Burns Is Out, Svinicki Is In, As NRC Chiarman: Portends More Musical Chairs In NRC Leadership.

Burns was just a care-taker bureaucrat and Dem in name only. Burns won't stay long now as just a regular NRC commissioner.

Yep, Svinicki is the best of the litter, but she is definitely is no Trump. She is not a revolutionary.

You desperately need somebody who will shake up the hell out of the agency. The agency is in total chaos and the industry is object decline. There is little discipline at the plants now and no accountability in the NRC. The political establishment has compromised the NRC, you can't tell the difference between the democrats and republicans. Your can't believe anything the NRC or industry ever says.      

Just think how natural gas price has declined in the last few years and how it will continued to decline in the next 8 years. The Trump philosophy is going to lower electricity prices even more. Green electricity is nothing but corruption. You are going to need some really tough people, some good, well educated and experience people to counteract this. These low electric prices are a once in a hundred year event. The vitality of the industry is quickly decaying away because of the low electric prices.

Honestly, if I wanted to strangle the Trump "baby in the crib" (your administration), I'd create a nuclear plant meltdown. It would only take a person or two to accomplish this. Spew some uncontrollable radiation outside the plant, no injury or casualties. But your administration would be dragged in the nuclear mud for years just like Jimmy Carter. You want to hear a nuclear submarine joke? I served on a fast attack nuclear submarine between 1986 to 1990. The cold war was ending and the world was very unstable. I was underwater on that boat for the majority of those four years completely isolated from our society. These four years neatly fit into the Carter presidency. The submarine joke is, when somebody talks about the Carter presidency, I/we respond with "who is he? I missed his presidency being underwater and on patrol during those years. Only a real submariner would get the humor in the joke without a prolonged explanation. There are events in the industry where nuclear fuel was intentionally damaged by the executives to meet a political objective(Conn. Yankee). Whether political sabotage or accidental, this will consume your presidency. A nuclear plant meltdown at one plant would emediately flip nationwide into electricity shortages and price spikes for decade.

I would accept being nominated to be a NRC commissioner, another submarine joke,                               

We need a extremely bright and free thinking high utility nuclear executive with broad experience as a commissioner. Better would be a big utility executive who has seen the big picture. I could even swallow two of these executives. They need to be free thinkers like Trump.

A union executive with balls and moxie would be nice to stick up for the lower troops. Sorry, union members today are nothing but losers, much like the rest of the establishment. They can't and don't effectively stand up for themselves...they are not free thinkers.

President Donald Trump has named Kristine Svinicki chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Svinicki, a Republican, has served on the panel since 2008. She replaces Democrat Stephen Burns, who led the panel the past two years.

Junk Plant Grand Gulf Shutdown For 0perator Incompetence Still Ongoing?

Update Jan 27

So I called the senior resident. My buddy told me to call him anytime especially if I see something in a inspection report. He emediately recognized my voice, talked about our nice conversation three months ago...he invited me to call him anytime I wished. I bet you we talked for about 45 minutes.   

It has been about 3 months...the senior said operations has been massively retrained. Spent a lot of money on new equipment. I guess installation of new equipment is still ongoing. He said Grand Gulf is mostly done. He wouldn't give me a guess on a restart. I asked him if he seen the leak memo from Don Jackson. I had him go to this blog and click on the below link "Junk NRC at pilgrim". He said he is too busy to keep up with other plants. I didn't think he'd seen the memo and I was right. My focus of the call was to get him to read the Jackson memo. I asked him if any of the memo seemed similar to Grand Gulf. I asked him was the employees complaining to him about the problems at the plant before the shutdown. He said no.  Then you have safety culture problems. He told me he can't see it, the employees freely talk to the inspectors. But we haven't looked into it...a big safety culture inspection is on the way. The shutdown rocked the boat of all the employees. The senior said Entergy has had multitudes of industry experts walking in and out of the plant since shutdown. I doubt the NRC can see the real safety culture prior to the shutdown, because the employees have all been preconditioned with all the propaganda retraining. I believe at the highest levels, this has been a defecto coverup. A competent regulator would sized up situation immediately upon shutdown, demanded a site standdown, then emediately bring in the safety culture experts to preform comprehensive inspection to capture the real safety culture. But the agency only writes in documents what they want you to see...selective and protective disclosures. They are just now going to be parroting this massive propaganda new retraining to the upcoming safety culture inspectors. So the object of my phone call was to expose the inspector and their bosses to Jackson's e-mail.

