More Hope Creek's Junk Safety Relief Valves

All resource limitations of any kind, budget limitations or any priorities of any kind, are extremely immoral because the burdens always fall on the poor and the weak!!!

Richard Barkley,

This is a cover-up as illuminated by the NRC and Hope Creek… in they won’t describe the troubles with bringing on better designed valves and the weasels and slippery words you both use.

A perfect Truism: First they corrupt language, then the accident happens!

In a court of law or court of public opinion, I’d ripped the NRC’s credibility to shreds with your own documents or lack of appropriate documentation. The fundamental research and studies understanding the process of corrosion bonding on SRVs is sadly lacking. I think this is on purpose.  Remember there is tremendous amount of energy and forces going though the SRVs when fully open and a relatively small dp from shut to full open with the pilot valves

Where in the FSAR or any reference material does the documental allow\describe having the SRVs and S/RV system be both inop and safe at the same time? The word inop has a special definition for the NRC. This is a unapproved drastic change to the facility…you created a unapproved operating region without the documentation to prove it is safe.

Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 3

Licensee Event Report 50-296/2016-004-00

“TS 3.4.3 requires twelve of the thirteen S/the  to be operable for S/RV system operability. The three failed MS RVs rendered the entire S/RV system inoperable for the duration of the fuel cycle, from March 19, 2014 to February 20, 2016.”

“The two-stage pilot valves failed due to the valve disc corrosion bonding to the valve seat.”

“TS 3.4.3 requires twelve of the thirteen S/RVs to be operable for S/RV system operability. The three failed MS RVs rendered the entire S/RV system inoperable for the duration of the fuel cycle, from March 19, 2014 to February 20, 2016.”

Today you described the rate corrosion bonding  as stable and predictable (“What if 10 SRVs set pressure is greater than 10%”.. But the OE says the corrosion rate is totally unpredictable. I’d sure like to see that OE.  The NRC has been giving me inaccurate and incomplete information surrounding Hope Creek hoping to throw me off track.

1)     I asked you if Hope Creek has a undisclosed SRV now who is inop? You never answered that question. Hope Creek should be shutdown right now because more than one SRV is inop and failed.

2)     You implied Hope Creek with the SRVs upon start-up always begins with a clean state absent any historic record. The NRC expects there to be no setpoint drift during the operating period. This assertion is called regulatory and engineering malpractice.

3)     You said the target rock SRV  issues is highly sensitive to the NRC implying everyone knows a cover-up is ongoing. There is potentially a generic issues effecting more than one plant.

4)     I asked you how does the NRC explain the fifteen year old trend of zero, one or two fail valves  and it slowly trending up to ten valves twice in a row today?. Again the passive-aggressive syndrome non answers. It is violence against transparency and contrary to the meaning of our Constitution.  Remember a few years back they weaken the pressure setpoint testing from plus or minus 1% to today’s plus or minus 3% (a regulator accommodating these defective valves through campaign contribution). That is a 200% weakening of the setpoint lift testing and it drastically shot up to now ten valves failing the last two cycles. It is looks really bad on the raw data in the new LER….but it is really really bad if today’s 3% inop rate was normalized to 1%. It is a short term drastic change in corrosion bonding rate.

5)     You implied the SRV were safe because when the corrosion bonded valves are tested, when it enmediarely is retested, it comes back to the original setpoint.  It is the essence of the NRC gives selective information to support an illegal agenda of the agency. I asked, well why don’t you make the licensees cycle the valve one a month so they can break corrosion bonding and return it to original setpoint lift. Again, the deafening sound of a passive/ aggressive violent silence of a non-answer (“Mike, this is really is a sensitive issues for the NRC.)  These valves are notorious for leaking once the corrosion bonding is broken (normal valve cycling) and ends up requiring a shutdown do to a leaking SRV.  It is profits and buddies over safety!

“On March 18, 2014, all thirteen BFN, Unit 3 MSRVs were replaced with refurbished valves which were certified to lift within +/- 1 percent of their setpoint. Industrial operating experience (OE) has shown that Target Rock two-stage MSRV setpoint drift is not a uniform, linear process. The corrosion bonding increases at a random rate. Without an accurate and reliable model for predicting or estimating the setpoint drift development, the point in time where the setpoint exceeded the +/- 3 percent limit cannot be reliably determined.”

I called your boss  and left a recording wondering if I could have a discussion about this today like we discussed. I wonder if information is being kept from your senior management?

I think this thing all is a illegal accommodation to the fact that Hope Creek can’t get any manufacturer (at any price) to supply new valves to the plant or any junk Target Rock SRVs based on liability issues with the manufacturer.  As you know, there are similar valves out in the market who have no history of set point drift. Instead, Hope Creek is stuck with crappy vendor services, maintenance and testing…

I talked to Hope Creek’s licensing manager over this. I think Hope Creek and Salem are generally declining perilously and the NRC doesn’t have the tools to stop to the decline (put a floor on it) until a big event shows up. The agency can’t anticipate and act on the decline of a plant, congress only enables the NRC to get involved in changing the behavior of the organization once the organizational dysfunction is intractably entrenched in the enormous organization.  Is your Indian Point moment approaching?   Collectively the NRC and Hope/ Salem site and staff’s are “overwhelmed” and underfunded in the second largest nuclear facility in the USA.

