Indian Point Pressurizer Safety Valve: a 66% Failure Rate

 Safety Valves In Our Nuclear Power Plants Going Wild

 

These are the guys with all the scrams and shutdowns. 

Condition Due to Two Pressurizer Code Safety Valves Discovered Outside Their As-Found Lift Setpoint Test Acceptance Criteria"Indian Point Unit No. 3 Docket No. 50-286 DPR-64

On July 1, 2015, Engineering was notified by Wyle Laboratories that two of three Pressurizer {AB} Code Safety Valves (RC-PCV-464 and RC-PCV-468) {RV} removed during the spring 2015 refueling outage (RO) failed their As-Found lift set point test acceptance criteria (2411 - 2559 psig) . The As-Found set pressure testing acceptance criterion for operability is 2485 +/-3%. The SVs were .removed during the last refueling outage (RO) in the spring of 2015 and sent offsite for testing. Testing was performed within one year of removal as required by the Inservice Testing Program. Testing found SV RCPCV- 464 as-found lift pressure was 2573 (0.5% above the allowable As-Found *upper limit of 2559 psig), and SV RC-PCV-468 as-found lift pressure was 2379 psig (1.2% below allowable AS-Found lower limit of 2411 psig), which is outside their set pressure range acceptance criterion. The remaining SV lift tested satisfactorily. All three SVs were found with zero seat leakage. During the RO all three SVs were removed and replaced with certified pre-tested spare SVs. The SVs installed during the RO were As-Left tested to 2485 +/-1% with zero seat leakage in accordance with procedure 3-PT-R5A. Technical Specification (TS) 3.4.10 (Pressurizer Safety Valves), requires three pressurizer safety valves to be operable with lift settings set at greater than 2460 psig and less than 2510 psig. TS Surveillance Requirement (SR) 3.4.10.1 requires each PSV to be verified operable in accordance with the Inservice Testing Program. The condition was recorded in the Indian Point Energy Center (IPEC) Corrective Action Program (CAP) in Condition Report CR-IP3-2015-03710 and CR-1P3-2015-03708.

The pressurizer safety valves (SVs) are totally enclosed pop type, spring loaded, selfactuating 6 inch by 6 inch valves manufactured by Crosby Valve Company {C711}, Model HB-BP-86 Type E. The SVs are designed to prevent the system pressure from exceeding the system Safety Limit (SL) of 2735 psig, which is 110% of the design pressure.

The Cause of Event

The exact cause of failure of valves RC-PCV-464 and RC-PCV-468 is not known at this time. The most probable cause of By RC-PCV-464 lifting greater than 3% of its nominal setpoint was setpoint drift. The most probable cause of RC-PCV-468 lifting within less than 3% of its nominal setpoint was spring relaxation. The two valves that failed As-Found testing criteria (valve RC-PCV-464 and RC-PCV-468) will be disassembled and inspected to determine the cause of the failure.

They can't see the degradation at power. If they seen it, they would quickly have to shutdown per tech specs. No rush worrying about about if it is spring. Remember in Pilgrim, they damage the spring on the test stand. 

I think it is a plant design defect. If there were four safety valves, then they never would have crossed a tech spec shutdown. I guess only some required tech spec conservative shutdowns are applicable.   

TS 3.4.10 Condition B (Required action and associated completion time not met or Two or more pressurizer safety valves inoperable) required action B.l is be in Mode 3 in 6 hours and B.2 be in Mode 4 within 12 hours. This TS action was not performed and the actions of Condition B not implemented, the condition is a TB prohibited condition. In the UFSAR Chapter 14 analysis, the opening setpoint of the three PSRVs is assumed to be at +/-4% of the nominal 2485 psig value for applicable Chapter 14 transients…

Professional Reactor Operator Society

Nucpros by Robert Meyer...man he is a old work horse.

Why did his internet site go black?


It is like they run their plants?

Frank Maciuska

September 9 at 9:19am

Is anyone else having a problem getting to "nucpros.com"?

1Like · Comment · Share

Comments

• 

  Professional Reactor Operator Society The website has been having some issues lately! I'll follow up with our office manager and see if there's a projected fix date

 

UCS: Fort Calhoun and River Bend

The way we should should look at these thing; what if we had a hundred 2011 Fort Calhouns running like this in the USA? What if we had a 100 River Bends cira 2014? Fort Calhoun and River Bend are in the same region IV. It is very trouble region. The nrc have a unique solution for this, they slough off work through plants like San Onophe through permanent shutdown. The NRC let San Onophe run to ground allowing them to run like Fort Calhoun for decades. Very quickly we'd come up with a meltdown, partial meltdown or industry ending scandal.  

