Plymouth nuclear plant receives lower performance
ratin
Pilgrim No. 1 in U.S. for shutdowns
PLYMOUTH – The news
has not been good this week for Entergy Corp., the owner-operator of the
Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. www
On Monday, the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission announced a performance rating drop for the Plymouth
plant due to shutdowns with complications, placing it among 22 in the country
requiring more oversight.
Two days later,
federal regulators sent Pilgrim officials written notice that the plant’s
standing will likely fall even further within the next couple months, placing
it among the nation’s eight worst performers.
And on Thursday, a
union representing Pilgrim plant workers, publicly condemned Entergy’s plan to
lay off eight employees next month, saying the company shouldn’t be cutting
staff at a time when the plant is rapidly dropping to the bottom of the
country’s list of 100 reactors.
The NRC’s Wednesday
letter to John Dent, Entergy’s site vice-president at Pilgrim, warned that the
plant was headed for a further downgrade at the close of the year’s fourth
quarter, based on the number of unplanned, forced shutdowns over the last
several months.
Pilgrim, in fact, led
the country in the number of shutdowns.
The letter fell just
short of stating Pilgrim’s upcoming drop to the bottom eight was a certainty,
and comments from the NRC’s spokesman Thursday were also just shy of a definite
confirmation.
“Until we finalize the
data, it’s not 100 percent,” Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil
Sheehan said. “But we wouldn’t have put it in the letter if we didn’t think it
was a good possibility it was going to occur.”
Entergy spokesman
James Sinclair said the company did not wish to add anything to the statement
it issued Monday. In the statement, Entergy said: “Operating Pilgrim at the
highest levels of safety and reliability is our highest priority and we have
conducted rigorous reviews of the plant shutdowns to identify needed
improvements.”
Meanwhile Daniel
Hurley, president of the Utility Workers Union of America Local 369, criticized
his employer when contacted shortly after the union issued a press release.
The Pilgrim employees
targeted for layoff are administrators, technicians and technical specialists.
“These employees write
the procedures for everything being done at the plant,” Hurley said. “The
facility is safe and reliable as long as it’s run by men and women trained to
do it – all of them.” “There are no non-critical workers in a nuclear power
plant,” the union president continued. “If anything, they should be hiring more
workers.”
U.S. Sen. Edward
Markey, D-Mass., joined the protest via a press release Thursday. “We know the
best team at Pilgrim is the team that is there now, and has been there for
years,” the senator said. “Entergy shouldn’t make cuts to that team, They
should keep everyone on the job so Pilgrim is safe and operating smoothly.”
Meanwhile Sinclair
defended the company’s decision. “The determination of positions that could be
eliminated was based on careful consideration not to impact plant safety,
security or reliability,” he said.
In light of this
week’s development’s at Pilgrim, Diane Turco, a Harwich resident and founder of
the anti-nuke group Cape Downwinders, repeated her group’s message that the
time has come to shutter the plant.
“Entergy is criminally
negligent for operating the Pilgrim Nuclear power reactor for profit over
public safety, as is the NRC for recognizing the dangers and just giving lip
service and labels to the real and serious threat to the population and
environment,” Turco said. “We already know there are lots of issues there. We
need to call on our legislators to shut Pilgrim down now.”
This is the first
installment of a two-part series about the future of Pilgrim Nuclear Power
Station, which was published on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013.
PLYMOUTH — From broken
water pumps, leaky valves and steaming pipes to elusive electrical problems,
it's been a tough year for Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.
Related Links
PILGRIM'S FUTURE
Sunday:
Part 1:Pilgrim No. 1
in U.S. for shutdowns
Mondayz:
* * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
2013 Pilgrim shutdowns
and glitches
Jan. 10-17: Both
recirculation pumps tripped, followed by a head drain valve leak
·
Jan. 20-24: Leaking
safety valve
·
Feb. 8-16: Winter
storm, 169 hours down
·
Aug. 22-26: All three
main water pumps shut down
·
Sept. 8-17: Steam pipe
leak
·
Oct. 14-21: Off-site
power to plant unavailable because of NStar problem, which caused initial
shutdown. Plant remained closed for two days after power restored because of
faulty mechanical pressure regulator, which caused water levels in the nuclear
reactor to become too high.
