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The reactor was operating at 100 percent power when the outdated relays were found, and it continues to operate while relays are changed.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.