I contend with 10 to 20 bad actor plants like River Bend and  Fort Calhoun running at the same time, the NRC gets over burdened and become effectively blinded...  

Hence, with San Onophe, Fort Calhoun, River Bend, Waterford and the rest...region IV was over overburdened and they missed a lot...

The Saturday Night Live Approach to Nuclear Safety: More Cowbell!

Dave Lochbaum, director, Nuclear Safety Project

September 15, 2015

  

Fission Stories #197

The April 8, 2000, Saturday Night Live broadcast featured a skit with cast members pretending to be the rock group Blue Oyster Cult in the recording studio with a famous music producer, played by actor Christopher Walken. The skit is remembered for Walken’s character stating “I gotta have more cowbell.”

The NRC’s Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) needs more cowbell, too.

The Fort Calhoun nuclear plant shut down in April 2011 for a refueling outage. The outage was planned to last a handful of weeks while workers replaced spent fuel assemblies with new assemblies and performed routine maintenance and testing activities. The plan went awry when the ROP identified safety problems that needed to be corrected before the reactor could be restarted.

The operators restarted Fort Calhoun in December 2013 after a short refueling outage morphed into a 32-month safety restoration outage. On March 30, 2015, the NRC announced that it was returning Fort Calhoun to normal handling under the ROP. The NRC also reported expending over 60,000 hours since December 2011 on inspection, assessment and licensing tasks at Fort Calhoun.

60,000 hours is a number without context. To help put this value in context, the NRC reported having expended 6,652 hours, 6,612 hours, and 6,782 hours of total oversight effort at the average nuclear plant in 2011, 2012, and 2013, respectively. So the average nuclear plant received an average of 6,682 hours of oversight from the NRC annually.

Between 2012 and 2014, Fort Calhoun received an average of 18,462 hours of oversight effort each year from the NRC.

Thus, Fort Calhoun received the equivalent of 2.76 nuclear plants’ worth of regulatory oversight attention from the NRC between 2012 and 2014.

Too Little Much, Too Late

Figure 1 shows where the NRC placed Fort Calhoun within the ROP’s Action Matrix each quarter from the inception in the fourth quarter of 2000 until late 2014. 

Fig. 1 (click to enlarge) (Source: UCS)

When performance fell within expected ranges, Fort Calhoun went into Column 1. When performance levels dropped, Fort Calhoun moved into Column 2, Column 3, Column 4, and Column 5 (Column 5 marking when the NRC placed Fort Calhoun under its Manual Chapter 0350 process for especially troubled reactors.)

On two occasions (3^rd quarter 2007 and 2^nd quarter 2008), the NRC returned Fort Calhoun to Column 2 from Column 3 after determining that safety performance had improved sufficiently.  In the 3^rd quarter 2008, the NRC returned Fort Calhoun to Column 1 and routine oversight activities.

What’s wrong with this picture?

As UCS documented in  No More Fukushimas; No More Fort Calhouns fact sheet, many of the safety problems had existed at the Fort Calhoun plant since 1996. Several dated back to the original construction of the plant in the late1960s and early 1970s. In other words, both the NRC’s baseline inspections (those applied to Fort Calhoun when it resided in Column 1) and its supplemental inspections (those applied when the plant was in Columns 2 and 3) failed to detect ALL of these safety problems.

The problems that kept Fort Calhoun shut down for 32 months were not introduced in 2009 and 2010 after the NRC returned Fort Calhoun to Column 1—they existed all along. Yet the NRC’s ROP missed them all. The ROP missed every single one of them, until after the first quarter of 2011. After that time, finding safety problems was like shooting fish in a barrel—NRC inspectors could hardly turn around without finding yet another safety problem that had to be fixed prior to restart.

So how could more cowbell improve nuclear plant safety?

Rather than expending so much time and effort ensuring that the barn door has been closed, safety would be better served by noticing that it’s open sooner. Cowbells should have sounded long before the first quarter of 2011.

UCS’s fact sheet documented many safety problems that existed at Fort Calhoun for years before the ROP’s inception in 2000. Two of the safety problems involved the emergency diesel generators (EDGs).

