Junk Plant Oyster Creek SRVs: The Collapse Of The Regulator.

Believe me, this plant is more poorly designed than any other plant in the USA. The NRC framed it inappropriately as a individual component issue of the ERVs for both events. It should be framed as a failure to maintain quality of the of the EVRs. It is two failures of the EVRs is a short period of time. The first being a yellow make believe violation, while the second being a rop violation.

(2017)NRC to Increase Oversight at Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will increase its oversight of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant following the finalization of an inspection finding involving deficient maintenance work on a safety-related relief valve. The finding was identified during a 2016 NRC inspection of Oyster Creek. The facility is owned and operated by Exelon, located in Lacey Township (Ocean County), N.J. The white safety finding indicates a low to moderate safety significance. The NRC uses a color-coded system to categorize inspection findings, with colors ranging from green, for very low safety or security significance, to white, yellow or red, for substantial safety or security significance. Findings determined to be greater than green result in additional NRC scrutiny. This finding involves a problem with one of the plant’s electromatic relief valves. EMRVs are used to depressurize the reactor during a pipe break. Oyster Creek has five of these valves. “These valves serve a key safety function and therefore it is important that they be available to help mitigate severe accidents at the plant,” said NRC Region I Administrator Dan Dorman. “We will conduct a supplemental inspection at Oyster Creek to ensure the underlying problems that led to this issue have been appropriately addressed.” Exelon was given an opportunity to request a regulatory conference to provide additional information to the NRC prior to a final agency decision, to submit a written response, or to accept the finding. The company chose to take part in a regulatory conference, which was held on March 9 in the NRC’s Region I Office. In terms of corrective actions, Exelon verified correct assembly of the valves following the most recent refueling and maintenance outage at the plant.

Old design problems means this violation wasn't in the ROP. It was like a warning ticket. If it was a full scale yellow finding with heavy NRC attention,  would the new violation have occurred?  

If it was a old design issue, this problem would have repeatedly showed up throughout the life of the oldest plant in the USA.

(2015)NRC Slaps Oyster Creek Plant With ‘Yellow’ Finding, Increases Oversight

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week upheld an enforcement action known as a “yellow” finding against the Oyster Creek nuclear generating station in Lacey Township following the investigation of release valves at the plant in 2014.

The “yellow” finding is the NRC’s second-highest enforcement action, and indicates “substantial safety significance,” NRC officials said in a statement released Monday. The plant was also given a “white” finding for a separate incident involving the plant’s emergency generators and a broken cooling fan.

The “yellow” finding involves design aspects of electromatic relief valves, or EMRVs, for the plant, which is owned by Exelon Corporation and scheduled to shut down in 2019. According to the NRC, during refurbishment work in June 2014 on two EMRVs removed from the plant in 2012, the company found an alignment problem with the valve’s actuator. When the valves were tested, they did not open. Once the issue was identified, Exelon immediately tested five of its then-installed EMRVs, officials said. All five actuated successfully. The company ultimately installed redesigned actuators for the valves during a refueling and maintenance outage at the plant in October 2014.

Even though the violation involving the EMRVs has been classified as “yellow,” the NRC has determined it represents an old design issue.

“That is, the issue stems from an inspection finding involving a past design-related problem and does not reflect a current performance deficiency associated with existing programs, policies or procedures used by the company,” the agency’s statement said.

As a result of the finding, the NRC will carry out a team inspection that will review Exelon’s root- cause evaluation and corrective actions for the issue...

The NRC threw the powerful Exelon a freebee with an old design issue. This is blatant corruption by the NRC and Exelon!!!! The was a "current" negligent maintenance issue in 2015 turned into a old design issue through the greasy NRC hands. Who ever heard of a such a thing in any other regulated industry...