I remind everyone Hope Creek needs 15 of 16 SRVs to be operability in order to remain up at power. There isn't a lot of excess slack in this system.  

Could you put this e-mail in Hope Creek's docket?

Sincerely,

Mike Mulligan

Hinsdale, NH

steamshovel2002@yahoo.com

16033368320

Areva's Forged Documents: Must Resample A Representitive Sample Of Components

17 U.S. Nuclear Units Have Components Forged at Site Under Investigation

01/11/2017 | Aaron Larson

Although AREVA recently disclosed that 17 U.S. nuclear power plant units have installed components that were forged at the Le Creusot facility in France—a forge that has been under scrutiny due to questionable quality assurance documentation and carbon segregation irregularities in some parts manufactured at the site—the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) does not consider the situation an immediate safety concern.

“We are confident at this time that there are no safety concerns for U.S. nuclear power plants raised by the investigations in France,” David McIntyre, public affairs officer for the NRC, wrote in a blog post about the revelation.

“Our confidence is based on the U.S. material qualification process, preliminary structural evaluations of reactor components under scrutiny in France, U.S. material aging-management programs, our participation in a multinational inspection of Creusot Forge, and information supplied by AREVA about the documentation anomalies. Also, the components supplied to U.S. plants have performed well and inspections during their operating life have revealed no safety issues,” he continued.

The components in question are mostly replacement reactor vessel heads, replacement steam generator components, and pressurizers (Figure 1)….

Indian Point Permanent Shutdown: Half The Power Replaced By Non USA Sources

Now the big problems begins due to even more throttling of budgets.

You know what is nice about Canadian power, its long term contracts and the cost of the electricity are relatively expensive. It supports the high cost electricity across the board.   

Plan to shut down Indian Point includes safeguards

Going ... going ... gone by 2021 BUCHANAN – Governor Cuomo announced Monday that the Indian Point nuclear power plants will close down by April 2021. Entergy has agreed to end all operations at the facility, with plans to shut down unit 2 as early as April 2020 and unit 3 in April 2021. “For 15 years, I have been deeply concerned by the continuing safety violations at Indian Point, especially given its location in the largest and most densely populated metropolitan region in the country,” Cuomo said. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman called the closure “a major victory for the health and safety of millions of New Yorkers, and will help kick-start the state’s clean energy future.” As part of the deal, the state will make annual inspections of the plant related to key operational, regulatory and environmental matters. Entergy will transfer used fuel to protective storage in “dry casks.” The state Public Service Commission’s Indian Point Contingency Plan and other planning efforts have ensured that more than adequate power resources are able to come online by 2021 to ensure reliability of the power grid. Entergy will submit a six-year license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Entergy, the state and other organizations will terminate litigation against one another. Jobs will be protected under the closure plan with continued employment throughout the closure process and under the terms of its agreement with the state and Entergy has committed to offer plant employees new jobs at other facilities. Through the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency, the state will offer any worker re-trainings and new skills in renewable technologies like solar and wind. The agreement also says there will be sufficient replacement power to cover the 2,000 megawatts of electricity generated by Indian Point. Currently transmission upgrades and efficiency measures totaling over 700 megawatts are already in service. Several generation sources are also fully permitted and readily available to come online by 2021, after the plant’s closure, including clean, renewable hydropower able to replace up to 1,000 megawatts of power, the agreement said. The agreement also allows for “ample time to plan for and mitigate impacts to local tax revenue.” Entergy’s PILOTs – payments-in-lieu-of-taxes to local governments and school districts will continue through 2021, before gradually stepping down at a negotiated level following the shutdown.

Junk Sequoyah 1 Turbine Maintenance?

Update Jan 11

Last two days they've been hanging out at 14%... 

update Jan 9:

Still at 44%

More turbine problems. Are they doing less maintenance on the turbines? Turbine issues all over the place?

***TVA here was in trouble a year ago. We all remember about the troubles upon first startup at Watts Barr last year and their terribly persistent safety culture problems.   

Dec 15, 2015 

TVA completes refueling of Sequoyah Nuclear Plant

Utility prepares for power production at Watts Bar 

The Tennessee Valley Authority has completed the refueling of its newest reactor at the Sequoyah Nuclear Power Plant near Soddy-Daisy.

Plant operators will be increasing power at the Unit 2 reactor this week until it reaches full power and generates enough electricity to serve 650,000 homes.

During the outage over the past couple of weeks, TVA replaced 80 of the unit's 193 fuel assemblies and conducted detailed inspections of the reactor vessel to confirm all components meet design requirements to try to limit unplanned outages like the four this year on Unit 1 that resulted in extra regulatory oversight of the plant. During the Unit 2 outage, TVA also rebuilt a high pressure turbine and replaced both a reactor coolant pump motor and a main steam safety valve.

"The entire Sequoyah team, supported by more than 700 supplemental contract workers, successfully completed approximately 10,000 activities while working more than 138,000 man-hours," said Chris Schwarz, Sequoyah's new site vice president, said in a statement.

The refueling is the first since the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission elevated its oversight of Sequoyah last month due to the excessive number of reactor trips during 2015.

The NRC said there was one trip last winter and three this summer at Unit 1, the older of two reactors at Sequoyah.

