Nine Mile Point: The Hypocrisy of the NRC and Industry In Inspections/Maintenance With SRVS

(docket05000220 and 05000410)Exelon, Constellation 

I'll bet you other plants with bad SRVs and MSSVs histories will reference this safety Evaluation to justify less testing and maintenance...the selective interpretations...without this plant's so called good record.

The go-to corruption and bad ethics tool...pernicious engineering fraud...engineering certainty/uncertainty gaming. I'll take into consideration(interpretations) engineering certainty/uncertainty(spinning)according to the self-interest I need. 

***I get it, the good plants set the requirements for bad actor plants. Why does the bad guys always get a free ride?    

SAFETY EVALUATION BY THE OFFICE OF NUCLEAR REACTOR REGULATION INSERVICE TESTING PROGRAM RELIEF REQUEST MSS-VR-01, REVISION 1 THIRD 10-YEAR INTERVAL

EXELON GENERATION COMPANY, LLC

NINE MILE POINT NUCLEAR STATION. UNIT 2

DOCKET NO. 50-410

1.0  INTRODUCTION

By letter to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRG) dated February 1~. 2015b (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML 15047 A003), Exelon Generation Company, LLC (Exelon or the licensee), submitted Revision 1 to Relief Request (RR) MSS-VR-01 for the third interval of the 10-year inservice testing (IST) program at Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, Unit 2 (NMP2). RR MSS-VR-01, Revision 0, was authorized by the NRG staff for the NMP2 third interval of the 10-year IST program by letter dated December 29, 2008 (ADAMS Accession No. ML083500039). The request proposes an alternative to test intervals specified in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code for Operation and Maintenance of Nuclear Power Plants· (OM Code). Specifically, pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 50.55a(z)(1), the licensee requested to use the proposed alternative in RR MSS-VR-01, Revision 1, on the basis that the alternative provides an acceptable level of quality and safety.

2.0  REGULATORY EVALUATION

Section 50.55a(f) of 10 CFR, "lnservice testing requirements," requires, in part, that IST of certair:i ASME Code Class 1, 2, and 3 pumps and valves be performed in accordance with the specified ASME OM Code and applicable addenda incorporated by reference in the regulations. Exceptions are allowed where alternatives have been authorized by the NRG pursuant to paragraphs (z)(1) or (z)(2) of 10 CFR 50.55a. In proposing alternatives, the licensee must demonstrate that: (1) the proposed alternatives provide an acceptable level of quality and safety (10 CFR 50.55a(z)(1)), or (2) compliance would result in hardship or unusual difficulty without a compensating increase in the level of quality and safety (10 CFR 50.55a(i)(2)). Section 50.55a allows the NRC to authorize alternatives from ASME OM Code requirements upon making the necessary findings.

Based on the above, and subject to the following technical evaluation, the NRC staff finds that regulatory authority exists for the licensee to request and the Commission to authorize the alternative relief requested by the licensee.

3.0  TECHNICAL EVALUATION

3.1 Applicable ASME OM Code Edition and Addenda

The third interval of the NMP2 IST program complies with the ASME OM Code of Nuclear Power Plants, 2004 Edition with no Addenda. The NMP2 third interval of the 10-year IST program interval began on January 1, 2009, and is scheduled to end on December 31, 2018.

3.2 ASME OM Code Requirements

The licensee requested relief from Mandatory Appendix I, 1-1320, which requires that Class 1 pressure relief valves be tested at least once every 5 years with a minimum of 20 percent of the valves from each valve group tested within any 24-month interval. This 20 percent shall consist of valves that have not been tested during the current 5-year interval, if they exist. The test interval for any individual valve shall not exceed 5 years. 

3.3 Component Identification Relief was requested for the following Unit 2 Class 1 main steam safety relief valves (SRVs):

2MSS*PSV120
2MSS*PSV123
2MSS*PSV126
2MSS*PSV129
2MSS*PSV132
2MSS*PSV135
2MSS*PSV121
2MSS*PSV124
2MSS*PSV127
2MSS*PSV130
2MSS*PSV133
2MSS*PSV136
2MSS*PSV122
2MSS*PSV125
2MSS*PSV128
2MSS*PSV131
2MSS*PSV134
2MSS*PSV137

3.4 Licensee's Basis for Requesting Relief

The licensee stated in its application:

Section ISTC-3200, "lnservice Testing," states that inservice testing shall commence when the valves are required to be operable to fulfill their required function(s). Section ISTC-5240, Safety and Relief Valves, directs that safety and relief valves shall meet the inservice testing requirements set forth in Appendix I of the ASME OM Code. Appendix I, Section l-1320(a) of the ASME OM Code states that Class 1 pressure relief valves shall be tested at least once every 5 years, starting with initial electric power generation. This section also states a minimum of 20% of the pressure relief valves are tested within any 24-month interval and that the test interval for any individual valve shall not exceed 5 years. The required tests ensure that the SRVs, which are located on each of the main steam lines between the reactor vessel and the first isolation valve within the drywell, will open at the pressures assumed in the safety analysis. 

However, given the current 24-month operating cycle at NMP2, Exelon Generation Company, LLC (Exelon) is required to remove and test approximately half of the SRVs every refueling outage in order to ensure that all valves are removed and tested in accordance with the ASME OM Code requirements. This ensures compliance with the ASME OM Code requirements for testing Class 1 pressure relief valves within a 5 year interval. With the current 5 year interval, NMP2 is required to remove all 18 SRVs over 2 refuel cycles (i.e., 4 years). Approval of extending the test interval to 6.5 years would reduce the number of SRVs removed during an individual outage, such that the full scope of 18 SRVs are replaced over 3 refuel cycles (i.e., 6 years, plus 6 months grace). Without Code relief,

ASME is basically a private code maker bought out by the nuclear industry . Who in their right mind would accept the equivalencies of "relief valves in general" and the "Safety Relief Valves. This goes to the problem of you can twist around any code to serve the needs of profit making and shorting outages.

the incremental outage work due to the inclusion of the additional 2 - 3 SRVs per outage would be contrary to the principle of maintaining radiation dose As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA). The removal and replacement of the additional 2 - 3 SRVs per outage without Code relief results in an additional exposure of approximately 2 - 4 Rem [roentgen equivalent man] each outage. Additionally, the grace period allows for flexibility in the scheduling of as-left and as-found set-pressure testing, which is based on a test to test frequency.