EDGs are among the most safety significant components at the plant. Consequently, they receive considerable oversight attention by the NRC. Yet that attention failed to identify either of these two problems that had existed since at least 1990.

And it was not just one miss or even two misses by one NRC inspector—it was a lot of misses by a lot of NRC inspectors over a lot of years. A search of ADAMS, the NRC’s online digital library, identified 39 inspections conducted at Fort Calhoun by the NRC between 2000 and 2010 inclusive that included some oversight of the EDGs.

Something is fundamentally wrong with safety inspections of highly safety significant components that fail to notice safety problems. Finding safety problems isn’t one of the reasons for conducting the safety inspections—it’s the only reason for doing them.

And yet many safety problems remained undetected until 2011 when it took an army of workers more than two years to correct them all.

Our Takeaway

Fort Calhoun is not an isolated case. It marked the 52^nd time that a U.S. reactor had to remain shut down longer than a year while safety problems were corrected. The majority of these year-plus outages involved a myriad of safety problems that had existed for months and sometimes years before being noticed.

Consider how safe Fort Calhoun really was on April 10, 2011, or during the preceding years when it operated despite a large and growing number of undetected, uncorrected safety problems. The NRC placed Fort Calhoun in Columns 1, 2, and 3 of the ROP’s Action Matrix. In reality, the presence of the same safety problems that put Fort Calhoun into Column 5 in the third quarter of 2011 should have had it there in the fourth quarter of 2000. The safety problems were there in 2000—it took the NRC another decade to notice them.

Fig. 2 (Source: UCS)

Safety and economics both scream out for the NRC to prevent the 53^rd time. As more and more pre-existing safety problems accumulate at an operating reactor, the path shortens for an initiating event to lead to nuclear disaster. Put another way, defense-in-depth works better when there are fewer and smaller holes in each protective barrier.

Likewise, finding and fixing problems sooner results in better financial performance. UCS estimated the cost of the 51 year-plus reactor outages before Fort Calhoun to be over $80 billion.

The NRC should construct timelines for each major safety problem corrected during the 2011-2013 outage at Fort Calhoun. The timelines should indicate when the safety problems were introduced and the subsequent NRC inspections that examined the associated system or component. Because the safety problems existed for long durations, many NRC inspection procedures will correlate to each safety problem. The NRC should then evaluate changes to the inspection procedures that increase the likelihood of detecting similar problems in the future. The NRC does not inspect everything; instead, the NRC audits samples. Conducting a Fort Calhoun retrospective would allow the NRC to adjust the number of items selected for each sample or revise the choice of items within the samples or change how it evaluates sample items so as to become more capable at finding safety problems.

The safety problems at Fort Calhoun were not invisible—they were easily found after the 1^st quarter of 2011. The NRC must figure out how to make them visible sooner. The NRC must detect safety problems sooner and ring cowbells as the barn doors are opening. 

More cowbell = better nuclear safety.

“Fission Stories” is a weekly feature by Dave Lochbaum. For more information on nuclear power safety, see the nuclear safety section of UCS’s website and our interactive map, the Nuclear Power Information Tracker.

Hey Palisades, Haven't Heard From You For A Long Time

AUTOMATIC REACTOR TRIP DUE TO TURBINE TRIP

"At 0117 [EDT] on 9/16/2015 a reactor trip occurred (4-hr non-emergency). The plant was at approximately 85% power performing a coastdown in preparation for a refueling outage when a Digital Electro-Hydraulic (DEH) alarm was received in the control room. Shortly following receipt of the alarm the turbine tripped. This resulted in an RPS actuation and a reactor trip on Loss of Load. The crew entered EOP-1 Standard Post Trip Actions and completed all required actions. The crew subsequently entered EOP-2 Reactor Trip Recovery.

"All full-length control rods inserted fully. Auxiliary Feedwater System actuated in response to low steam generator water levels (8-hr non-emergency). Steam generator water levels are in progress of being returned to normal operating levels. No known primary to secondary leakage. Atmospheric Steam Dump Valves lifted after the trip and subsequently reseated.

"The plant is currently stable in Mode 3 at NOP/NOT being maintained by the Turbine Bypass Valve.

"Initial investigation into the cause of the turbine trip appears to be from a DEH power supply failure.

"The NRC Resident Inspector was notified of the reactor trip at 0139 on 9/16/2015."