NRC guidelines provide that when a reactor has more than three unplanned shutdowns in 7,000 operating hours, there is a stepped-up review of the plant by regulators. NRC charges the costs of those inspections to TVA.

Sequoyah's twin reactors are among a half dozen TVA nuclear reactors operating across the Valley, supplying nearly one-third of all electricity used by more than 9 million people in TVA's seven-state region.

Last week, TVA also completed the loading of fuel into its newest nuclear plant — the Unit 2 reactor at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City. TVA spokesman Jim Hopson said plant workers are testing pumps, valves and pressurized systems at the unit before beginning the nuclear fission process in the reactor to create the heat and steam to generate electricity.

Following further tests and power ascensions, TVA expects to put the Watts Bar unit into commercial, full-time operation by next spring, Hopson said.

Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340.

Sequoyah is struck at 44% power today. Last month they had generator stator cooling hydrogen issues and a shutdown for a turbine inspection and repair. They started up on Jan 1 and slowly coming up on power to today at 44%.

Junk Plant Cook 2: Three Month Outage

Are we seeing the future here with three month outages all over the place?

Unit 2 at Cook plant up and running after 89-day maintenance outage

• By Tony Wittkowski For the News

BRIDGMAN — The Unit 2 reactor at the Cook nuclear power plant was up and running again Monday night, Jan. 2, after being down since late Septem­ber for a planned refueling and maintenance outage.
Indiana Michigan Pow­er’s Cook plant completed its refueling at 7:20 p.m. Monday allowing its Unit 2 reactor to reconnect to the transmission grid.
In addition to refueling the reactor and perform­ing regular maintenance and testing work, the out­age was extended due to the replacement of the main turbine and the in­spection and replacement of baffle bolts, which sup­port internal components of the reactor vessel.

The outage lasted 89 days.
Replacement of the high-pressure turbine and all three low-pressure turbines is the largest of Cook’s Life Cycle Man­agement projects.
The $250 million tur­bine replacement has been in the planning stages for more than five years.
Originally, plans called for the reactor to be gain­ing in power and connect­ed to the electric grid by late December. However, an unexpected snag occurred as problems with defective fuel pump injectors for emergency diesel generators used as backup power supply for both Units 1 and 2 were discovered, plant spokes­man Bill Schalk said.
“That caused about a week delay from the sched­ule as we were hoping to be up around Christmas Eve,” Schalk said on Jan. 3, “but it was a longer out­age because of the baffle bolts and the turbine.”
The baffle bolt inspec­tions were previously planned for 2019, but were moved forward based on industry initiatives follow­ing the discovery of de­graded baffle bolts at two plants last spring.
Ultrasonic inspection was performed on all 832 bolts, and 201 bolts were replaced. Based on the inspections, AEP deter­mined there was no im­pact on the safety of Unit 2 during the previous cycle of operation.

Cook’s Life Cycle Man­agement includes 114 up­grade and replacement projects as part of the 20-year operating license extension granted by the Nuclear Regulatory Com­mission in 2005.
“Thanks to all our em­ployees and local and re­gional craft workers for their safe and hard work during this longer than usual outage,” Joel Gebbie, senior vice president and chief nuclear officer, said in a news release. “We also appreciate the support of our families and the community as we work to secure the long-term viability and reliability of our plant.”
Additional baffle bolt inspections and replacements, and a potential design change to minimize stress on baffle bolts, may also take place in subsequent outages for both Cook units.

Entergy and Mitsubishi: $28,000,000

How can you really know the true value  of  Entergy?  

Entergy Corporation (ETR) Shares Bought by Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp

Posted by David Glaser on Jan 5th, 2017 // No Comments

Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its position in Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) by 1.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 374,274 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 4,182 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp owned 0.21% of Entergy Corporation worth $28,718,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Nation Wide Electricity Price Worst Ever

Electricity Prices in the U.S. Are Capping Their Worst Year Ever

by Naureen Malik 

December‎ ‎30‎, ‎2016‎ ‎3‎:‎03‎ ‎PM‎ ‎EST 

Electricity prices from Boston to Dallas sank to their lowest levels ever in 2016, presenting new challenges for generators more than a decade after the industry was deregulated.

Power prices plunged this year as cheap natural gas cut fuel costs, and wind and solar alternatives came online. Consumers also used less electricity for the second straight year, despite a summer heat wave, amid an industrial slowdown and growing awareness among households and businesses of ways to boost energy efficiency, according to government estimates

Deregulation targeted lower electricity costs by opening up competition among generators. The recent stress from sliding prices is forcing some companies to seek the protection afforded by regulation. FirstEnergy Corp. plans to become a fully regulated utility within two years and American Electric Power Co. may follow. At the same time, Exelon Corp. won subsidies to keep New York and Illinois nuclear plants running with consumers covering the costs. 

 “Low demand, low prices, subsidized or increased renewable generation and gas-fired generation, all of those are challenges the merchant power sector has been experiencing and will likely experience going forward,” said Paul Patterson, an analyst with Glenrock Associates LLC, in an interview Friday. 

The average around-the-clock spot price at PJM’s Western hub, which includes Washington and is the most actively traded U.S. power location, tumbled 19 percent this year to $28.78 a megawatt-hour, the least in grid data going back to 2005.  New York City, Boston and Dallas area power prices are similarly trading at record lows this year.