The NRC staff previously authorized RR MSS-VR-01 for NMP2 to increase the SRV test interval from 5 years to 3 refueling cycles (approximately 6 years), but did not include the 6-month grace. Revision 1 of RR MSS-VR-01 would

They whittling down safety margins as the decades go by me.  

replace the currently approved test interval of 3 refueling cycles (approximately 6 years} with a test interval of 6 years, and would further allow a 6-month grace period for performing the tests. These revisions are consistent with the test interval and grace period described in ASME Code Case OMN-17. Due to outage scheduling, the additional 6 months is necessary to avoid unnecessary testing.

3.5 Licensee's Proposed Alternative Testing

The licensee stated its application:

As an alternative to the Code required 5-year test interval per Appendix I, paragraph 1-1320(a), Exelon proposes that the subject Class 1 pressure relief valves be tested at least once every three refueling cycles (approximately 6 years/72 months) with a minimum of 20% of the valves tested within any 24-month interval. This 20% would consist of valves that have not been tested during the current 72-month interval, if they exist. The test interval for any individual valve would not exceed 72 months except that a 6-month grace period is allowed to coincide with refueling outages to accommodate extended shutdown periods and certification of the valve prior to installation. 

As-found testing using steam and subsequent valve maintenance are currently performed at an off-site test facility. Subsequent to completion of as-found testing, each SRV in the removed complement is

Not all plants do this. Many just adjust the setpoint and stick it back in plant with their eyes closed and holding their noses.

disassembled to perform inspections and a complete valve overhaul. Any SRV that failed the as-found set-pressure test is inspected to determine the cause of the test failure. Valve overhaul is performed to ensure that parts are free of defects resulting from time related degradation or service induced wear. All identified adverse conditions are corrected, the disc and seats are lapped, and the valve is reassembled. 

Each SRV is then recertified for service through inspection and testing consistent with ASME OM Code requirements, including set-pressure, seat tightness, stroke time and disc lift verifications, solenoid coil pick up/drop out, and air actuator integrity tests.

After recertification testing, the SRVs are stored at the test facility for future use. The storage area is inspected and maintained to ANSl/ASME N45.2.2 requirements, which will minimize the potential for any valve degradation.

3.6 Staff Evaluation

The NMP2 main steam SRVs are ASME Code Class 1 pressure relief valves that provide overpressure protection for the reactor coolant pressure boundary to prevent unacceptable radioactive release and exposure to plant personnel. ASME OM Code, Mandatory Appendix I requires that Class 1 pressure relief valves be tested at least once every 5 years. However, Mandatory Appendix I does not require that

Nobody got a problem with that if the valve goes out of it tolerance. 

pressure relief valves be disassembled and inspected as part of the 5-year test requirement. In lieu of the 5-year test interval, the licensee proposed to implement requirements similar to ASME OM Code Case OMN-17, which allows a test interval of 6 years, plus a 6-month grace period. The ASME Committee on OM developed Code Case OMN-17 and published it in the 2009 Edition of the ASME OM Code. However, ASME OM Code Case OMN-17 imposes an additional special maintenance requirement to disassemble and inspect each pressure relief/safety valve to verify that parts are free from defects resulting from time-related degradation or service-induced wear coincident with each required test during the interval. The purpose of this maintenance requirement is to reduce the potential for pressure relief valve set-point drift.

ASME OM Code Case OMN-17 has not yet been added to Regulatory Guide 1.192, "Operation and Maintenance Code Case Acceptability, ASME OM Code," nor included in 10 CFR 50.55a by reference. However, the NRG has allowed licensees to use ASME OM Code Case OMN-17, provided all requirements in the Code Case are met. Consistent with the special maintenance requirement in ASME OM Code Case OMN-17, each main steam SRV at NMP2 will be disassembled and inspected to verify that internal surfaces and parts are free from defects or service induced wear prior to the start of the next test interval. This maintenance will also help to reduce the potential for set-point drift and increase the reliability of these SRVs to perform their design requirement functions. Consistent with the special maintenance requirement in ASME OM Code Case OMN-17, critical components will be inspected for wear and defects. 

Additionally, the NRG staff review of recent set-point testing results shows that the SRV maintenance practices

You get it, this is NRC set point drift gaming and coruption. If you want to reduce maintenance to shortened outages and you got a "apparent good record"...then set point drift matters. If you got setpoint drift tech spec violation out the ying tan and drastically increasing like Hope Creek and Cooper, then set point drift is inconsequential and safety is never jeopardized according to risk perspective. They are picking and choosing codes and regulation interpretations...spinning... as favors for your buddies to shorten outages. Is this really why there is so many problems in the industry with SRVs and MSSV problems. This is the example all the problems with SRVs need to be included in LERs.          

employed at NMP2 have been effective, as evidenced by no test failures over the last two refueling outage test cycles.

