A Poor Maintenance Fiasco at Fermi

Losing an air compressor is a nasty accident because there is many air operated valves. 

Three important pumps lost and discovered two valve that are broken? I junk plant.

***It looks like the plant simulator didn't model single LOOP operation...

These guys should have made the decision to conservatively shutdown before doing this runaway maintenance monster. It is a outright mania trying to keep these plants up a power no matter how degraded the plant is.

***A pattern of panic scrams and losing control of the cooling systems. Again, you catch how two poor maintenance problem led to the scram. 

On March 19, 2015 the unit automatically scrammed due to actuation of the Reactor Protection System function of OPRM Upscale. The unit had just transitioned to single loop operation after operators secured a reactor recirculation pump due to the loss of its normal and emergency cooling water supply.

***The LER: On March 19, 2015, at 0647 hours, the Fermi 2 annunciators indicated a cooling water leak in the drywell. The Reactor Building Closed Cooling Water (RBCCW) system [[CC]] was isolated and both divisions of the Emergency Equipment Cooling Water (EECW) system were started. Approximately four minutes later signs of Division 1 EECW pump cavitation were observed indicating that the leak affected the north (A) reactor recirculation pump [[AD]] cooling. The north (A) reactor recirculation pump was tripped at 0652 to prevent motor damage from loss of cooling and the reactor transitioned. 

Sounds like they had a water hammer... 

PRELIMINARY NOTIFICATION

September 15, 2015

PRELIMINARY NOTIFICATION OF EVENT OR UNUSUAL OCCURRENCE - PNO-III-15-009

This preliminary notification constitutes EARLY notice of events of POSSIBLE safety or public interest significance. Some of the information may not yet be fully verified or evaluated and is basically all that is known by the Region III staff on this date.

 Fermi Power Plant (Fermi 2)
DTE Energy Company
Newport, MI

SUBJECT: UNPLANNED SHUTDOWN GREATER THAN 72 HOURS FOLLOWING THE LOSS OF COOLING WATER IN THE TURBINE BUILDING

 At 11:05 p.m. (EDT) on September 13, 2015, operators manually shut down (scrammed) Fermi 2 from 100 percent power after attempts to correct a malfunction of a nonsafety-related cooling water system in the turbine building were unsuccessful and the three pumps in the system shut down. The malfunction arose earlier that evening while operators were working on the cooling water system heat exchangers. 

All control rods inserted and all plant systems responded normally to the scram. The loss of the nonsafety-related cooling water system resulted in the loss of the station compressed air system, which affected valves that are operated by air. Operators took the appropriate actions for those affected valves.

The licensee is investigating the cause of the malfunction and will be repairing two valves that were identified as in need of repair. On September 14, the licensee successfully restarted the nonsafety-related cooling water system. The licensee stated that the reactor would be shutdown for at least 72 hours.

The NRC resident inspector was notified of the scram, promptly responded to the plant, and monitored activities throughout the early morning. The NRC is currently monitoring the troubleshooting, repair, and restart activities.