More Than Bad Seals At Indian Point Three

 "out of an abundance of caution,”

If this was true, why didn't they shutdown the very minute they confirmed inner seal leakage?

They probably stalled to get thru summer peak, and have new seals made up, and get W contractor to install them.

And the irony, and the prep and disassemble, and how long will it really take to take out the old seals and install the new one, 1 - 4 hrs.

Penny wise and pound foolish.

Watching the parade of scrams and shutdowns walk pass us from the Indian Point Facility.

It is highly abnormal to have reactor head seal problem...it worst than that when they both go.

Outage planned for Indian Point reactor after water leaks

By Colleen Wilson

September 15, 2015 No Comment

Indian Point Energy Center operators planned a shutdown of the Unit 3 nuclear reactor beginning Sept. 14 to replace lid seals that have been leaking for weeks.

The leakage occured between the inner and outer seals separating the lid and vessel of the reactor. The replacement is “out of an abundance of caution,” according to a statement from Entergy Corp., owners of the Buchanan-based power plant.

Jerry Nappi, a spokesman for Entergy, said the inner seal was observed to be leaking shortly after the unit’s planned refueling outage in March and the outer seal began leaking in July.

Operators responded by setting up a water collection line and a tank, Nappi said, adding plant workers “were able to closely track [the leak] and monitor it continuously from the control room.”

The water leak did not pose any threat to the health and safety of workers or the public and there was no radiation released, according to Entergy.

The work to replace the seals requires help from a specialty vendor and Entergy had to coordinate schedules to plan the outage. Nappi said the work is expected to take two weeks.

Amazing bad number!!! It's money.

This is the sixth time the Unit 3 reactor has shut down this year and, of those six, the second time the reactor went offline for planned maintenance. The four other times Unit 3 went offline were unexpected automatic or manual shutdowns for a pipe leak, transformer failure, electrical disturbance and fluctuating water levels.

Beating the hell out of the plant and safety systems...abusing them.

Recent series of Indian Point shutdowns worst in years Ernie Garcia, elgarcia@lohud.com12:08 p.m. EDT August 4, 2015

Besides a transformer failure that spilled oil into the Hudson River, this year's shutdowns were due to a steam leak, a pump motor failure and switch yard breaker failure

BUCHANAN — Four unplanned reactor shutdowns over a two-month period at Indian Point are the most setbacks the nuclear power plant has experienced in years.

A review of unplanned shutdowns from January 2012 to the present showed this year's events happened within a short time frame, between May 7 and July 8, in contrast with events from other years that were more spread out, according to data released by Indian Point.

So many mishaps at the Entergy-owned plant haven't occurred since 2009, when one of two units at the Buchanan site experienced a similar series, said plant spokesman Jerry Nappi.

Besides a May 9 transformer failure that spilled some 3,000 gallons of oil into the Hudson River, this year's shutdowns were prompted by a May 7 steam leak, a July 8 pump motor failure and a June 15 switch yard breaker failure offsite in a Consolidated Edison substation.

If a nuclear plant has more than three unplanned shutdowns in a nine-month period, its performance indicator could be changed by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which results in additional oversight. That's what happened with Entergy's Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass., after four unplanned shutdowns in 2013.

So far, Entergy said there doesn't appear to be a pattern to the Indian Point shutdowns.

"You do want to look at these events holistically to see if there is something in common, but you also look individually to see what the causes were," Nappi said. "A plant shutdown in and of itself is not a safety issue."

One of the four recent Buchanan shutdowns triggered a special inspection by the NRC and calls to close the nuclear plant by environmental groups and elected officials. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said in the past Indian Point should close, but his office did not respond to a request for comment about whether the recent shutdowns have prompted any state scrutiny.

The NRC is expected to release a quarterly report on Indian…

NEISO Grid Electric Price

$0.02 megawatt-hour @ 9:45 pm

President Burnie Sanders and Nuclear Power.

When is the media going to ask Burnie Sanders about his Vermont Yankee adventures? The leaking radioactive pipes and VY’s loss of credibility was one of the largest media stories in Vermont in decades. Burnie was heavy involved in shutting down Vermont Yankee and the nukes hate him. He was always at the local NRC meetings and the large scale demonstrations.

 

What would a Sanders president mean for the nuclear industry?