Based on the historical performance of the set-point testing of the main steam SRVs at NMP2 and disassembly and inspection of the main steam SRVs prior to use, the NRG

I haven't yet looked at Nine Mile's record yet. Why is there good plants like NMP and SRV dogs like Pilgrim, Cooper and Hope Creak? These guys got so many codes and regulation, they get to spin any selective interpretation to build any outcome they wish. Cafeteria style codes and regulations to both the regulator and licencees. Too many "not understandable' regulations and codes is just as bad as no codes and regulation.   

staff finds that the proposed alternative test frequency for the testing of the main steam SRVs at NMP2, in lieu of the requirements of the 2004 Edition, no Addenda, Mandatory Appendix I, Section 1320, of the ASME OM Code, provides an acceptable level of quality and safety.

As set forth above, the NRC staff has determined that the proposed alternatives described in RR MSS-VR-01, Revision 1, provide an acceptable level of quality and safety for the NMP2 main steam SRVs. Accordingly, the NRC staff concludes that the licensee has adequately addressed all of the regulatory requirements set forth in 10 CFR 50.55a (z)(1) for RR MSS-VR-01, Revision 1, and is in compliance with the ASME OM Code requirements. All other ASME OM Code requirements for which relief was not specifically requested and approved remain applicable.

Principal Contributor: John Billerbeck

Date: January 29, 2016

FERC Investigation of Unjust Rates in the NEISO

works in progress

What ISO is New Jersey in? Seems this transmission build out is occurring in many other regions. You think this NJ wholesale electricity is much cheaper than the NEISO? My first response to this is a means to support the high price of ratepayer.

Let, look at this thought organization lens. The NEIO is highly political and many corporate and governmental cronies work for them. The whole ISO theme is libertarians republican teabaggers overseeing the function of government. The dream of wealthy is to have a private entity...private regulators...becomes the function of government and the regulator. Then fill up the entity with cronies. Weak and disrupt government so the 1%ers gain control of the economy. Instead of the people being in charge of this vital public service, the political cronies and the 1%ers control the life of our electric system without adequate written rules. Then the cronies and wealthy make electric system wholly serve them. Runaway organizations without appropriate oversight end up only serving their own needs.   

Fixing the NEISO is only addressing the symptoms. You need wholesale reform and restructuring of the DOE and the electric system in how me manage energy. Reform with how we manage energy, to serve our greater national interest, is treating the symptoms. It a political revolution we so vitally need!!! I can't tell the difference between the republicans and democrats...

Wholesale Power Prices Plummet

Gas Surge Benefits Electricity Buyers

Feb 3, 2016 Martin Rosenberg

      

Lower gas prices means lower monthly electric bills.

ThinkStock

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Wholesale electric prices last year plunged by more than one-third compared to 2014, continuing to produce major effects on customers’ monthly bills, utility finances and government energy policy.
Monthly peak hour average wholesale power prices last year declined 27 percent to 37 percent compared to 2014, according to figures compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The steep decline was pushed along by lower natural gas prices, EIA said.

Source: US EIA

The cost of power produced by gas-fired units fell more sharply than coal-fired units. That, at a time when the Obama administration was tightening rules governing carbon emissions at the nation’s aging coal-fired generation plants in a bid to combat climate change.
“For 2015 as a whole, however, coal is still expected to surpass natural gas as the most prevalent fuel used for electricity generation,” the EIA report said.
Nuclear power plant output has also put  a downward pressure on electricity prices, with total nuclear power plant output hitting the highest levels in five year.

Ralph Izzo

For utilities, the falling wholesale power prices comes as they adjust to flat to declining demand for electricity as a result of major efforts to boost energy efficiency across the economy.
That has allowed utilities to embrace major infrastructure investments with minimal rate shock for customers, several utilities have said.
 Ralph Izzo, head of PSEG in New Jersey, last spring told The Energy Times, “Customers have been largely spared the bill impact of necessary infrastructure investments because of low gas prices. In fact, they have reaped substantial savings from abundant, low-cost gas supplies while enjoying the benefits of improved reliability. PSEG combined electric and gas customer bills have declined more than 23 percent since 2008.”

Obama's Billion Dollar Ghost Heroin Program.

How much will this be whittled down by the republicans? It is a political show program or a typical democrat penny ante program not properly funded.  

The response of Obama on this is where I think he is evil? 

Obama Seeks More Than $1 Billionto Fight Opioid Abuse

By GARDINER HARRIS FEB. 2, 2016

Obama Seeks More Than $1 Billion to Fight Opioid Abuse
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said on Tuesday that it would ask Congress to spend an additional $1.1 billion next year to combat a growing epidemic of prescription painkiller and heroin abuse. 

Almost half of the new money would be used to expand treatment facilities, which are in short supply in much of the nation. 

“Opioid abuse and overdoses have hurt families from across this nation,” Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, said in a news conference. “My home state of West Virginia has felt the cost almost more than any other.” 

The other half of the money would go to programs intended to prevent prescription drug overdoses, crack down on illegal sales, and improve access to naloxone, a drug that can rescue those who have overdosed. 

cted the administration’s growing concerns about one of the few public health epidemics to substantially worsen during President Obama’s tenure. Opioids, which include prescription painkillers and heroin, were involved in 28,648 deaths in the United States in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The drugs were a bigger killer than motor vehicle crashes. 

The administration’s efforts to combat the toll have been modest and largely ineffective. The epidemic has leveled off somewhat, but it shows no signs of abating, leading addiction experts to complain about Mr. Obama’s response.
In Tuesday’s news conference, Michael P. Botticelli, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, defended the administration’s actions….

One of Two Women Recent Embezzlers in Hinsdale

Maybe is about how we treat local women with low wage and benefits jobs. Insecure jobs. We don't prepare them for a bright future. We pay them pennies and give the women great responsibilities with large sums of money.

Why does so many women get wrapped up in embezzlement cases?

