Dead-Ender Junk Plant FitzPatrick: Radioactive Discharge to Inviroment

Update

I bet you on the outfall, where the roof drains into a site sewer system, then flows out to Lake Ontario, the Lake mud in the vicinity of the outfall  is radioactive. I would take a set of mud samples, bet you it would be radioactive.  

Fitz is a "incredibly well run facility". The NRC seems to got silent for some reason.

Entergy spokesperson Jerry Nappi said FitzPatrick employees proactively shut the reactor down Friday after discovering a power supply loss to one of its pumps. The incident was related to a malfunction of one of the plant's oil tanks that caused an estimated 20 to 30 gallons of non-radioactive lubrication oil to spill into Lake Ontario.
It's the latest in a string of mishaps at FitzPatrick and Entergy's other New York plant, Indian Point outside of New York City, but Nappi said both facilities are operating reliably. 

"FitzPatrick is an incredibly well run facility," Nappi said. "It operates very reliably. It's designed to shutdown automatically and operators are trained to shut it down if any of 100 things is not operating the exact way it should and that's what happened in this case."

****This below is my picture of VY in 2011. There is a plume of steam from their turbine lube oil vapor extractor vent line. The turbine building is the short, long green building behind the tall concrete reactor building. The vent pipe plume is on the right side of the turbine building on the roof.

This is a BWR. We had no steam generator in this design acting as a radioactivity to the secondary system. Steam is produced by the core, it flows up the steam line into the turbine. The turbine shaft seals keep this steam in the turbine, not in the people space. The turbine lube oil is a integral part of this system. The steam is pretty radioactive. The radioactivity levels varies significantly over the life of the plant. A fuel failure would significantly jack up the radioactivity in the steam.

Basically plant early 1970s licensing and technical specification gives permission with this being a non monitored release of radioactivity. A new plant wouldn't be allowed to have this. It is a flaw in the nuclear professionalism and the NRC continuing to allow this.

The philosophy in the 1970s, if a nuclear accident occurred at the plant, the main steam isolation valves would trip automatically on high steam radioactivity. I don't think they have this trip today. So the MSIVs would bottle up the reactivity in the core and stop the release out of this vent line. I could make the case one of the MSIVs and turbine stop might be leaking. There you would get a unfiltered release to the environment.

But this vent line spews out radioactivity day in and day out. I think it would have a significant effect on the total release of radiation reported to the public.

Bottom line, me yanking out this picture and the memo by Vanags is shocking to the NRC about Fitzpatrick. I am trying to draw attention with this to NY and NRC.  

Fitzpatrick has the same plume coming out of their plant. The Fitz turbine system is fundimentally the same model as VY and Pilgrim.  Like I said, turbine lube oil comes in direct contact with main steam.  The oil absorbs radioactivity. This oil went into Lake Ontario.












A nuclear professional outfit would consider the turbine lube oil a special system. It is potentially radioactivity at least. The would sample new oil on the site for background radiation as a reference. Then sample it say on a monthly or quarterly bases. 

I am going to make the NRC officials swallow their tongues on this one. I gets you to ask the right questions. Water in direct contact with fuel pins turns into steam and flows down the main steam lines into the turbine stop valves and turbine control valves. The high and low pressure turbines converts this steam into power though this steam. Lots of steam passes though the steam turbine. The radioactive steam makes the turbine stop and control extremely contaminated with radiation. During outages when overhauling the valves and turbine, this is a high radioactive contamination area. The got a a tape barrier all around the turbine area and with a step off pad. The people who work on these components have to wear heavy duty anti c clothing and sometimes respirators. The state should query Entergy about what kinds of radiation and radiation contamination levels are involved in a turbine overhaul. Don't even get me talking about radiation contamination levels in the condensate and feed steam system. The steam that contaminates the turbine and components is the same steam seen in the steam plume in my picture. Fitzs has the same LO vapor extractor plume as Vermont Yankee.  The steam coming out of the Fitz's lube oil vapor extractor vent pipe atop of their turbine building is the same steam that craps up the turbine valves and blades. So Fitz has the same steam plume as Vermont Yankee. The shaft seals wear out over time. The size of the steam plume is dependent on turbine shaft seal wear and vibration levels. Ask the NRC what barrier does Fitz have to prevent radiation discharge to the outside (coming from main down steam), as seen in heavy radiation contamination seen in the turbine overhaul. Does this same radiation escape out the vent line plume? This is the vent line where they leaked out the oil. I suspect they is a much more oil put on the roof than what was reported.