I'll bet you to the one, except Gov Shumlin, most politicians hate the nuclear issue coopting their wider campaign issues. Gov Shumlin used the anti VY issue to his advantage and that is how he got to served three terms as governor.

MY blog: “Pilgrim Nuclear Plant Following Exactly the Vermont Yankee Model?”

Just do a google search on Vermont Yankee and Burnie Sanders?

No doubt where he stands on nuclear power?

Bernie Sanders Urges Obama to Declare a Nuclear Moratorium

In the aftermath of the nuclear disaster in Japan, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders urged the White House to form a presidential commission on nuclear safety in the United States as part of a five-point crisis response.

In a letter to President Barack Obama, Sanders (I-Vt.) also asked for a moratorium on license renewals by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He said the White House should withdraw a request for $36 billion to bankroll building new nuclear plants. He questioned why taxpayers - not nuclear plant owners - are on the hook for damages in the event of a meltdown or other accident at a private power plant. And he said states should get more say on plant safety.

Sanders serves on the Senate committee that oversees the NRC, the federal agency that regulates commercial nuclear reactors in this country….

Statement: Sanders on Vermont Yankee

Thursday, January 14, 2010

BURLINGTON, January 14 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today issued the following statement in response to reports that Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant officials provided misleading information to state lawmakers about the risk of radioactive leaks from underground piping at the plant.

“It is alarming to me that officials from Vermont Yankee now admit that they misled state legislators about the risk of radioactive leaks from the plant, and that we now know that there are elevated levels of radioactive materials leaking at the plant site.

“This is a very serious situation. I will ask the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct a full investigation, and to take appropriate action.”

Friday, January 15, 2010

Vermont Congressional Delegation Requests NRC Investigation Into Radioactive Leak Risks At Vermont Yankee

WASHINGTON, January 15 - Vermont's Congressional Delegation - Sen. Patrick Leahy (D), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I), and Rep. Peter Welch (D) - Friday asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct a thorough investigation into whether there was any attempt by Vermont Yankee officials to mislead state officials regarding the plant's safety and underground piping.  Press reports have suggested that officials from Entergy, which owns the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, may have provided inaccurate information to investigators about the risk of leaks at the facility.  The text of the delegation's letter to Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory B. Jaczko is below: 

January 15, 2010

The Honorable Gregory B. Jaczko
Chairman
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001

Dear Chairman Jaczko:

We are writing in response to the alarming news that Entergy, owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, may have misled state officials regarding the safety of the plant.

Elevated levels of radioactive tritium have recently been found in a groundwater monitoring well on the plant site and we understand from recent news reports that Entergy has confirmed that underground piping is among the possible sources of the contamination.  According to various reports in the media, this comes after Entergy Vermont Yankee officials had told state investigators, on a number of occasions, that there was no underground piping carrying water that could contain radioactivity.   This leak highlights our ongoing concerns about Entergy Vermont Yankee's commitment to safety and to being forthright with the public and state and federal regulatory and safety agencies.

We therefore request that you undertake an immediate and thorough investigation to determine if there was an attempt by Entergy Vermont Yankee to mislead state officials regarding the plant's safety and underground piping.  Please also determine whether information provided by Entergy to the NRC has been accurate, complete, and consistent with that provided to the State of Vermont.  We hope you can pinpoint exactly what Entergy knew about the extent of their underground piping and this leak, and when they knew it.  We would also like to know whether and why state regulatory agencies were not made aware of the extent of underground piping and the risk it posed prior to this incident, and whether communications to the NRC have been complete and timely.  Finally, we would like the NRC to continue to work with the plant to determine the cause of the leak and resolve the situation as quickly as possible to avoid any further release of radioactive materials.

Please continue to keep us thoroughly informed as more information becomes available.  We are committed to assisting Vermont and the NRC to ensure that the Entergy Vermont Yankee plant meets its safety obligations.  We appreciate your timely attention to this issue. 

Sincerely,

Entergy Maliciously Contesting minor NRC Violations at ANO

Look at how much time is being eaten up over this non cited violation of the Fuel Oil piping by the mindlessly complex codes and regulation?  This is how bureaucratic war looks like to Entergy and the NRC. The interpretation of rules and codes as ruthless weapons? You see the excessive rules favors Entergy.