Hinsdale woman accused of embezzling money from nonprofit agency

Posted: Tuesday, February 2, 2016 12:00 pm

By ALYSSA DANDREA Sentinel Staff

• 
• Posted on Feb 2, 2016
  by Alyssa Dandrea

PUTNEY, Vt. — A Hinsdale woman is accused of embezzling more than $42,000 from a nonprofit organization in the town of Putney.

Patricia Field, 63, of Hinsdale faces a charge of embezzlement in connection with the theft from Putney Family Services. She was cited Thursday by the Windham County Sheriff's Department, according a news release the office issued Monday.

Field had previously served as the nonprofit agency's executive director but is no longer employed there, according to Melissa Evans, a corporal for the Windham County Sheriff's Department. Evans declined to say when Field allegedly took the money, citing an ongoing investigation.

She is scheduled to be arraigned March 22 in the Windham Criminal Division of Vermont Superior Court in Brattleboro.

NRC Says Hope Creek's SRVs Still No Problem

Maintenance Rule Program Implementation

The inspectors have identified multiple examples of PSEG’s failure to evaluate the impact of an equipment issue on interfacing systems, including:

• In September 2013, the inspectors identified that PSEG failed to evaluate the impact of a failure of a feedwater crosstie valve on the feedwater sealing functions for the reactor core isolation cooling system and HPCI system. This observation resulted in the creation of a new feedwater system maintenance rule function and subsequent maintenance preventable functional failure classification that would not have been otherwise counted. (NOTF 20619913) 

• ***In May 2014, the inspectors identified that PSEG failed to evaluate safety relief valve setpoint failures under all applicable interfacing system functions. The condition was evaluated for the automatic depressurization system functions, but not for the main steam functions. (NOTF 20650346) 

• In August 2015, the inspectors identified that PSEG failed to evaluate the loss of  the 10B431 480VAC (alternating current) 1E motor control center (MCC) as a  Maintenance Rule functional failure of the interfacing 1E 480VAC system. This is the third instance identified in three years of PSEG failing to evaluate the impact of equipment issues on interfacing systems. This observation resulted in the assignment of a maintenance preventable functional failure to the 480VAC 1E MCC system that would not have been otherwise counted. (NOTF 20702217) 

Along with the items described above, during 2015, the inspectors and the NRC PI&R team inspectors observed multiple other examples of PSEG’s failure to evaluate the  impact of an equipment issue on interfacing systems. These repetitive observations related to deficiencies with PSEG’s interfacing system maintenance rule screening resulted in PSEG creating a maintenance rule panel consisting of the maintenance rule program coordinator and engineers that performs an independent, periodic review of issues identified in the CAP to ensure all appropriate screenings are assigned. The inspectors determined that the corrective action implemented to address the issue was reasonable to resolve the identified deficiencies. The inspectors determined all the issues above screened to minor in accordance with IMC 0612, Appendix E, because the systems’ preventive maintenance still demonstrated effective control of system equipment performance as provided in paragraph (a)(2) of the maintenance rule.

CDC: 28,647 USA Heroin and Opioids Overdose Deaths in 2014

Can you believe how our media is not now saturated with the magnitude of these fatalities? I have had a severe alcohol addiction in my younger life. It basically emerged from my poor upbringing and my inherent weaknesses. The hardest years I ever had was the first five years after quitting drinking. So here is my analysis of this problem. Whether its heroin or alcohol, about twenty percent of population gets addicted. Course, heroin is a lot more additive than booze.  

We brought up a significant percentage of our population who is highly sensitive to addictions. This particular addiction changes the pleasure controlling areas of our brains almost like no other drug or chemical. Their brains are severely damaged. Some will recover, but a high percentage will never be recoverable. That is what you see in AA. But heroin in magnitudes worst.

 

The addictiveness of a drug is basically on a continuum. Some drugs create more addiction and economic damage than others. The drugs like pot and coffee are hardly addictive. Cigarettes are viciously addictive and dangerous. It will be years before you or society feels the damages caused by smoking cigarettes. Heroin and opioids are highly addictive. The Cape Cod HBO movie on heroin addictiveness expresses this very well. We are bombarded with heroin lawlessness on a daily bases. The alcohol early deaths, all the suffering and all the economic damage to our nation, the courts, jails and legal bills from alcohol dwarfs all the other addictive drugs. Alcohol just touches a higher percentage of our population. We are not going to fix this problem by putting all the addicts in jail. We got create a severe shortage of heroin on our streets. Drive up the price of the drug. That will drive them into rehab.

 

1) If 20% of the population of heroin users become addicts and we see the magnitude of the size of the heroin problem as only in overdoses...the user population who don't become addicted is much bigger than portrayed. We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg with our national problem with heroin. 

 

2) The cost of heroin addiction is like a giant tax on all of us. Heroin is a very expensive addiction. It is very expensive with extra police services, courts, jails, repeated rehabs, their kids...unrecoverable wrecked human lives all around us. What expenses am I missing. The Boston "Baby Doe" murder emerged from groups of people being addicted to heroin. WE are having increasing drug gang murder rates in big cities. The profits from heroin is feeding all of this gang activity. How much money of this intensified gang action costing us? How many innocent homes were broken into to the feed the heroin addiction? 

This fixation with rehabbing addicts is sometimes a scam to limit governmental expensive to the addicts by the politicians. This only makes the situation worst. Our priority should be getting these drugs off our street now. It is a grave national security issue now. 

3)28,647 opiate overdoses in 2014 It has exploded in 2015. Is it at a doubling rate per year? What does the rate depended on?   

• 28,647 deaths in 2014

• 56,494 deaths in 2015 This a Vietnam war level event in two years. It took a decade of war to create 50,500 American deaths.      

• 112,988 deaths in 2016

If you want to get a take on how immoral a country has become, this is the issue. This is like a terrorist setting off a small atomic bomb in our country and letting them get away with it. What would we do if a terrorist killed 28,000 Americans in on swipe?

