failure was caused by service propagation of a large manufacturing material defect that covered approximately 25% of the fracture cross-section in one section of the insulator stack. The defect was characterized as poorly vitrified porcelain, which contained a high density of porosity and micro-cracks. Moreover, a second insulator section, which fractured as a result of the fall, exhibited the same poor vitrification as did the section that initially fractured.

Sounds like a thunderstorm wind could undermine the structure of a defective switch yard insulator?

VY: "These conditions caused a stress riser to occur on the northwest side when wind and other cyclic loads were applied to the insulator. The repeated cyclical loading and unloading produced a stress crack in the porcelain, weakening the insulator and ultimately leading to failure, prior to it's design lifetime of 40 years."

Can't start the plants up sequencually ...what not try and start them up at the same time?

Exelon Illinois LaSalle reactors 1 And 2 ramped up early Wed.

Wed May 1, 2013 9:03am EDT

May 1 (Reuters) - Exelon Corp's 1,118-megawatt Unit 1 at the La Salle nuclear power plant in Illinois ramped up to 70 percent power early Wednesday from 22 percent power Tuesday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report.

Its 1,120-megawatt Unit 2 at plant was operating at 28 percent power, up from 1 percent power on Tuesday.
 

...Originally posted on April 18...

Exelon's Guatemala and oligarchy fleet of nuclear plants...  

NRC: “When we looked at all lightning-related events at U.S. nuclear power plants from 1992 to 2003, we identified a total of 66 such events, he said. “Twenty-one of those involved a loss of one or more offsite power sources but no equipment damage. There were no events that involved a loss of offsite power that resulted in plant equipment damage. Of the 66 events, 48 (or about 73 percent) involved no reactor trip, or shutdown.”Sheehan added, “Most lightning strikes do not cause a plant to shut down.”

So let me get this straight...the LaSalle facility has two nuclear power plants. They got a so called lightning strike on April 17 leading a special NRC inspection. It tripped both plants. The special inspection team is on site right now. They first attempted to start-up Unit 2 last week (April 25). They had a bad circ water pump or something, it took out the plant. Over the weekend with the NRC on site, they attempted to start-up Unit 1. They had a RCIC steam line leak in the containment and it caused them to shut down on Saturday. 

So Thursday Unit 2 was shut down, then within two days Unit 1 was shut down for a steam line leak. Today both plants are shut down again while the NRC is on site for a special inspection. Buddy, the heat is on. Is Exelon collapsing like they did in the middle and late 1990s...   

It is kind of amazing, on restart both plants had to be shut down before they even reached 100% power...within just hours of the startup. Two plant startups within the last few days and double 0% power in today's NRC's current reactor status report. 

Sequentially in early 2012 both Byron 1 and 2 tripped within a month of each other on bad switch yard insulators, led to LOOPs...a bad protective safety circuit created a severe vulnerability for both plants. The NRC issued a serious Guatemala engineering style warning to all plants to check their LOOP protective circuits. This is how a two nuke plant facility would behave if they were located in Guatemala?   

Exelon issued a recent severe financial warning over wind and natural gas making their nuclear fleet extremely vulnerable. Huge nuclear plant budget cutback and extreme employee disillusionment! Had to cut their dividend also! And Exelon is home-ported in Chicago Illinois and its one of the most politically corrupted states in the USA.    

Japan Times wrote a article about severe and dangerous employee issues at Byron...the culture of intimidation at Exelon. What crap these employees have to go through to make more than $100,000 a year. If they were making minimum wages. they could just say fuck this stuff and quit. They are all slaves to feeding their families and making money...having a career.     

For eight minutes, you’ve raised your middle finger to the meltdown gods,” one reactor operator said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “If anything else happened in that window — and it’s a safe bet one problem causes another — you’re screwed.”

“Those eight minutes symbolize over a decade of abuse,” said a plant source. “And you can never undo it. And it’s never forgotten.”

So in a LOOP over the failed insulator without diesel generators, Byron failed to automatically start up their emergency diesel generators for eight minutes. You get it, the extremely technical Exelon employees are pleading and crying for help? 

Gets you wondering if Exelon and Entergy are exhausting and overwhelming the NRC? 