Honestly, I have to give great, great credit to the NRC for allowing me to speak with these NRC on scene inspectors knowing my capabilities. My Grand Gulf inspector spoke about and knows Entergy is a outlier fleet operator. Everyone is closely watching Entergy now. I would tell you it so without fear of anyone(well, except my wife). But these on site inspectors are highly educated and extensively trained. The love their families and children, they are involved with their communities...they love their country and are patriotic Americans to the one. They are truly the lowly compensated 1%ers who sit above the majority of us with their skills and expertise. In the good sense. They just got a system above them that is chaotic and dysfunctional. We as a nation, owe them something better.                           

***An absolution system

Junk NRC at Pilgrim (Don Jackson leaked memo on special inspection)

I wonder if the Pilgrim's e-mail operational problems is related to Grand Gulf? I didn't see the special inspection report on the docket yet.

Junk Plant Grand Gulf: Delay Startup to Fix Safety Culture

It sounds like they discovered more problems than expected. It is highly unusual we haven't seen articles priming us for the restart of the plant.

What is the date for restart...

They were supposed to startup Jan 15. It is now Jan 26.

...Grand Gulf Nuclear Station has been shut down since Sept. 8. The plant was initially shut down to repair a water cooling pump. But on Sept. 23, after work on the pump was completed, according to the NRC, workers discovered problems with a backup cooling system. NRC conducted an inspection, and Entergy said it was voluntarily keeping the plant closed until all issues have been addressed, after having several maintenance issues over the last year or so. Both Entergy and the NRC said issues at the plant have posed no health or safety risks to employees or the public.

ADVERTISING

inRead invented by Teads

NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said nuclear plants shut down regularly for maintenance and that Grand Gulf's issues were "not unprecedented."
Presley said the plant is scheduled to start back up on Jan. 15.

... Bowling said the plant's current outage is the fifth this year. This includes a planned refueling outage, which happens every 18 months to 24 months, that lasted 38 days starting in February. The plant had an automatic safety shutdown for two days while coming back online after refueling. In June it was shut down for about two days to repair turbine controls, then later that same month was shut down for 25 days for more repairs on turbine controls.

The Meltdown of Toshiba Just Got Much Worst.

Everyone thought we wouldn't ever return to the new plant construction crisis of the 1970s. In those days, the troubles would impair the finances of the utilities or bankrupt them after construction ended. Now we are ripping apart the plant manufacturer midstream before we impair the US utilities. 

Are they pressuring the utilities to phony up more money or we will shutdown US operations...  

Toshiba's loss from U.S. nuclear power business swells to 680 billion yen

January 26, 2017 (Mainichi Japan)

Japanese version

Financially troubled Toshiba Corp. has incurred a loss of around 680 billion yen from its U.S. nuclear power business, the Mainichi Shimbun learned on Jan. 25.

• 【Related】Editorial: Toshiba must clarify how it suffered staggering losses
• 【Related】Toshiba's huge U.S. loss, falling credibility cast shadow over bank support
• 【Related】Embattled Toshiba needs to revamp nuclear plant business due to huge loss

In response to this heavy deficit, Toshiba will hold a board meeting on Jan. 27 -- at which it will determine a plan for breaking off its flagship semiconductor business division, and enlisting external stakeholders -- in an attempt to avoid falling into excessive debt, as of the end of the business year ending March 2017.