A tremendously increasing percentage of our population is being directly exposed to the sorrows of heroin addiction. Exponentially more people not directly exposed to the sorrows, neighbors and word of mouth...the increase of stories in the media...huge segments of our society are unnerved by heroin problems. The white conservative segment of society took advantage of heroin addiction in the black ghettos in the 1960s and 1970s. Lots of politicians improperly got elected through exaggerating the threat of this. Lawlessness is rampant in our nation, elect me and I will put them all jail. This is mostly a white addiction today.

I don't understand why the politicians aren't unnerving the populous with all our current heroin lawlessness. Gaining a political advantage?      

2) The international security strategy should go like this. Pick the three largest countries who produce heroin poppies and make heroin. Choose the weak link out of the three options. It is called deterrence. Military and economically embargo the evil country. Make a example out of them. Say, we will squeeze the life out of your country if you don't put a stop to producing poppies and making heroin. If heroin continues to leak out of your country into our country through any means, then we will bomb specific targets in your country. Make the knees of the rest countries who produce and distribute heroin tremble with just the whisper the word USA. Regret they ever were born.           

   

Increases in Drug and Opioid Overdose Deaths — United States, 2000–2014 Weekly 

January 1, 2016 / 64(50);1378-82

Rose A. Rudd, MSPH1; Noah Aleshire, JD1; Jon E. Zibbell, PhD1; R. Matthew Gladden, PhD1

The United States is experiencing an epidemic of drug overdose (poisoning) deaths. Since 2000, the rate of deaths from drug overdoses has increased 137%, including a 200% increase in the rate of overdose deaths involving opioids (opioid pain relievers and heroin). CDC analyzed recent multiple cause-of-death mortality data to examine current trends and characteristics of drug overdose deaths, including the types of opioids associated with drug overdose deaths. During 2014, a total of 47,055 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States, representing a 1-year increase of 6.5%, from 13.8 per 100,000 persons in 2013 to 14.7 per 100,000 persons in 2014. The rate of drug overdose deaths increased significantly for both sexes, persons aged 25–44 years and ≥55 years, non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic blacks, and in the Northeastern, Midwestern, and Southern regions of the United States. Rates of opioid overdose deaths also increased significantly, from 7.9 per 100,000 in 2013 to 9.0 per 100,000 in 2014, a 14% increase. Historically, CDC has programmatically characterized all opioid pain reliever deaths (natural and semisynthetic opioids, methadone, and other synthetic opioids) as "prescription" opioid overdoses (1). Between 2013 and 2014, the age-adjusted rate of death involving methadone remained unchanged; however, the age-adjusted rate of death involving natural and semisynthetic opioid pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids, other than methadone (e.g., fentanyl) increased 9%, 26%, and 80%, respectively. The sharp increase in deaths involving synthetic opioids, other than methadone, in 2014 coincided with law enforcement reports of increased availability of illicitly manufactured fentanyl, a synthetic opioid; however, illicitly manufactured fentanyl cannot be distinguished from prescription fentanyl in death certificate data. These findings indicate that the opioid overdose epidemic is worsening. There is a need for continued action to prevent opioid abuse, dependence, and death, improve treatment capacity for opioid use disorders, and reduce the supply of illicit opioids, particularly heroin and illicit fentanyl.

In 2014, 61% (28,647, data not shown) of drug overdose deaths involved some type of opioid, including heroin. The age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths involving opioids increased significantly from 2000 to 2014, increasing 14% from 2013 (7.9 per 100,000) to 2014 (9.0) (Figure 1). From 2013 to 2014, the largest increase in the rate of drug overdose deaths involved synthetic opioids, other than methadone (e.g., fentanyl and tramadol), which nearly doubled from 1.0 per 100,000 to 1.8 per 100,000 (Figure 2). Heroin overdose death rates increased by 26% from 2013 to 2014 and have more than tripled since 2010, from 1.0 per 100,000 in 2010 to 3.4 per 100,000 in 2014 (Figure 2). In 2014, the rate of drug overdose deaths involving natural and semisynthetic opioids (e.g., morphine, oxycodone, and hydrocodone), 3.8 per 100,000, was the highest among opioid overdose deaths, and increased 9% from 3.5 per 100,000 in 2013. The rate of drug overdose deaths involving methadone, a synthetic opioid classified separately from other synthetic opioids, was similar in 2013 and 2014.

My Old Bridge And a New Vision of Island Park

There is the outline of the old Island Park before the 1920s and 1930s floods. The Vernon Dam caused this. I'd like a elevated nature trail or bike trail between the railroad tracks and the Connecticut River red lined on the Brattleboro side. 

Hinsdale, N.H., bridge to be started two years ahead of schedule

Hinsdale to Brattleboro bridge project two years early?

By Robert Audetteraudette@reformer.com @audette.reformer on Twitter

Posted:   02/01/2016 10:22:09 AM EST0 Comments

Updated:   02/02/2016 07:33:37 AM EST

This aerial picture shows the Anna Hunt Marsh Bridge, which, with the Charles Dana Bridge, connects Hinsdale, N.H., to Brattleboro, Vt. (Kristopher Radder — Reformer Staff)

 

HINSDALE, N.H.— The historic Vilas Bridge linking Walpole to Bellows Falls is crumbling into the Connecticut River, closed in 2009 with no real plan to replace it.

Meanwhile, traffic across the Anna Hunt Marsh and Charles Dana bridges, which link Hinsdale to Brattleboro, Vt., continues unabated.

The bridge in Walpole is not on New Hampshire's 10-year plan because a perfectly suitable bridge crosses the river just a few miles north, reasons the Granite State's Department of Transportation. But the bridge in Hinsdale is one of the busiest in the region. It's also one of the most narrow — just one semi-truck short of a snarl that could lock up traffic for hours. In the state's 10-year plan, construction to replace those bridges is scheduled to start two years earlier — 2017 — than in the previous 10-year plan, which is updated every two years.

