What the Death Rattles in Quad Cities Nuclear Plant Looks Like???

We are watching The death spiral of Quad Cities...its death throes. So the death sentence is coming in Sept. Imagine how fearful and insecure the employees are? Exelon has been torturing these employees for years with this threatening. 

Exelon to decide fate of Quad Cities nuclear power plant in September: CEO 

Louisville, Kentucky (Platts)--29 May 2015/526 pm EDT/2126 GMT 

Exelon CEO Christopher Crane said the nation's largest nuclear generator will decide in September whether to close its money-losing, 1,824-MW Quad Cities merchant nuclear plant in Illinois.

Time is running out for Exelon to craft an economic solution for three Illinois nuclear plants -- Byron and Clinton are the others, totaling about 5,000 MW of generation -- Crane said in comments webcast Thursday from the Sanford Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference in New York.

The Chicago-based company had hoped the Illinois General Assembly would pass Exelon-backed legislation creating a low-carbon portfolio standard to provide the nuclear plants with an estimated $300 million/year in economic support before its 2015 regular session adjourns late next week.

That appears unlikely, although lawmakers still could consider the legislation during a two-week fall veto session in November...

It is obvious Exelon knew this plant was coming to the end of their rope...why waste money on this plant when we are going to shut it down. So this is the amount of money you got to spend on the outage...prioritized the plant with maintenance thinking the it is only going to run a few more years.

So this steam leak, the shorting cable, the fires and plant electrical transient....it all started by not having enough money to fix gland seal valve packing leak. The work around from this leak. 

Look at what was needed to create this, not enough money for the maintenance budget, not following procedures, cable error in construction...the moisture took advantage of an electric cable issue creating all these fires.

What I worry about, will the financial problems broadly degrade  the components throughout a plant...setting up the plant to be in a condition outside the license.

August 12, 2014: QUAD CITIES NUCLEAR POWER STATION, UNITS 1 AND 2NRC INTEGRATED INSPECTION REPORT 05000254/2014003; 05000265/2014003 

Green. A finding of very low safety significance (Green) and associated non-cited violation of Technical Specification (TS) Section 5.4.1 was self-revealed on April 2, 2014 for the licensee’s failure to establish a procedure in accordance with the requirements of Regulatory Guide 1.33. Specifically, the licensee established procedure QOP 5600-01, “Gland Seal System Operation,” for use during startup of the Main Steam and Turbine Generator systems. However, the procedure failed to include provisions to ensure that the steam seal regulator bypass valve, 2-3099-S2 (S2) was closed prior to lifting the steam seal bypass relief valve and exceeding the bypass line design pressure. That resulted in a failure of the piping and a significant steam leak in the ‘D’ heater bay. Immediate corrective actions taken by the licensee included revising their procedures for operation of the Gland Seal system and conducting just-in-time training on Gland Seal system operation for operators prior to the subsequent startup on Unit 2. In addition, the licensee planned to review and revise their operator training program for the Gland Seal system. The licensee documented this issue in CAP as IR 1642409. In June 2013, the licensee identified packing leakage from the steam seal feed valve, 2-3099-S1 (S1). In September 2013, the S1 packing leakage increased, and the licensee made a decision to close the valve. The S1 is required during startup of the Main Steam and Turbine Systems and normally kept open while operating, though the gland seal system can continue to function with the S1 closed, once at normal steam pressures. The licensee had a plan to fix this leak during the refueling outage. However, they did not include this work into a forced outage scope. The licensee was forced to shut down Unit 2 due to an unrelated issue on March 31, 2014, and attempted to startup on April 2, 2014, prior to repairing the S1 valve. The packing leak on S1 caused the operators to have trouble while starting up the Gland Seal system, as described below.

It just looks like we are setting up the conditions of a big scalding event(feed system or steam) at plant with multiple deaths and injuries...maybe electrocution. Generally a big steam or boiling hot water leak...it is a nasty accident with short all over the plant. Would a high pressure and temperature feedwater pipe break be easier on a new plant or a old plant with degraded cables... 

An insider would know in the of the SJAE and the heater bay room...it is very elevated temperature area. It is just the run-to-failure option. At some point before relicense, they should proactively replace all the cables in the high temperature area. It doesn't take many brains to figure electrical cabling in a high temperature room need to be replace often. 

This is what the death throes look like with prolong grossly insufficient maintenance budget...it is the death rattle.

The titles in the list of recent LERs looks like a junk yard!!!