Oyster Creek/NRC: You got Cancer, We Discovered It Two Years Ago

Previous occurrences

None: The “B” and “D” EMRV actuator was a first time event during the operational history of Oyster Creek. 

Personally, as the economic conditions at these nuclear plants deepen…the NRC is going to get exhausted and overwhelmed by companies not being able to support safety and reliability.

Then we have the severe budget cutbacks forced on the NRC by the Republicans.  

LER 2014-002-00

This is what I am talking about: 

Lkcnse Event Report (LER) 2014-002-00, Tchnical Specification Prohibit Condimon Cauind by' RRewlWe fVlta ves lnopeabl for Grealer Oiaw Alwed W*1a~Tm

So these maniacs took out the EMRV valve in Oct 2012 and never tested it until June 20 2014.  

During 1R23 refueling outage(November 2010) the fully refurbished EMRV actuators were installed . Subsequent, actuators were remove during refueling outage 1R24 (October 2012). As-found testings was performed on June 20,2014, and two (C and DD) of five EMRV actuators failed to operate. Further inspection of these actuators found unexpected ware of the he posts, spring and guides.

The first thing I noticed, this is a infrequently maintained valve...the plant personal didn't have the experience to even carry these components. 

Upon completion of the Root Cause Evaluation, it was determined the design of to EMRV actuator was inadequate that when placed in an environment where the actuator is subject to the vibration associated with plant operation, the allowed installation tolerances between pole and guides can create a condition where the spring can jam the actuator plunger assembly by wedging between the guides and the posts.

I call this a cover-up. They are afraid if they tell the truth the plant will get permanently shutdown. I believe they are scheduled to permanently shutdown in 2018. 

My take is they used inferior replacement parts... the parts didn't meet the dimensional requirement in the valve specs. Chances are the manufacturer, more likely this line of valves are not supported anymore. I believe this is basically a falsification of documents by Exelon.  

I'd copy a lot more of this LER over to my blog, but the quality of the print is terrible. Half the words come out as gibberish.

During the refurbishment of the EMRV actuators, actions were necessary to ensure proper alignment of the plunger and spring guide to prevent fretting/ binding. The potential for fretting is created due to the guide posts mounting on the solenoid brackets, and subsequent alignment by bending to achieve proper alignment If the EMRV actuators are set up in a condition where the post are not optimally aligned, preferential wear of the post is observed due to the interaction of the post spring, and guide.

Bottom line, Exelon is not putting adequate monies into this plant for maintenance and upkeep because of the near term permanent shutdown.