OTHER INCIDENTS
·
July 15: Loss of
control room alarms. Plant stayed online. Alarms came back on with no
explanation. Reason for malfunction never found.
·
July 16: Heat wave
warmed seawater temperatures, forcing the plant to power down to about 85
percent intermittently. Federal regulation required seawater, used for cooling
the reactor, to be no warmer than 75 degrees.
Source: NRC website
and Entergy press releases
Entergy, Pilgrim's
owner and operator, has poured $500 million into the 41-year-old plant since
buying it from Boston Edison in 1999, yet mechanical problems and off-site
power outages have forced the operation to shut down six times since January,
making it No. 1 among the U.S. fleet of 100 commercial nuclear reactors for
shutdowns this year.
Pilgrim has spent 79
days in shutdown since January, although company officials are quick to
attribute 46 of those to planned refueling last spring.
Even when Pilgrim has
been operating, the reactor has frequently been kept below peak level while
workers address mechanical glitches. Between Aug. 22 and Sept. 21, for
instance, the plant underwent two complete shutdowns and never reached peak
power.
During July, a heat
wave forced plant operators to frequently drop below peak levels because of the
rising temperature of sea water used to cool the reactor. Federal regulations
won't allow use of seawater above 75 degrees.
Bill Mohl, president
of Entergy Wholesale Commodities, agreed in a recent interview that Pilgrim has
had more than its share of problems.
"We've had our
challenges with that facility this year," Mohl said. "But we are very
focused on improving that operation."
The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, after a five-year review process, agreed to re-license the plant
for another 20 years just 16 months ago, despite considerable outcry from
anti-nuclear groups and local and state officials, including the governor and
attorney general.
"The issue is
that the NRC has never truly met a plant it didn't like," said Jeffrey
Berger, a former longtime chairman of the Plymouth Nuclear Matters Committee.
"Many people, including me, quite pointedly question whether the NRC is the
guard dog over the industry that it's supposed to be or simply the
lapdog."
Darrell Roberts,
director of NRC's Region I Division of Reactor Projects, in King of Prussia,
Pa., countered that his agency did "an exhaustive review" of Pilgrim
before granting Entergy a new license. "Pilgrim was the longest license
renewal process of any plant," Roberts said.
ENTERGY: PILGRIM IS FINE
The operation's
stuttering performance since its re-licensing, coupled with Entergy's recently
announced plan to shutter its Vermont Yankee nuclear plant for financial
reasons, has caused some to wonder about Pilgrim's future despite the decision
by federal regulators to license it until 2032.
The plant's frequent
unplanned shutdowns since January, with four of those related to mechanical
problems, will probably also affect its level of oversight, once the NRC
finishes its review of third quarter performance records, expected to wrap up
next month.
"Shutdowns like
that would get our attention," Roberts said.
More than three forced
shutdowns in 7,000 operating hours (there are 8,200 hours in a year) will lower
a plant's "performance indicators."
Pilgrim, now in a
category that requires only standard oversight, may end up joining 22 other
plants that must undergo more intense scrutiny.
Thomas Kauffman,
spokesman for Nuclear Energy Institute in Washington, an advocacy group for the
nuclear industry, argues that Pilgrim has a good operating record. The plant's
three-year average for being at full operating level is 91 percent, Kauffman said,
"several points higher than the U.S. nuclear fleet's national
average."
Not surprisingly,
Entergy officials also say Pilgrim is just fine, although a company spokeswoman
refused discuss plant financial specifics.
"Pilgrim is about
10 percent larger than Vermont Yankee," said Entergy spokeswoman Joyce
McMahon in an email. "In addition, Pilgrim is located in a region of the
electrical grid where there is a stronger and growing demand for electricity.