"The 10-year plan is never written in stone," said Bill Boynton, spokesman for the N.H.

What he is talking about is dirty politics independant of facts and transparency. Ask Mr. Boynton if the NHDOT has been starve by funding problems for decades in crazy NH. 

DOT. "It is based upon available resources. Projects move up in the line or are removed if they are not necessary."

While the Vilas Bridge is not in the newest plan, he said, it doesn't mean the state has abandoned the idea of replacing it.

"We don't want to minimize the concerns that have been expressed by the community. We understand the bridge is very important to them, but the fact is there is another bridge in close proximity and that changes the nature of prioritization."

The Hinsdale-to-Brattleboro bridges however, serve a unique purpose that can't be substituted by other river crossings. It's either drive north to Chesterfield and cross the

I love that bridge...those curved huge and massively thick beams on top of the new bridge. Couldn't win any war without the US Navy Seabees. The uniqueness and the fragility of the two communities has been with us for many decades with the bridge. Why does all of a sudden the NHDOT yank out the uniqueness card? Why hasn't the NHDOT been advocating our uniqueness for decades. Replacing bridges has always been about vote getting in the eastern high population areas. I wouldn't be surprised if senator Shaheen is behind the lone?    

United States Navy Seabees Bridge at the Exit 3 roundabout, or travel south to Northfield, Mass., cross the river there and then travel north to Brattleboro on Route 142 or Interstate 91.

Even though that bridge project has been moved up to 2017, said Boynton, there are still some details to be ironed out. The Anna Hunt Marsh and Charles Dana bridges may

The island between the bridges is named Island Park I believe. I know people all over the states of NH and Vt...indeed all through the region and visitors from other countries. They love walking across my bridges. Why deny them this pleasure. We should refurbish the whole island. Knock down all those ugly scrub trees. Clean out all the garbage and brush.  Bring in a little filler dirt. Turn this Island into into a beautiful green lawned park right up to the water line. God it would be so beautiful and functional. It would be a lot safer for everyone if all the areas of the park could be easily seen by road. It would be a perfect fishing area. Put in picnic tables and park grills. Brattleboro is starved for downtown parking spaces. Put in parking spaces. With Wantastiquet Mountain and the stunning Connecticut River in the background, it would be spectacular meeting space. Wouldn't your kids love it: everyone's kids. It would take your breath away forever and honour our ancient forefathers who built the Park at the turn of the 20th century. Can't you just hear the faint train whistle from the distance approaching our locale. They made us who we are. It would broadly add to the health of our community with be a pretty walking and exercise area. It would get rid of the dangerous homeless and druggy problem on the island. It would add much value to our states of NH and Vermont. Added value to Brattleboro and Hinsdale. 

My god man, park on the New Island Park and walk up to the top of Wantastiquet Mountain? Would people spend more money in Brattleboro and Hinsdale? Could you advertise it as tourist attraction jewel. Eating at a restaurant in Brattleboro and then taking a spectacular walk to Island park. You are going to need some benches to sit on and appreciate our beauty? I believe this Island is owned by the Vernon Dam people Transcanada.
 
Design the Island to be easily repairable after our big floods. Do you believe in the power of mankind to make a better earth?        

remain for pedestrians or they may be demolished altogether. And then there is a question about the landing of the new bridge in Vermont. The plan calls for it to be built at the flashing traffic light at George's Field on the New Hampshire side, connecting to Route 142 just south of the Marlboro College Graduate Center. Boynton said issues with the railroad and propane tanks have to be dealt with before the plans can be finalized.

In Bellows Falls, an offer was made two years ago by Vermont to finance the bridge's rehabilitation, as long as the state of New Hampshire would agree to pay for repairs to all other bridges spanning the Connecticut River, up to the total cost to rebuild the Vilas Bridge. The Granite State declined the offer.

The bridge project in Hinsdale is expected to cost more than $40 million and would be financed with Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle — or GARVEE — bonds issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation. According to the DOT's website, a GARVEE "is a type of anticipation vehicle, which are securities (debt instruments) issued when moneys

I'd like to know a little more about the federal aid grants.

are anticipated from a specific source to advance the upfront funding of a particular need. In the case of transportation finance the anticipation vehicles' revenue source is expected Federal-aid grants."

Despite the assurances from New Hampshire, Chip Stearns, the municipal manager for Rockingham, doesn't believe the bridge will ever be fixed or replaced.

"It's got to be important to New Hampshire before they fix it, but like everybody else, they are so far behind in infrastructure repairs," he said. "Someone over in Concord is not going to be concerned about Bellows Falls while just north of the Vilas Bridge is a new bridge that can be used to cross the Connecticut River."

However, said Stearns, what is being missed — or ignored — by the Granite State, is a sewer line attached to the bridge that delivers septage from Walpole to the waste water treatment plant in Bellows Falls. "It belongs to the town of Walpole and the state needs to have an emergency plan in case the bridge collapses and the pipe spews sewage into the Connecticut River. Someone ought to be concerned."

Bob Audette can be contacted at 802-254-2311, ext. 160.

Oooh, My God: River Bend is at 58% Power Last Night

This guy has got to be a money maker for Entergy. What is it, a three week shutdown.

I believe this plant is a regulated plant. They get paid big bucks to make spectacular screw-ups! In other words, the state regulators (buddies) makes the ratepayers pay big bucks for the screw-up plus a godly profit markup.

update 2/3: It greatly disappointing River Bend is only at 57%.

2/4:  cha ching- only at 78% last night?