Power Reactor	Event Number: 48977
Facility: LASALLE Region: 3 State: IL Unit: [1] [ ] [ ] RX Type: [1] GE-5,[2] GE-5 NRC Notified By: JIM SPIELER HQ OPS Officer: JOHN SHOEMAKER	Notification Date: 04/28/2013 Notification Time: 00:48 [ET] Event Date: 04/27/2013 Event Time: 21:24 [CDT] Last Update Date: 04/28/2013
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY 10 CFR Section: 50.72(b)(2)(i) - PLANT S/D REQD BY TS 50.72(b)(3)(ii)(A) - DEGRADED CONDITION	Person (Organization): DAVID HILLS (R3DO)

Unit	SCRAM Code	RX CRIT	Initial PWR	Initial RX Mode	Current PWR	Current RX Mode
1	N	Y	6	Startup	0	Startup

Event Text

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION REQUIRED PLANT SHUTDOWN "This notification is being provided in accordance with 10CFR50.72(b)(2)(i), Plant Shutdown required by Technical Specifications, and 10CFR50.72(b)(3)(ii)A, Degraded or Unanalyzed Condition. "At 2245 CDT on 04/27/13, LaSalle Unit 1 commenced a Technical Specification required plant shutdown, due to identification of pressure boundary leakage. At 2124 CDT on 04/27/13, a through-wall leak was identified in the body of 1E51-F076, Reactor Core Isolation Cooling system steam supply inboard isolation bypass warmup valve. This qualifies as pressure boundary leakage, which requires entry into Technical Specification 3.4.5, Reactor Coolant System Operational Leakage, Required Action C, to be in Mode 3, Hot Shutdown, by 0924 [CDT] on 04/28/13, and Mode 4, Cold Shutdown, by 0924 [CDT] on 04/29/13. This leakage is significantly less than 10 gpm and therefore does not meet the threshold for entry into the Emergency Action Plan. At the time of discovery, Unit 1 was in startup mode following a forced outage. A unit shutdown has been initiated. A repair plan is being prepared at this time, and the unit will remain in Cold Shutdown until repairs are complete." The leak is located inside the primary containment and was visually identified during a containment walk-down. The licensee has notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

April 26:

Special investigation and another trip on unit two?

They are sticking with the lightning  strike...

The issue involved a lightning strike that resulted in the loss of external power to Unit 1 and 2. Both units automatically shut down and all control rods were inserted.

April 19:

“When we looked at all lightning-related events at U.S. nuclear power plants from 1992 to 2003, we identified a total of 66 such events, he said. “Twenty-one of those involved a loss of one or more offsite power sources but no equipment damage. There were no events that involved a loss of offsite power that resulted in plant equipment damage. Of the 66 events, 48 (or about 73 percent) involved no reactor trip, or shutdown.”
Sheehan added, “Most lightning strikes do not cause a plant to shut down.”

"So what would prevent all the defective switchyard insulators from breaking and shorting in a heavy storm, tornado or earthquake and then causing another LOOP..."

The LaSalle Nuclear Plant Cooling Lake and NRC Idiocracy
　I meant to say, what would prevent more strategic insulators from breaking in the weather causing more LOOPs?

It would have been nice to included thunderstorms...

Another two plant LOOP...Loops going on all over the place. On-site disconnection of off site electricity.

Right, whatever happens to their nuclear plant no matter what the evidence, it is always a total act of god.

Based on Exelon,  Briadwood and Byron, I'll bet you it was high voltage switchyard bad insulators... a thunderstorm wind came up and broke a defective insulator. The winds shook the lines/insulators and then broke the lines. Then a humorous short damaged the rest...

The theme is these plants aren't designed for the climate and the poor maintenance that doesn't address obsolete and defective component.

Towers and lines get hit all the time by lightening...and there is not much plant trips on lightening and damaging insulators nationwide.

I'll will bet a protective switchyad relay didn't work....

"This was caused by an apparent lightning strike in the main 345kV/138kV switchyard during a thunderstorm. 138kV line 0112 has been inspected in the field, and heavy damage has been noted on the insulators on two of the three phases on a line lightning arrestor line side."