Those two factors provide Pilgrim with a significant economic advantage over
Vermont Yankee."
In its announcement of
Yankee's planned closure, set for the end of 2014, Entergy cited the low price
of natural gas, increasing cost of meeting federal standards, particularly for
smaller single reactors, and maintenance costs as reasons to shutter the
41-year-old plant.
Dave Lochbaum,
director of the Nuclear Safety Project for the Union of Concerned Scientists,
said Vermont Yankee has performed at 90 percent capacity over the last three
years, "a tad below Pilgrim."
"It's hard to
believe that such minor differences yield a red light for Vermont Yankee and a
green light for Pilgrim," Lochbaum said. "At best, it would seem a
yellow light for Pilgrim, cautioning about another premature retirement due to unfavorable
economics."
OPPONENT: 'A DANGEROUS PERIOD'
Pilgrim has stirred up
considerable public opposition over the years, particularly during the plant's
re-licensing process, as well as since then.
Residents of the Cape
are concerned about the plant's safety and the lack of an evacuation plan
should there be an accident. That latter problem has prompted items such as
T-shirts emblazoned with slogans like "No Escape from the Cape" and
"Cape Evacuation Plan: Swim East."
Fourteen Cape towns,
through town meeting or ballot votes, approved petitions last spring asking
Gov. Deval Patrick, as the state's top official, to call for Pilgrim's closure
because the safety of Cape residents can't be guaranteed.
Barnstable, the final
town to vote, will consider the petition on Nov. 5.
"We've been
concerned over public safety, but the decision has always been in Entergy's
court on whether they operate or not," said Diane Turco, a Harwich
resident and founder of the Cape Downwinders, the group that penned the
petitions. "It will probably close down over company profits, not public
health and safety."
Mary Lampert, a
Duxbury resident and founder of Pilgrim Watch, has called Pilgrim "an
antique."
"The plant was
built when leisure suits were in style," Lampert said. "I think we're
in a particularly dangerous period with an old reactor and no investment.
People are thinking, 'Should I live here?'"
There is also some
worry in the plant's host town. "Every time I get a shutdown notice, it
makes me more concerned about their operating system," Plymouth Town
Manager Melissa Arrighi said. "I think there's a townwide desire they
improve safety and security. Fukushima made us all sit back and say, 'Do we
have enough in place to protect our residents?'
FIVE REACTORS CLOSING
Peter Friedman, a
retired naval nuclear engineer and current chairman of the mechanical
engineering department at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, said
Pilgrim and other U.S. nuclear plants are strictly regulated and safely
operated.
"People should
realize that a statistical analysis of base-load power generators like coal,
natural gas and hydroelectricity, nuclear power is by far the safest, and that
includes accidents at Fukushima Dai-ichi, Three Mile Island and
Chernobyl," Friedman said.
None of glitches that
caused Pilgrim's shutdowns or power downs this year posed any risk to the
public, he said.
Nuclear plants in the
United States are staffed with personnel who are more highly trained than their
counterparts at Fukushima, according to Friedman.
Meanwhile, five
reactors are slated to close within the next year: Crystal River 3 in Florida,
Kewaunee in Wisconsin, Vermont Yankee in Vermont and two reactors at San Onofre
in California. Kewaunee and Yankee will close for financial reasons. San Onofre
and Crystal River are closing because of mechanical problems that proved too
expensive to repair.
All five are shutting
down before their licenses were set to expire.
Lochbaum said it's not
uncommon for plants to close before the expiration of their licenses. "To
date, about two dozen nuclear power reactors have been permanently closed in
the U.S.," Lochbaum said. "Only one (Big Rock Point) shut down at the
end of its operating license period. All the rest shut down unexpectedly ahead
of the license expiration date."
Entergy's Mohl
remained vague when asked recently whether any consideration was being given to
closing Pilgrim anytime soon.
While he said there
were no current plans to shutter the plant, Mohl added, "We're always
looking at holding and optimizing an asset, selling it or shutting it
down."