Basically Areva is bankrupt and has a lot a quality issues with reactor vessels and components. They are not a trustworthily contractor or vendor. Bet you VY told Areva these are the kind of radiation levels we want told in your independent investigation. They are French whores...

NY and the NRC have to take their own samples of the lube oil and measure radioactivity.

France Warns of Nuclear Industry Shake-Up After Areva Loss

PARIS — France's energy minister said on Monday that an overhaul of the country’s state-controlled nuclear energy industry was imminent, after one of the country’s main builders of nuclear power plants warned of a loss that could hamper its ability to continue operating independently.

The minister, Ségolène Royal, told reporters that France’s main nuclear power companies “should organize themselves to refocus on their core business, to forge alliances between major French enterprises and to win bids at the international level.”

You see how I finally got VY to admit their turbine lube extractor turbine building plume was radioactive in 2011. Basically VY was shutdown because the state no longer trusted anything the NRC and VY said. This memo helped Vermont see the light.   

VERMONT

State of Vermont

Department of Public Service [phone] 802-828-2811 112 State Street [fax] 802-828-2342 Drawer 2O [tty] 8οΟ-734-839ο

Montpelier, VT o562o-26o1 http://www.publicservice.vermont.gov

October 25, 2011

To: VSNAP members Cc: Bernard Buteau, Vermont Yankee State Liaison Engineer

From: Uldis Vanags, DPS Nuclear Engineer

Subject: VY Turbine Oil Vapor Extractor Vent

At the last VSNAP meeting (October 19, 2011), during the public comment period, Mr. Mike Mulligan provided information on a petition (Attachment 1) he submitted to the NRC on August 26, 2011 where he expressed a concern that the Turbine Oil Vapor Extractor Vent was an unmonitored radiological release path and not accounted for in the Vermont Yankee (VY) effluent release report or the environmental radiation report. Mr. Mulligan filed this concern to the NRC per 10 CFR 2.206 and the NRC has not completed its determination to date.

Mr. Mulligan inquired to me (on October 17, 2011) whether the visible vapor from the Turbine Oil Vapor Extractor Vent had any radioactivity associated with it. I posed this question to Vermont Yankee and learned that Vermont Yankee reviewed Mr. Mulligan's petition to the NRC and the question of whether the Turbine Oil Vapor Extractor Vent was an unmonitored radiological release path. Vermont Yankee found that there wasn’t adequate information to answer this question, so VY generated a Condition Report (CR-VTY-2011-03628) on September 12, 2011 which creates a process for investigation and corrective actions. The investigation into this matter so far has determined that based on a 2006 Engineering Review of plant systems, it is likely that the Turbine Oil Vapor Extractor Vent contains tritium, a radionuclide. However, evaluation of the vapor from the vent is need prior to determining whether this is a release pathway that would require reporting. Thus the actions to be taken are:

1) Develop and proceduralize a method for testing the Turbine Oil Vapor Extractor Vent for radionuclide content. Due by November 28, 2011.

2) Perform a sampling of the Vent for radionuclides, including tritium. Due by December 10, 2011.

3) Using the results of the vent radionuclide analysis, conduct a dose analysis to determine

the radiological significance. Due on February 27, 2012.

4) If the dose analysis requires reportability update the Vermont Yankee Off-Site Dose

Calculation Manual (ODCM). If an ODCM revision is not necessary document the justification. Due on March 13, 2012.