Entergy is sending the message to the NRC, you better be hyper vigilant on the rules and codes future violations...the bureaucracy that nobody can understand. So Entergy is trying to consume limited NRC resources on a non cited violation...the NRC is going to be excessively careful in the future concerning small violations. They are going to have to triple vitrify all the rules and codes. They are going to be buried in the excessive complex bureaucratic rules while not seeing the big violations.

They is how a war looks like between a shameless licensee and a neutered NRC...

0CAN091501

September 3, 2015

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

ATTN: Document Control Desk

11555 Rockville Pike

Rockville, MD 20852

SUBJECT: Response to Non-cited Violation in NRC Integrated Inspection

Report 05000313/2015002 and 05000368/2015002

Arkansas Nuclear One – Units 1 and 2

Docket Nos. 50-313 and 50-368

License Nos. DPR-51 and NPF-6

REFERENCE: NRC letter to Entergy, Arkansas Nuclear One – NRC Inspection Report 05000313/2015002 and 05000368/2015002, dated August 5, 2015

(0CNA081501) (ML15218A371)

 

Reference 1 provided the results of the Arkansas Nuclear One (ANO) integrated inspection for the second quarter of 2015. Per 10 CFR 50.4 and in accordance with the guidance in the

Enforcement Policy, Entergy Operations Inc. (Entergy) hereby contests one of the non-cited violations (NCVs) identified in the report.

A green NCV of 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix B, Criterion XI, “Test Control,” was identified in the report for failure to establish and maintain an adequate testing program for the fuel oil transfer piping for ANO, Units 1 (ANO-1) and 2 (ANO-2). Specifically, the licensee did not establish inservice inspection (ISI) requirements to detect degradation of the fuel oil piping, above ground and buried, between the fuel oil storage tanks and the emergency diesel generator (EDG) day tanks.

ANO-2 Conclusion

The ANO-2 ASME Section XI Inservice Inspection (ISI) program correctly excludes the diesel fuel oil piping based on the requirements of 10 CFR 50.55a and the ANO-2 licensing basis. There are no requirements of ASME Section XI or 10 CFR 50.55a that require plants that received a construction permit after January 1, 1971, to include piping in the Section XI boundaries not required by regulation or the licensing basis to be designed and constructed to ASME Section III, Class 1, 2, or 3 requirements. For ANO-2 Entergy’s implementation of Safety

Guide 26 (RG 1.26) and the classification of the fuel oil piping as ANSI B31.1 were described in the licensing basis and accepted by the NRC. Also, the position taken by the NRC in the subject NCV appears inconsistent with the regulatory guidance provided in NUREG 1482, Revision 2.

Truth

I just don't think Rather is as innocent as portrayed. They were all competing for big bucks, ratings and prestige by the choice of the stories they portrayed. They all were serving themselves more than the greater good.

When he had the world stage, Rather didn't spend much time explaining the corporatization of the news business because it placed his world at risk.

What about the print news, what does the massive financial hollowing out of the newspaper business mean for the have-nots seeing the real world. Could Rather image the negative transformation of the newspaper industry since 2004?

And people are still dying by the millions through tobacco?

Humm, Rather as a whistleblower. Did he ever cover the whistleblower issue adequately in his TV career? There is still a open corporatized war on whistleblowers and the bad guys are winning more today than 2004.

***Actually in the big picture, it's the corporatizing of all souls and spirits in the USA...it is the corporatizing and cheapening of everyone's reality worldwide. You know the media people think everything is only about them...reality and existence was invented as a toy for them to play with.   

TIFF: Dan Rather Chokes Up at 'Truth'Premiere, Praises Film for Accuracy

"A film called 'Truth' should be accurate," the iconic CBS news anchor said of director James Vanderbilt’s movie about his 2006 exit and the events leading to it.

Iconic CBS news anchor Dan Rather on Saturday praised the Robert Redford-starring Rathergate movie Truth for its accuracy and performances ahead of its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

"Naturally I was pleased, and pleasantly surprised. This film is very accurate. A film called Truth should be accurate," Rather told the Hollywood Reporter during a pre-screening party. James Vanderbilt's movie centers on Rather's 2006 exit from CBS after a 60 Minutes investigation two years earlier into U.S. President George W. Bush’s alleged draft-dodging during the Vietnam war.

Rather praised the performances of Redford as the famed CBS newsman and Cate Blanchett as his CBS 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes. "The acting is superior. I think it's an emotional film. Of course people will say I found it emotional because it's about me. But I say that as objectively as I can," he said. 