The Toshiba, Mitsubishi and Areva Nuclear Plant Contruction Black Hole

These entities didn't have enough juice to carry out these enterprises. They didn't have the power to maintain standards.

Japan’s Banks Rocked By Toshiba Meltdown Contagion Worries

December 29, 2016 8:03am NYSE:EWJ

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From Tyler Durden: After two days of total carnage in Toshiba stocks, bonds, and credit risk, the bloodbath continues with the once-massive Japanese company is collapsing once again in early trading – now down 50% in 3 days.

The cookie cutter construction never had no proof it would be more efficient. It was a giant con job. 

Toshiba Shares Plunge Further Over Problems at Nuclear-Power Subsidiary

Japanese conglomerate warns it might take multibillion-dollar write-down stemming from cost overruns at Westinghouse

By Rebecca Smith and

Updated Dec. 29, 2016 5:46 a.m. ET

TOKYO— Toshiba Corp. seemed poised to profit from a global nuclear power revival when it paid $5.4 billion to win a bidding war for Westinghouse Electric Co. in 2006.

Today, that bet threatens to sink the venerable Japanese conglomerate, as cost overruns and missed deadlines on nuclear reactor projects around the world have forced it to warn investors that it may soon have to report billions of dollars in losses.

Toshiba lost a fifth of its market value Wednesday and its stock fell an additional 17% Thursday in Tokyo as panicked investors rushed to sell shares. The news of the nuclear write-downs came just as Toshiba was beginning to emerge from an earlier accounting scandal.

“It’s an unexpected development at a time when concerns had been receding,” said Yoshinori Ogawa, strategist at Okasan Securities.

Toshiba shares had surged since February on optimism about its semiconductor business and expectations for solid net profit in the current fiscal year ending March 2017. A Toshiba spokesman declined to comment on the stock plunge. On Tuesday, Toshiba executives said they remain optimistic about the nuclear business.

Westinghouse’s woes help explain why the nuclear industry has seen its dreams of global growth sputter. Until recently, the company was regarded as the industry’s front-runner, the only nuclear supplier to have landed contracts for its next-generation reactor in both the U.S. and China.

But a series of missteps and unexpected problems have snarled nuclear projects by Westinghouse and rivals including Areva SA and General Electric Co.

Currently, 54 reactors are under construction in 13 nations, and 33 are badly delayed, according to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report, an independent annual assessment. Blunders have afflicted projects regardless of location, reactor design or construction consortia.

To lower construction costs and speed erection times, Westinghouse and its competitors came up with cookie-cutter plant designs in which major sections would be built as modules in factories and then hauled to plant sites for final assembly. Gone was the customization that added expense.

But the strategy appears to have backfired. “Supply-chain issues just moved from the plant sites to the factories. It didn’t solve the basic issue of quality control,” said Mycle Schneider, a nuclear expert based in Paris. And cookie-cutter designs meant flaws got replicated.

In France, Areva is trying to get to the bottom of a scandal involving falsified records for critical components that have wound up in nuclear plants there and in other countries, including the U.S. The problems appear to stretch back decades and to have gone unnoticed despite supposedly strict government supervision. Areva has said it is cooperating with government investigators from France and other nations.

“There’s a world-wide problem with managing these megaprojects,” said Edwin Lyman, senior scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, D.C. “Managers grossly underestimated the time and cost of construction.”

Westinghouse and its subcontractors recently took over construction management duties at its reactor projects in Georgia and South Carolina for CB&I Stone & Webster Inc., a U.S. company that it acquired in December 2015 for $229 million. Toshiba said this week it discovered unexpected inefficiencies in the labor force at the subsidiary that along with other factors were driving up costs.

Westinghouse acquired CB&I Stone & Webster in part because it was having difficulty producing the big modules at a facility at Lake Charles, La., that form the building-block units for nuclear reactors going up in the U.S. But the company struggled to find skilled construction workers, maintain quality control and tap a global supply chain that is required to meet rigorous standards of nuclear regulators.

Toshiba Chief Executive Satoshi Tsunakawa said the problems would force the company to take a write-down estimated at several hundred billion yen, or several billion dollars. Toshiba said it would release an exact number for accounting charges in February.

It isn’t clear if Toshiba’s financial difficulties will have an impact on the eight reactors it is trying to complete in the U.S. and China, but its disclosure suggests the situation is worse than previously understood.

In the U.S., Westinghouse was providing reactor components for nuclear plants in Georgia and South Carolina being built by utilities Southern Co. and SCANA Corp.

At the site of Southern’s Vogtle 3&4 reactors going up in rural Georgia, there have been rumors of financial problems for months, said Will Salters, business manager for the union IBEW Local 1579.

He said the site now employs about 500 of his electricians but the union recently received notice that there would be a hiring freeze pending a full review of manpower needs.

“We’ve been hearing for months they were broke and had to meet certain milestones by Southern to get paid,” Mr. Salters said.

Southern declined to comment on those claims.

In past discussions about the Vogtle project, Southern Chief Executive Tom Fanning said that his company had endeavored not to repeat the mistakes of the past when it entered into “cost plus” contracts with nuclear vendors in which it reimbursed companies for their expenses. Instead, he said, it tried to nail down costs through fixed-price contracts, thus shifting some of the risks of cost overruns to vendors.