Initially, Toshiba anticipated losses of 480 billion yen, but the figure was actually confirmed to be around 200 billion yen higher -- at 680 billion yen -- following an appraisal in the U.S. that was completed last weekend. The main cause for this heavy loss is thought to be the further swelling of costs relating to Toshiba's nuclear power plant construction project in the U.S. Following this revelation, the company explained the situation to its main creditor banks earlier this week, and is planning to publicize details about the loss on Feb. 14. There is still a chance that the final loss figure may fluctuate further.

At the end of September 2016, Toshiba's equity capital was 363.2 billion yen. In autumn 2016, Toshiba anticipated net profits of 145 billion yen as of March 2017, but if the company's loss swells to 680 billion yen, then this will have a detrimental effect on Toshiba's equity capital, potentially resulting in a deficit or excessive debt. Therefore, the company is aiming to secure funds through enlisting external stakeholders for its split-off semiconductor business division, thereby increasing capital...

Junk Plants Millstone and Dominion Corp Are "On The Ropes"

The rats are all jumping ship? The carnage to the rest of the nuke plants has just begun !!! I see the funding struggles already with all the recent equipment problems and plant accidents(the duel plant trip and serial special inspections on the failures of the turbine driven aux feed pump).

It is not uncommon with a NRC region to get overwhelmed with troubled plants. Especially with one really bad outlier plant. All the NRC resources get sucked into a Pilgrim like plant. A seemly good plant declines shocking quickly unseen by the NRC. Then the good plant has a very bad accident with the NRC distracted by the troubled plants.    

Millstone Wants Access to Bigger Markets for its Electricity 

Stephen Singer Contact Reporter

The owner of Millstone Nuclear Power Station, struggling with competition from cheap and abundant natural gas, is seeking state help from lawmakers who may be eager to protect one of Connecticut's biggest businesses.

Dominion, the operator of Millstone in Waterford, is pushing to revive legislation boosting its access to electricity markets. A leading lawmaker said a measure this year could be similar to one that died in 2016.

"I want to do an interdiction," said Rep. Lonnie Reed, the House chairwoman of the Energy and Technology Committee. 

Reed, D-Branford, cited last summer's $220 million state deal with Sikorsky that keeps hundreds of manufacturing jobs at the helicopter maker in Stratford as a reason to support Millstone.

"We're in the middle of showing we're business-friendly," she said.

Kevin Hennessy, a spokesman for Dominion, said legislation would give the Richmond, Va., power company the "opportunity to compete."

Nuclear, coal and oil have been excluded in the past few years from state-authorized purchases of power, Hennessy said. Unlike coal and oil, which are losing favor because of carbon pollution, nuclear is zero-emission, making it an attractive alternative.

For example, replacement energy largely from fossil-fuel fired plants following the retirement of the Vermont Yankee nuclear station in 2014 drove up carbon dioxide emissions by 2.5 percent the following year, reversing a decline over several years, according to ISO New England, the region's power grid operator.

Still, safety concerns at nuclear plants remain high among environmentalists, officials and consumers.

Millstone has a big advantage in the General Assembly. A study commissioned in October by Dominion said Millstone generates $1.47 billion in annual economic impact and employs more than 1,000 workers, making it a "huge player" in southeastern Connecticut, said Tony Sheridan, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut.

And it accounts for 59 percent of the power consumed by Connecticut utility customers, Dominion said.

Legislation has not been drafted, but Reed said it could be similar to a proposal that failed in the final days of the 2016 legislative session. That plan would have allowed nuclear energy to participate in a competitive purchase of renewable or low-carbon electric power in a process administered by the state. If Millstone were to be selected, it would be guaranteed a market as natural gas prices decline.

Why aren't these plants the NEISO? Please explain the selling to the financial institutions? These speculators throw a lot of money around to the politicians. How much money does the ratepayers pay to the commodity. Buddy, the whole system is so rigged including the scumbag news media.    