Columbia Fuel Defects

That is all we get on the fuel pin defects in the new inspection report?

SUBJECT: COLUMBIA GENERATING STATION – NRC INTEGRATED INSPECTION REPORT 05000397/2015004  

November 8, 2015, power suppression testing to identify fuel defects

Columbia Nuclear Plant's Fuel Failure Problem

We need a timeframe on these event.

I believe in our pin steam explosion, this was a 2nd or 3rd time in the core. So it was leaking, then went through a outage and restart...then the pin popped.

When I first arrived at VY, the primary system was pretty clean. In the early startup period (1970s), they have severe fuel leakage. This is how we got the AOG building. It was the pellet-clad interaction. We replaced our recirculation pipes in my early years. They chemically cleaned the primary system to reduce radiation for that. As a AO, I had to enter many high radiation rooms. Lets talk the clean up rooms and clean up heat exchanger room. I was required to enter these rooms in cloth cotton cloves, a lab coat and plastic booties. It was minimal radiation protection. All I had on me was my TLD to measure radiation. It took a minute to put my gear on and there was minimal rad protection bureaucracy to back me up. This is what you can with minimal radiation and contamination.

As I was leaving, I had to use a double full radiation suit on and a respirator. It take me about hour to get all dressed up. This was a result from our fuel failures. It was rad protection department intensive. A lot more of my precious time was devoted to getting dress up in full rad protection suits and getting undressed. There was a lot more plastic rad waste as a result. Cycle this through our plant and the industry in general in all the radiation jobs...the was a huge waste of money. You lost big time profits over this. It was a tremendous waste of resources. Remember if you contrast say a simple mechanical job in non radiation environment and same job in a radiation environment...we are talking about a huge expense. The contractor who does the job is going charge VY a lot more money for the job independent of the RP bills.    

Our full cotton radiation suits had to be washed every time. They contracted these jobs out to laundry company in Springfield Ma. Their is a lot of people who never made though high school in my home town. I grew up in Springfield. It is a perfect environment for minimum wage jobs for life. So as our radiation problem built up, this laundry establishment got in trouble for discharging radiation into Springfield's sewer system.  

All I am saying is, VY's radiation department budgets grew exponentially and especially with the foreign troops their brought in for RP protection in the outage. This justifies on a industrial scale not doing certain maintenance because our radiation levels were so high.

So here we sit on the razor's edge of profitability. I believe the huge radiation department budget is starving the safety and maintenance budgets. You can put off safety and maintenance jobs...the NRC will not let you cheap out on radiation budget. They will shut you down the job if you are skimpy and everyone knows radiation protection problems would be a big problem if it got into the papers.

I'd like to contrast the early operations of clean plant and end of operations with lots of fuel failures. Mostly you get a fuel failure, this radiation always stays in the plant...you going to be paying for the rest of the plant life.          

So I believe you are stealing/shifting money for maintenance to plow into preventable radiation protection.

The fuel pin problems I discussed here was just the emergence of later huge problem with fuel problems by the end of the 1990s and early 2000s. The NRC had to intervene. The industry as a whole wasn't investing in cladding engineering. The fuel failure industry wide was massively proliferating. This is a reoccurring theme in many other areas. Not investing money in areas that are vital to the nuclear industry.

You know, contrast the lifetime dose of the "Board of Directors and CEOs"(minuscule) against the poor knuckle dragging slobs at the plant (huge). The guys at the plant have little control and "Board of Directors" call the shots. You can minimize dose to the your troops at the plant  by spending a tremendous amount     

Nuclear fuel pin explosion at VY (in core)

 

(I wrote this in 2010. I fixed it up a little from the first draft.) 

"In the early 1990’s, I am getting a little fed up with all the fuel failures in the plant...we can see contamination and radiation levels spiking up. The radioactive step off pads throughout the plant were proliferating...it was amazing. There is long lines at the final radiation detectors just trying to leave the plant. This is something new, we are all wondering if they got something wrong with the fuel load. The 1980’s were very clean years without fuel failures.

So I am up helping doing one start-up in the control room. We are taking turns pulling rods and doing the heat up. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, where we see huge spike in radiation throughout the plant. The alarms are going off everywhere, on the main steam lines, AOG...we watch them continue to trend up. We was completely baffled with what was occurring...panicking. Where is it going to end? The shift supervisor face was ashen colored. We are just about to scram the plant when the radiation levels leveled out. They stayed high for an hour just below the scram point...then they started coming down. But radiation level throughout the plant never returned to their original levels. Ever! Nobody ever seen this before. We continued on with the startup.

We had a terrible operational period, all sorts of pin hole leaks and high radioactivity. There was an assortment of symptoms...during rod exchange just months before the outage they had another huge radiation spike out of nowhere. It was during this period where I wrote my concerns to the Vermont governor. She responded.

As we got close to the outage, about a month out from it, I made another safety concern to the state and the New Coalition Of Nuclear Pollution.

That is what I always say as a whistleblower. It is a reoccurring theme. The company won't hurt you the most if they fire and blackball you when they steal your career. It is always the responses of your friends and family who will devastate you the most. Whistleblowers got around a 98% chance of getting divorced. My stupid wife is still married to me. We fought like maniacs in the years after my firing. It took her a decade to forgive me. My saving grace is I never drank booze in this period. I have been a recovering alcoholic since 1979. I still the jerk I always was and sober maybe worst.           

England Coalition. I talked to one of the experts with the Union of Concerned Scientist. My  crazy complaint was,

So shoot me, this is my spin...

“they have fuel pellets rattling around freely in the primary coolant system”. Some fuel pellets separated from the pins. They were circulating in the coolant.