Facility: LASALLE Region: 3 State: IL Unit: [1] [2] [ ] RX Type: [1] GE-5,[2] GE-5 NRC Notified By: DAN SZUMSKI HQ OPS Officer: DONG HWA PARK	Notification Date: 04/17/2013 Notification Time: 16:59 [ET] Event Date: 04/17/2013 Event Time: 15:11 [CDT] Last Update Date: 04/18/2013
Emergency Class: UNUSUAL EVENT 10 CFR Section: 50.72(a) (1) (i) - EMERGENCY DECLARED 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): STEVE ORTH (R3DO) JEFFERY GRANT (IRD) DAVID SKEEN (NRR) JENNIFER UHLE (NRR) ANNE BOLAND (R3)

Unit	SCRAM Code	RX CRIT	Initial PWR	Initial RX Mode	Current PWR	Current RX Mode
1	A/R	Y	100	Power Operation	0	Hot Shutdown
2	A/R	Y	100	Power Operation	0	Hot Shutdown

Event Text

NOTIFICATION OF UNUSUAL EVENT DECLARED DUE TO LOSS OF OFFSITE POWER FROM A LIGHTNING STRIKE "LaSalle Unit 1 and LaSalle Unit 2 have both experienced an automatic reactor scram, in conjunction with a loss of offsite power. This was caused by an apparent lightning strike in the main 345kV/138kV switchyard during a thunderstorm. 138kV line 0112 has been inspected in the field, and heavy damage has been noted on the insulators on two of the three phases on a line lightning arrestor line side. "The plant systems have all responded as expected. All five diesel generators started, and have loaded on to their respective buses as designed. All rods went full in on both units during the respective scrams. HPCS [High Pressure Core Spray] system was started on each unit and automatically aligned for injection for initial level control." The MSIVs [Main Steam Isolation Valves] are shut on both units with decay heat being removed via the safety relief valves. Suppression pool cooling is in progress. The licensee will notify the NRC Resident Inspector and has notified the State. Notified DHS, FEMA, USDA, HHS, DOE, NICC, EPA, and Nuclear SSA via email. * * * UPDATE FROM DON PUCKETT TO VINCE KLCO AT 2113 EDT ON 4/17/2013 * * * "In addition to information [previously provided], LaSalle Unit 2 received a high drywell pressure signal [1.77 psig] due to loss of containment cooling from the loss of power. At the time of this high drywell pressure signal, high pressure core spray pump and 2B residual heat removal [RHR] pump was already in operation, the low pressure core spray system and 2A residual heat removal system was secured and [placed] in pull to lock. When the signal was satisfied the ECCS [Emergency Core Cooling Systems] signal was processed but only the 2C RHR pump would have started. In this case, the 2C RHR pump tripped when the signal was received. There is no evidence of reactor coolant leakage. There was no additional ECCS systems discharging into the RCS [Reactor Coolant System]. As [initially stated], level was controlled using High Pressure Core Spray and level control is now being maintained using the Reactor Core Isolation Cooling [RCIC] systems. The 2C RHR pump trip is under investigation. "Due to the initial loss of offsite power for both Unit 1 and Unit 2 reported at 1511 [CDT], multiple containment isolation valves isolated and closed as expected. Once initial containment isolations were verified, two Unit 2 primary containment vent and purge valves were opened to vent the Unit 2 containment. Once Unit Two containment pressure reached 1.77 [psig], these two vent valves isolated as expected. "Due to the loss of offsite power, the Station Vent Stack Wide Range Gas Monitor (WRGM) and the Standby Gas Treatment Wide Range Gas Monitor (VGWRGM) also lost power. Manual sampling has been implemented and power is restored to the VGWRGM, however the VGWRGM has not been declared operable yet. Normal radiation levels have been reported from the manual sampling. [This is being reported in accordance with 10CFR50.72(b)(3)(xiii).]" The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector and the State of Illinois. Notified the R3 IRC, NRR EO(Skeen), IRD MOC (Grant). * * * UPDATE AT 0057 EDT ON 04/18/13 FROM MIKE LAWRENCE TO S. SANDIN * * * "After the Unit 2 primary containment vent and purge system isolated on the Unit 2 containment High Pressure signal, Venting of the Unit 1 primary containment was commenced. At 2005 CDT, Unit 1 primary containment pressure reached the Group 2 primary containment isolation system setpoint (1.77 PSIG) causing the primary containment vent and purge valves being used to vent the Unit 1 containment to isolate. Unit 1 primary containment venting was being performed through the Standby Gas Treatment system which is a filtered system. "In addition to the primary containment isolation signal on high drywell pressure, an ECCS initiation on high drywell pressure also occurred. The ECCS signal resulted in an auto start of the 1C RHR system. The 1B RHR system was already running in suppression pool cooling mode. 1A RHR and LPCS had been secured to prevent overloading the common diesel generator for division 1. The common diesel generator supplies both Unit 1 and Unit 2 division 1 ESF busses." The licensee informed the NRC Resident Inspector. Notified NRR EO (Skeen), IRD MOC (Grant) and R3IRC (Louden).