Southern spokesman Craig Bell said the wisdom of the company’s approach was plain this week, saying it had protected customers by shifting “significant construction risks to the contractor.”

A spokesman for SCANA said the Pittsburgh company is still evaluating the finances of its reactor projects and will have more to report soon.

A spokeswoman for Westinghouse declined to comment.

Toshiba is already on a Tokyo Stock Exchange watch list because of the accounting scandal that forced it to take a $1.3 billion write-down for its nuclear business in November 2015. At the time, it acknowledged that it had overstated its profit for seven years.

A reduced stock value makes it difficult to raise funds by issuing new shares. Stock-exchange rules call for a company to be delisted if it falls into negative net worth at the end of its fiscal year and fails to repair the situation within a year.

Toshiba executives said they would ask the company’s banks for support. Toshiba already sold one of its best-performing units, Toshiba Medical Systems, to Canon Inc. this year.

— Takashi Mochizuki contributed to this article.

Write to Rebecca Smith at rebecca.smith@wsj.com and Kosaku Narioka at kosaku.narioka@wsj.com

Junk And Dead Ender Pilgrim Plant: Hydrogen Issues?

This must be the startup alarm. I don't get why a normal part of startup is reportable.

The hydrogen is on a regulator too maintain pressure. It connected to 10 or 15 big bottles of high pressure hydrogen. Once the generator is shutdown the machine and hydrogen cools down. The hydrogen in the generator contracts and the pressure regulator demand more hydrogen into the generator to maintain a set pressure. Now if you startup up and heat up the gas in the generator with all this extra hydrogen, you will over pressurize generator. The  relief valve will lift bringing the generator gas back to normal pressure.

Might this be a indication the control room staff being overwhelmed forgetting to isolate the hydrogen bottles into the generator? Shutting the isolation upon shutdown is a normal part of the shutdown procedure.

This happened in another recent event and it bit them in the ass. Did they notify the fire chief?

Junk and Dead Ender Pilgrim: The Fire Chief Says Its A Cover-up

Facility: PILGRIM Region: 1 State: MA Unit: [1] [ ] [ ] RX Type: [1] GE-3 NRC Notified By: KEVIN P. O'ROURKE HQ OPS Officer: JEFF HERRERA	Notification Date: 12/20/2016 Notification Time: 19:45 [ET] Event Date: 12/20/2016 Event Time: 18:30 [EST] Last Update Date: 12/20/2016
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY 10 CFR Section: 50.72(b)(2)(xi) - OFFSITE NOTIFICATION	Person (Organization): JAMES NOGGLE (R1DO)

Unit	SCRAM Code	RX CRIT	Initial PWR	Initial RX Mode	Current PWR	Current RX Mode
1	N	N	0	Cold Shutdown	0	Cold Shutdown

Event Text

OFFSITE NOTIFICATION - RELEASE OF HYDROGEN GAS IN EXCESS OF THE REPORTABLE QUANTITY OF TEN POUNDS "At 1830 EST on 20 December, 2016 the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the Plymouth Massachusetts Fire Department were notified of a Hydrogen release in accordance with plant procedures and 310CMR40.300, Massachusetts Contingency Plan Notification for Oil and Hazardous Material; Identification and Listing of Oil and Hazardous Material, due to a release of hydrogen gas to the environment exceeding the reportable quantity of ten pounds. The release, which is an expected part of a routine plant start-up was from the generator hydrogen cooling system. "This event posed no danger to the health and safety of plant personnel or members of the general public. "The NRC Resident Inspector has been notified."

Obama Strategy With Supporting The Collapsing Price Of Gasoline, Natural Gas and Electricity?

( Well, he is trying to limit the decline of the price. It is exactly the same as not building pipelines)

Things are never what they seem?

Obama Bans Drilling in Parts of the Atlantic and the Arctic

President Obama announced on Tuesday what he called a permanent ban on offshore oil and gas drilling along wide areas of the Arctic and the Atlantic Seaboard as he tried to nail down an environmental legacy that cannot quickly be reversed by Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Obama invoked an obscure provision of a 1953 law, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which he said gives him the authority to act unilaterally. While some presidents have used that law to temporarily protect smaller portions of federal waters, Mr. Obama’s declaration of a permanent drilling ban from Virginia to Maine on the Atlantic and along much of Alaska’s coast is breaking new ground. The declaration’s fate will almost certainly be decided by the federal courts…

Exelon: An Indication Of The Magnitude With Funding Starvation Tolerated By The NRC And Utilities Thoughout USA

Update: The Trump Effect

What is this going to do to Exelon? He's is going to wipe out federal green subsidies. Put all the coal miners back to work. Deregulate the hell out of the DEO and the Feds. This is all going intensify electric price declines. Going to completely wash out the effects of the Illinois nuke power agreement and favors to green energy.

The deal is just enough to keep the plants running, but have little effect over the material and safety conditions of the plant. The new pennies are not going to touch the vast majority of components in these grossly obsolete plants.  


Quad City

Clinton

One can only imagine the reverse engineering going on at these dilapidated plants. The parts and components are no longer in the commercial parts and component industry. They go these engineering firms to remanufacture the parts from the old specs and drawings. They usually lose information in the process guarantying they will fail early or not perform as normal commercial products. I'll bet half of the new funding is consumed in this ineffective and inefficient manner. It is horrendously inefficient spending hordes of money on the backbone technology which is fifty years old. 