The movie, which played to a standing ovation at the Winter Garden Theater, paints a highly sympathetic picture of Rather's role in the scandal that cost him his job at CBS. After the screening, Rather appeared on stage with director Vanderbilt and actors Elizabeth Moss and Topher Grace (Redford did not attend). 

Rather choked up when asked by an audience member if he would have done anything differently in his career. "Journalism is not an exact science," he said, adding that there were "plenty of things I would do over."

Since his exit from CBS, Rather said he had "spent a lot of time practicing humility ... and tremendous gratitude." In the film, Rather and producer Mapes are depicted as crusading journalists whose story is attacked by critics with a political agenda. CBS News chief Andy Heyward is depicted particularly negatively.

The clear suggestion in the movie is that Rather and Mapes were fired to appease the Bush White House and to protect the CBS financial bottom line. Before the screening, Rather looked beyond his exit from CBS to stress Truth was less about him, Mapes and President Bush and more about the broader corporatization of the news business.

"In recent years, lobbyists, very large corporate executives and political operatives have begun to influence the news people get far more than people realize. In my years in journalism, this is the biggest development -- the corporatization, the politicization and the Hollywoodization of news," he said.

Director Vanderbilt said he didn't know much about CBS' Dan Rather scandal in 2004 before he boarded the project, and now welcomed giving ordinary people a revealing window into how they receive their news, or don't. "I was really excited to make a movie where you learn how the sausage is made," he said.

Vanderbilt also pointed to the deep relationship between Rather and Mapes at CBS as a story-driver for Truth. "I was surprised to see how much they respected each other and cared for each other, and that's where I was able to hook into what I wanted the movie to be about," he explained.

Of course, the 2004 media firestorm over the 60 Minutes report into President Bush during Vietnam cost the legendary newsman and his producer dearly. Some of the documents on which the report by Rather and Mapes was based were suspected of being forgeries.

After their report on Bush aired, it became the subject of harsh criticism, and an internal investigation was launched. Rather's reputation was seriously damaged and Mapes, an award-winning journalist, was forced to resign.

Truth is based on Mapes' book about the incident, Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power. Elisabeth Moss, Dennis Quaid and Topher Grace co-star. Truth producer Brad Fischer told The Hollywood Reporter that, aside from the 2004 controversy, his movie is likely to spur a conversation about today's news business having long departed from a former role of providing a public service for its use of the airwaves.

"Over the years, people suddenly realized that corporations that own and control the news can really make a profit, and things started to change," he argued. "Around 2004, when this happened, it was a tipping point, and now we're seeing an escalation of that today," Fischer added.

Rather, who saw his lawsuit against CBS Corp. thrown out in 2009, said he's made peace with the events of a decade ago around his newsmagazine report on President Bush's military record. Instead, Rather said Truth will help answer the public's growing interest in, and fears over the trivialization of media news, and how it happened.

"This is the best film I've seen on the big screen that takes you inside the craft of journalism, and demonstrates how it works, as opposed to how people feel journalism works," he said. Rather also remains unrepentant about his original 60 Minutes report into President Bush, and the controversial scandal it left himself and Mapes embroiled in. 

"We reported a true story. And there has never been any doubt the story was true," he said. Rather instead criticizes CBS News' corporate bosses for caving into White House pressure.

"The combination of political operatives, lobbyists working in concert with the White House and powerful political groups overwhelmed the truth," he argued. "Because it was true, those who wanted to attack it had to find the weakest point, and they attacked the (newsmaking) process," Rather added.

Vanderbilt, the screenwriter behind The Amazing Spider-Man and White House Down, is making his directorial debut with Truth, which Mythology Entertainment is producing. Fischer, William Sherak, Vanderbilt and Mikkel Bondesen are producing alongside Brett Ratner, Doug Mankoff and Andy Spaulding.

RatPac's James Packer is executive-producing alongside Steven Silver and Neil Tabatznik of Blue Lake, the financing arm of Echo Lake. Sony Pictures Classic is releasing Truth domestically.

Matthew Belloni contributed to this report.

Updated Sept. 12, 8:10 p.m. Details of the world premiere of Truth have been added, with post-screening Q&A comments by Dan Rather.

Best Book I Ever Read: "THE EARNEST SEARCHER"

(9/13 fixed or added a little)

True Story!