So it is about a year later. VY had canned me and I have talked extensively to the New Coalition of Nuclear Pollution. Their chairman says, I just got to tell you a story. You remember the fuel pellet story? After your teleconference with us and the Union of Concerned Scientist...the NECNP spokesman said what mike is talking about, with the fuel pellets being ejected from the pin had never happened in the nuclear industry before. That guy mike seems to be disgruntled and slightly mentally ajar (UCS). You need to stay away from him because he is untrustworthy. He is way out in space and his concern is preposterous. We at the NECNP believed him mike, the NECNP chairman said with a smile. That you are a little bit odd and fuel pellets being outside the pin. We didn't believe VY would operate in that condition. You can imagine our shock when after the first few weeks of that plant shutdown outage. The story was in a Brattleboro Reformer newspaper article. Actually the NECNP official got a call from the state nuclear engineer. We believed the UCS official that you were mentally unbalanced, but it ended up you were perfectly right. The article showed up saying a fuel pin at VY was mysterious discovered with a 8 inch gash in it. Eight fuel pellets were missing from the pin and nobody knows where they went. I told her I'd actually seen a picture of the gash from this outage. The lips of the gash were protruding out. There was a steam explosion in the pin and that expelled the pellets. The gash looked like a steam explosion!

I wanted to show everyone what I had under my hood. I made the concern known a few week before the shutdown through the state nuclear engineer, the newspaper article about the rattling loose fuel pellets in the recirc system. I wanted to get them on the record before they popped the reactor head off. VY responded to the article with ridiculing and belittled of my analysis saying it is absolutely impossible just before the outage. We know who made the complaint, he is a troubled employee. VY agreed with the Union of Concerned Scientist that it never happened before and it couldn't happen. This obviously was a very rare event.

When gash became seen a few weeks later from inside the fuel assembly inspection the state and the NRC demanded a thorough investigation. Vermont Yankee wanted to only inspect some limited bundles. The state made them inspect them all. It delayed the start-up. I told the state inspector VY is doing a very limited inspection and there is more damaged pins in the core. They even discovered more fuel failures over this in the state mandated inspection that the wasn’t seen on the first inspection. Can you even believe these guys with all their enemies closely watching them.

It should be admitted VY spent considerable sums of money doing an investigation of me on this. They back tracked the movement of the pin and me through history to see if I had the opportunity to sabotage the fuel. Me and the pin just never crossed paths!

VY's theory was the pin developed a pin pinhole leak. The gas inside the pin escaped. It was replaced by some water. It turned into steam, then we cooled down. That created a vacuum. This drew in lots of water into the failed pin. It made the uranium pellets over moderated. We pulled a nearby rod to increase power during the startup, this severely overpowered the water filled pin with uranium pellets. It caused a rapid increase in temperature. A localized steam explosion was created leading to the pin 8 inch gash.

It was the first time this happened anywhere in the industry. I predicted it by analyzing the symptoms and what I observed in the control room. Got it written down as a safety concern in newspaper article before we could eyeball the damage.

See, I don’t know about the worth on having ever decreasing margins of safety...trying to sit on the razor’s edge between unsafe and safe behavior. I have also thought we should define a barrier limit, say the integrity of the fuel cladding barrier, or our competence with absolutely containing radioactivity with the piping system and other components. This is not rocket science...it is simple and basic engineering.

It is a really big deal to have an uncontrolled release of radioactivity into the environment. I don't care how small it is! At least it is monitored and controlled. We know it before, and the magnitude, before the leak occurred and is discharged. That is called in total control of the radioactivity.

Basically, the symptoms of competence with a nuclear organization is the ability to contain radioactivity within these barrier pipes and reliable operation of the equipment. The behavior is independent of safety related. If a nuclear plant are breaching these barriers, it may not be safety related or a health consequence. But tho barriers we set independent of safety, no radioactive substance gets past these limits. If the radioactive substance gets past the barrier, that means the competence and skills of the organization are in steep decline. We have just become careless and lackadaisical with maintaining limits. There is something big going on what is incentivizing letting down our guard with maintaining a set barrier. If we were a really professional and competent organization, we never let our bureaucracy degrade to such a pathetic state. It is a leading indicator of a future breach of a safety (actual) barrier.

So an uncontrolled leak of radiation represent a collapse of basic engineering competence not necessity a safety barrier. What we know of these events it can cascade into further and deepening of engineering and organizational incompetence and carelessness. The idea that our engineering expertise, our highly expensive training and profession education...what we know is this carelessness and lackadaisicalness has the ability to pick up steam. It numbs us as the disease progresses. The inertia and velocity of the mental sickness is so severe it blows by us without any warning. It whizzes past the safety limit sitting on the razor blade edge of being safe/unsafe. The speed is so high the employees and the regulators can’t see the breaching of the safety barrier...or the complexity of the declining dynamic system are so enormous, we never understand a safety barrier has been breach or a new type of accident is developing.

You get it. Through this I dragged in a lot of NRC, state and media activity. The next step was telegraphing to outsider we are making changes at the plant and we got this under control. I am convinced Vermont wanted me out of  the plant because I was giving the state a black eye. I am exhausted though all this activity. VY was in the process of yanking my license. Then we had the worst  accident in the life of the plant. They were doing delayed and now improper maintenance in the switchyard. They were replacing the backup power safety circuits batteries. They were taking shortcut and they botched the job. They had degraded diodes in some circuits. It tripped at transmission breakers in the switchyard. We had degraded cooling to the Emergency Diesel generator, the only source of power at the plant. We had poor control of the plant by the control room and unexspected failure of safety equipment.      

 

The problem is what if we are juggling with too many balls in the air. Then a new stressor shows up. This is when we lose track of all the balls, and they all fall to the floor.

When Entergy withholds information from the community...the first one they hide information from is the offending organization itself. You blind yourself before you blind the community. Entergy blinds themselves.

If the community can see, that means you can see?"