I'll bet you spending all this money will make the plant more unreliable.


As far as the 400 new employees, these corporations and businesses are notoriously inaccurate with these kinds of political disclosures. Even if all of this new money goes into upkeep and maintenance, it is still grossly insufficient to maintain safety and reliability considering how obsolete these guys are. Most of the money will inflate(or stabilize) the stock price and jack up executives bonuses.

I think the continued decline in natural gas price will drarf these new monies into these particular plants. I think these kinds of ends are desperation with trying support the declining price of electricity based mostly on the price of natural gas. Ultimately all of Exelon's nuclear plants are non profitable and are stranded assets.

What if all forms of green energy...windmills and sun panels...are stranded assets. What would collusion look like for the nukies and greenies?

Exelon hiring 400 for nuclear power plants

Staff report

Updated Dec 14, 2016

CORDOVA — Exelon officials announced Wednesday that they plan to hire more than 400 people to fast track multiple capital projects at the Quad Cities Generating Station near Cordova and its Clinton, Ill.  nuclear power plant.

The announcement comes one week after Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the Future Energy Jobs Bill into law at Riverdale High School near Port Byron and similar ceremonies in Clinton, Ill.

“Opponents of the Future Energy Jobs Bill called it a bailout, but that’s a ridiculous argument,” said Rory Washburn, executive director of the Quad Cities area’s Tri City Building Trades Council. “This legislation is already creating good paying jobs for Illinois families and leveling the playing field so our safe and well run nuclear facilities can compete fairly with other subsidized sources of clean energy.”

The Quad Cities project list includes installing a hardened venting system, plant computer upgrades and enhancements to the control room simulator, which is used to train reactor operators. The Clinton list includes upgrades to the plant’s main generator, replacing an auxiliary transformer and upgrades to a pump motor that controls water flow outside the reactor.

The projects, and others, were cancelled or put on hold in May after Exelon announced plans to close the Clinton plant in 2017 and the Cordova plant in 2018 if state subsidies were not approved…

Junk Plant Columbia:More Coponents Fail During Lastest Hard Scram

Why wasn't this picked up during normal testing and inspections?

Power Reactor	Event Number: 52443
Facility: COLUMBIA GENERATING STATION Region: 4 State: WA Unit: [2] [ ] [ ] RX Type: [2] GE-5 NRC Notified By: DAVID PORTER HQ OPS Officer: BETHANY CECERE	Notification Date: 12/19/2016 Notification Time: 07:39 [ET] Event Date: 12/18/2016 Event Time: 23:20 [PST] Last Update Date: 12/19/2016
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY 10 CFR Section: 50.72(b)(3)(v)(D) - ACCIDENT MITIGATION 50.72(b)(3)(ii)(A) - DEGRADED CONDITION	Person (Organization): RAY KELLAR (R4DO)

Unit	SCRAM Code	RX CRIT	Initial PWR	Initial RX Mode	Current PWR	Current RX Mode
2	N	N	0	Hot Shutdown	0	Hot Shutdown

Event Text

UNISOLABLE LEAK ON HIGH PRESSURE CORE SPRAY "On December 18, 2016 at 2320 [PST], a leak was discovered on the High Pressure Core Spray (HPCS) system minimum flow line. The leak is located at a bolted flange downstream of the manual isolation valve HPCS-V-53. The location of the leak is not isolable from the suppression pool. This provides a direct path from inside the Primary Containment to the Reactor Building. "High Pressure Core Spray system is a single train Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS) system, therefore inoperability is reportable per 10 CFR 50.72(b)(3)(v)(D). "Based on the location of the leak, Primary Containment integrity is compromised. Primary Containment was declared inoperable and is reportable per 10 CFR 50.72(b)(3)(ii)(A). "The cause of the leak is under investigation. Actions are underway to cool down and enter MODE 4." The licensee has notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

Junk Plant Columbia Going Down the Tubes

Recent Events

1) Whistleblower discloses Columbia hiding plant decline.

2) Special inspection on transferring radioactive materials six times the allowed levels.

3) The hard scram uncovered a lot of degraded and failed components.

Power Reactor	Event Number: 52442
Facility: COLUMBIA GENERATING STATION Region: 4 State: WA Unit: [2] [ ] [ ] RX Type: [2] GE-5 NRC Notified By: JEFFERY KUETHER-ULBERG HQ OPS Officer: JEFF HERRERA	Notification Date: 12/18/2016 Notification Time: 18:13 [ET] Event Date: 12/18/2016 Event Time: 11:24 [PST] Last Update Date: 12/18/2016
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY 10 CFR Section: 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(A) - ECCS INJECTION 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B) - RPS ACTUATION - CRITICAL 50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A) - VALID SPECIF SYS ACTUATION	Person (Organization): RAY KELLAR (R4DO) MIKE KING (NRR) BERNARD STAPLETON (IRD)

Unit	SCRAM Code	RX CRIT	Initial PWR	Initial RX Mode	Current PWR	Current RX Mode
2	A/R	Y	100	Power Operation	0	Hot Shutdown