Looking back at my experience with Keven(author) …It was exactly like I was in his universe and beyond. Was he god or one of his angels on earth playing as a regular person? Was god really scoping me out on earth, did he really care about me or the rest of us? Will I be talking to Kevin up in heaven in processing? “See Mike, when we worked in Walmart, didn’t I tell how it was going to go.” “You didn’t believe me”. Why wouldn't god or his angels be working in the Hinsdale NH Walmart?  

"THE EARNEST SEARCHER"

By Keven Jan Schnorbus

This book continues to open my heart and brand my thoughts, every time I read it. Read as a novel or used as a tool to deepen one's understanding of the gift of life, this is not an experience for the faint of heart. For the anthropologist and historian, it supersedes cultural differences while forging paths through the deep history of our human race. With hidden, as well as apparent, historical references, the reader is found engrossed in an original intertwining of the past and future. For the theologian, it is a look at what it means to seek and love God with new, thought provoking theories. The characters are lively, tangible and speak the language of any possible background. Philosophically entrancing and theologically challenging, this book speaks about the true origin of our universe...Love 

Kevin and I first met in the employee administration room in the old Walmart building- Hinsdale, NH. It was both our first day as an employee. We were filling out our paperwork and doing training on the Walmart computer training screen. We were both in our mid-fifties age. I felt like I was entering the worst job in America. We introduced ourselves…we discovered we were both heading to the worst and lowest job at Walmart. This was the lowest rung of the jobs ladder in America. There was no jobs rung below this, just infinite homelessness in tents and dissolution below this final irrevocable rung. Well, Keven thought it was the universes perfection with his big smile and happy face.

We were becoming Walmart truck trailer unloaders. One of his first comments was to me, “Mike, nobody ever escapes from Walmart”. He had a huge smile on. “Once Walmart got you in their clutches they never let you go.” “You at the bottom of the barrel, there is no job below this.” He was a little cocky and forward in this comment with just meeting him. I thought he was here because he had a mental illness. We were in the employee back office and a Walmart manager was in there? She smiling approved his comment. It felt like I was entering the 1960s TV show the Twilight Zone.  

We became great friends and enemies at times. I got fired there five times. I am really proud of this, I got fired for stealing time at Walmart. Basically in the casher's line purchasing lunch food “while on the clock”. They made me watch a recording of a security video with me actually stealing the time. Of course date and time stamped down to the second. I kept calling Arkansas and making complaints, writing seventeen pages of concerns and complaints to the big dogs there. They kept calling Hinsdale saying rehire him. I called OSHA and they wrote a letter to Walmart? They all knew it was me. Keven as you know, it was really hard work, but I did escape.

I knew Kevin was really really smart guy and mature…he had a gravitas beyond his years. I kept wondering why the hell is he working in Walmart? I kept wondering how many people did he murder or how many banks did he rob? He must have just got out of jail? Then one day, he came up to me saying, “I wrote a book, you want to read it.” Wait a minute, he is on the bottom rung of Walmart as a unloaded, nobody else would hire him just like me, and he wrote a book? He wrote an extraordinary complicated book about the human spirit and how the “all of everything” trains or evolves us? What the hell?

We had many epic spiritual decisions out in the Hinsdale Walmart parking lot both on and off the Walmart clock. We knew a least two cameras were recording our elicit discussions;the Walmart security cameras and the cosmic machine up and around above all of us. The great machine above us records our voices. It was right up my alley. Honestly wasn't it perfect, debating the most humongous questions on why we and the universe were here in the a Walmart parking lot as lowly unloaders? Keven told me god has a spectacular sense of humor and I greatly entertain him. It was the best book I ever read, it ranks right up there with the bible.

Am I Mike Mulligan or am I riding as a passenger on the Mike Mulligan experience as a unseen, uninvolved or unspoken rider? Am I Mike or the heavenly computer simulation of the real Mike's life and I am another spirit trying to deeply see and feel the Mike experience?

(I read it while it was in editing.)

I mean how cool would be, that while in heaven you could see and feel every person you ever met through their actual brain and body experience…you could perceive how they experience you? Keven says this process takes just a fraction of a second and it feels like you lived hundreds or thousands of lives. The amazing technology they got up there.  

Would you ever be able to stop crying if you could see and feel all the times you hurt or disappointed another…feel it as their brains or bodies felt you. Oh, my dear wife, I am so sorry...