Event Text

AUTOMATIC SCRAM DUE TO LOAD REJECT FROM SUBSTATION "On December 18, 2016 at time 1124 PST the plant experienced a full reactor scram. Preliminary investigations indicate that the scram was caused by a load reject from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) Ashe substation. Further investigations continue. The following conditions have occurred: "Turbine Governor valve closure Reactor high pressure trip +13 inches reactor water level activations E-TR-B (backup transformer) supplying E-SM-7/SM-8 (vital power electrical busses) Complete loss of Reactor Closed Cooling (RCC) E-TR-S (Startup transformer) supplying SM-1/2/3 (non-vital power electrical busses) E-DG-1/2/3 (emergency diesel generators) auto start Low Pressure Core Spray (LPCS) and Residual Heat Removal (RHR) A/B/C initiation signals Main Steam Isolation Valves (MSIV) are closed "Reactor Core Isolation Cooling (RCIC) RCIC and High Pressure Core Spray (HPCS) were manually activated and utilized to inject and maintain reactor water level. Pressure control is with Safety Relief Valves (SRV) in, manual. Level control is with RCIC and Control Rod Drive (CRD). RCIC has experienced an over speed trip that was reset so that level control could be maintained by RCIC. "This event is being reported under the following: 10 CFR 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(A) which requires a 4 hour notification for Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS) discharge into the reactor coolant system. 10 CFR 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B) which requires a 4 hour notification for any event or condition that results in actuation of the Reactor Protection System (RPS) when the reactor is critical. 10 CFR 50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A) which requires an 8 hours notification for actuation of ECCS systems. "All control rods fully inserted. "The NRC Resident Inspector has been informed." The licensee indicated that no increase in radiation levels were detected.

Dead Ender and Junk Plant Pilrim: Three Leaking Main Steam Isolation Valves

Update: It was not a trip, thus no event report yet.

I find it preposterous even for Pilgrim, it could be leaking control air tubing like recent past. If it is the copper air tubes, I would consider it abnormal vibrations in the steam lines.   

So they got four of these big valves inside containment and four outside containment. They would have to shutdown the plant to inspect the valves inside containment because the radiation levels would be too high. Certainly the short term steam gamma radiation would be too high on the outside of MSIVs containment...but reducing power would certainly allow the inspection. I believe the outside MSIVs are in the steam tunnel room. It has temperatures instrumentation and a water sump. They count the times the sump pump starts. From there, they can calculate the amount of water leaking into the room and trend it. We always had water on the floor indicating outside water was coming into the steam tunnel room. So they knew a abnormal leak was in there and have been aware of it trending up.

There is no doubt a burst steam pipe in the steam tunnel room would get into the reactor building and take out all or most of the electrical equipment and reactor safety instrumentation by exceeding environmental temperatures.

As example, there are two of their giant valves in each main steam line. These valves are safety valves more than radiation containment valves.  One valve leaks and then the other would stop the leak. But if both valves were leaking, you would be "up the creek". But say in the burst of the main stream line in the steam tunnel, a tremendous amount of energy would enter the reactor building. You couldn't stop the leak until the plant cooled down and depressurize. There is a high probability this would blind the control room totally from knowing what is going on in the core. It would be a very serious accident and they'd get in a site emergency...the highest...quickly.

There is no doubt these leaks have been going on knowingly for a very long time.

I can't wait for the event report disclosed tomorrow.       

Pilgrim remains shut down 

By Christine Legere

PLYMOUTH - Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station remains shut down today after the discovery of leaks in three of the eight main steam isolation valves, designed to close quickly to prevent radioactivity from leaking into the environment during a nuclear incident.

One of the three valves was declared inoperable and had to be removed from service, said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan.

"There were subsequent efforts to fix the leak on that (valve), but they were unsuccessful," Sheehan said. "Our resident inspectors assigned to Pilgrim observed the repair efforts prior to shutdown via camera. They also observed the reactor shutdown and will closely follow the repair work and restart planning."

A similar leak in a main steam isolation valve forced a shutdown of the reactor in mid-August.

Pilgrim, owned and operated by Entergy Corp., was lowered to the Column 4 performance category by the NRC last year, making it one of the worst-performing plants in the country. The category is one step from forced shutdown.

Based on federal inspections and reports, the 44-year-old plant, slated to permanently shut down in June 2019, continues to be plagued by equipment problems and poor operator performance.

A team of 20 inspectors from around the country spent from Nov. 28 to Dec. 9 scouring systems and worker performance at Pilgrim, based on its poor performance status. They will return for a final week Jan. 9.

In an in-house email outlining preliminary observations, which was mistakenly sent to citizen activist Diane Turco, president of the Cape Downwinders, the leader of the inspection team described staff as "overwhelmed."

On inspector Donald Jackson's list of findings were failure of plant workers to follow established industry procedures, broken equipment that never gets properly fixed, lack of required expertise among plant experts, failure of some staff to understand their roles and responsibilities, and a team of employees who appear to be struggling with keeping the nuclear plant running.

"The corrective actions in the recovery plan seem to have been hastily developed and implemented, and some have been circumvented as they were deemed too hard to complete," Jackson wrote of Entergy's plan to bring Pilgrim back up to acceptable standards. "We are observing current indications of a safety culture problem that a bunch of talking probably won't fix."

Plymouth selectmen demanded that an NRC representative attend a meeting held last Tuesday, but Daniel Dorman, director of the northeast region for the NRC, declined. Dorman said the observations in the email were preliminary. An agency representative would only meet with selectmen when the full inspection was completed and the final report drawn up. That won't happen until early February.

Selectmen vowed to push, through the region's state and federal legislative representatives, for a meeting in January when inspectors return to Pilgrim.

At the time that the main isolation valve leaks were discovered, the reactor was operating at a reduced power level of 25 percent to take care of some required testing of turbine valves. That inspection was completed.

Entergy spokesman Patrick O'Brien said the problem involving the main steam isolation valves was found during a "walk through" to check other systems at the plant....

The Real Story in the Shutdown of Maine Yankee

Right, same old themes here. A small utility basically operated the plant. They got over their head during contrition and throughout the rest of the life of the plant. Basically they starved funding to the plant leading to outsiders taking advantage of the situation. The collapse of the natural resource industry, massive losses in the pulp industry based on foreigners taking advantage of us just like the rust belt. Local politics fractured leading to the rise of teabaggerism and scrabbles of town control and taxed. Basically Maine has been in a depression since way before the shutdown of the plant. Touristism has changed and is fickle, with our national slow economy, the great recession of 2008 and such, our great manufacturing decline, property values were all over the place and the bifurcation of our society and incomes of recent...that is what is more impacting this town than the closure of the plant.

Right, a electric too high price rebellion was building. Deregulation---to reduce electric prices began in the early 1990s. All the utilities were drastic cutting cost in their fear of deregulation. The Time magazine Millstone nuclear plant scandal occurring in the later 1990s. The old Exelon starved funding to their fleet. The NRc finally cracked down ending in temportary shutdowns. Exelon panicked throwing a lot of money on the nuke fleet. They stole money from the transmission and distribution system later leading into massive component breakdowns and blackouts. Electric prices were exploding, shortages were everywhere. The California power crisis, Enron and Davis Besse was right around the corner. Millstone and the Maine Yankee scandal before shutdown caused a lot of New Englanders not to trust the NRC. All this put the politicians and ultimate owners in a corner. It was a grand failure of the electricity establishment for decades.

I could make the case the pro nuclear industry paid for this article.  They want to make Wiscasset the poster child for not shutting down old dog plants

The moral of this story is how important it is to built and run a nuclear plant competently. Don't give disgruntles the ammo to take you down.      

Maine Yankee fallout: A town’s turmoil, 20 years in the making

By Beth Brogan, BDN Staff

Posted Dec. 17, 2016, at 1 a.m.
Last modified Dec. 17, 2016, at 1:15 p.m.

WISCASSET, Maine — In 1998, still flush with tax money from the Maine Yankee atomic power plant — which had closed two years earlier — Wiscasset opened a multimillion-dollar community center just outside the heart of town.

Now, almost 20 years later, the center remains open, but the community it is serving in this coastal town, billed as “the prettiest village in Maine,” looks like it’s lost its way.

Municipal government is wracked by turmoil, with elected officials resigning, a citizens group aggressively challenging selectmen’s decisions, and basic policy matters decided by petitions and referendum.

A school system that routinely turned away tuition students because it ranked among the best in Maine now struggles with massive enrollment declines, annual budget travails, and questions about its leadership and direction.

Meanwhile, an agreement between state and local officials to try to resolve a traffic bottleneck on Route 1 — after half a century of negotiations — has drawn organized opposition, legal warnings and a petition.

How did Wiscasset reach this point?

Many residents see it as the inevitable fallout from the nuclear plant’s closure. Others see it as a cautionary tale for other Maine communities, such as mill towns, that struggle to adapt when a seismic change occurs to its economic base.

From boom to the edge of bust

For awhile during the quarter century Maine Yankee generated power on Bailey Point, Wiscasset residents — many of them power plant employees who drew an average salary of $54,000 — didn’t even pay for their own utilities.

In 1996, when the plant shut down for good, Maine Yankee paid the town nearly $13 million in property taxes — about 91 percent of the town’s entire tax base, according to tax records.

Former Selectwoman Judy Flanagan, a longtime resident of Wiscasset and a vice chairwoman of the Board of Selectmen until resigning in November, remembers the envious reactions when she told people she lived in Wiscasset.

“Every town would like to have had that pocketbook we had,” she said in an interview.

Two decades later, Maine Yankee’s employees and much of its tax base are long gone. The burden of struggling to live with a slimmer pocketbook has frayed many in a town that longtime resident Bill Sutter said “has developed a big city attitude, with big city amenities and budgets, when we are in fact a small town.”

Town facilities have not been upgraded, or in some cases maintained, since the Maine Yankee years. Most notably, a failing sewer plant has violated environmental standards for a second time, this year triggering fines of nearly $20,000. The plant also will need repairs that could easily reach $100,000, according to information provided by town officials…

Obama’s Cyber Retaliation to Russia

Lets say it is in the long term interest of China or other national player to weaken the USA and Russia. They drop Russia’s electric system and 10,000 people freeze to death. Seeing how Obama says a USA retaliation is on the way, Russia assumes the USA did it. But China did it and puts the USA cyber DNA on the attack virus. Then Russia says they got proof the USA did it. What kind of war would it be.