Currently, power generated by Millstone is sold in contracts to financial institutions such as hedge funds that trade it as a commodity before it reaches the retail customer. Last year's legislation would have "cut out the middleman" and allowed Millstone to sell power to utility customers, Hennessy said.

If enacted, the proposal would provide no subsidy or other direct financial help from taxpayers or ratepayers, he said.

"It wouldn't guarantee anything. It would open up markets we're excluded from," Hennessy said.

Greg Cunningham, director of the clean energy program at the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental group in Boston, said legislation supporting Millstone is premature because officials in New England are still considering proposals such as pricing carbon and establishing a market that gives credit to clean energy. That would force nuclear power to compete with other low-emissions energy.

Connecticut officials should investigate Millstone's finances before backing state assistance, Cunningham said. "I don't think any of us know what the financial condition of the industry is," he said.

Legislation in other states calls for ratepayer subsidies, ends a ban on building nuclear reactors and creates a financing mechanism for investor-owned utilities to recover some costs related to the early closing of a nuclear plant, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Due to market conditions, five nuclear power plants in the U.S. have closed or will be close since 2013 and extending to 2019, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute.

John Keeley, a spokesman for the group, blamed the low price of natural gas, weak electricity demand that has not fully recovered from before the 2007 start of the recession and improved energy efficiency.

Three nuclear plants operate in New England: Millstone, Pilgrim in Massachusetts and Seabrook in New Hampshire. Nuclear power accounted for 30 percent of energy generated in the region in 2015, down from 34 percent the previous year, ISO said.

The likelihood of new reactors being built decreases with falling natural gas prices, said Kit Konolige, a Bloomberg analyst. In many states, officials "appear more interested in supporting renewable energy than nuclear," he said.

Dominion has not said Millstone will shut down if state assistance is unavailable, Hennessy and Reed said.

"We've simply just talked about how critical Millstone is to Connecticut and the region," Hennessy said.

"They're not threatening, but they're talking about margins and concerns," Reed said.

Junk plants Waterford and Arkansas Nuclear One: Startling Southerner Stupidity (SSS) During Plant Maintenance

Entergy does this over and over again?

January 19, 2017

SUBJECT: ARKANSAS NUCLEAR ONE – NRC INSPECTION REPORT05000368/2016011 AND PRELIMINARY WHITE FINDING

Findings Introduction.  The inspectors reviewed a self-revealing finding of preliminary low to moderate safety significance (White) and an associated apparent violation of Unit 2 Technical Specification 6.4.1.a for the failure to provide adequate lubrication to the inboard generator bearing so that the Unit 2 emergency diesel generator A would provide emergency power to safety equipment.  Specifically, two separate maintenance activities introduced errors that led to having inadequate oil to lubricate the bearing, and the bearing failed on September 16, 2016, during a 24-hour surveillance.

Description.  On September 16, 2016, 14 hours into a 24-hour surveillance at full load, the inboard generator bearing for the Unit 2 emergency diesel generator A failed, as evidenced by load swings, overheating, and sparking.  Operators secured the diesel, declared it inoperable, documented the failure in Condition Report CR-ANO-2-2016-03307, and complied with Unit 2 Technical Specification 3.8.1.1, “A.C. Sources,” Action B.  Maintenance personnel discovered significant damage to the bearing indicative of a lack of oil lubrication.  On September 28, 2016, the licensee shut Unit 2 down prior to the expiration of the technical specification action statement.  The licensee completed repairs and successfully tested the diesel on October 22, 2016, and restarted Unit 2 on October 27, 2016.

During a causal investigation for the lack of lubrication, the licensee identified that the oil level scribe mark on the sight glass was below the minimum level necessary to provide proper oil lubrication to the bearing.  The licensee concluded that on November 11,2014, while performing Work Order 356569, maintenance personnel had removed and inadvertently inverted the sight glass, which caused the scribe mark to be below the bottom of the bearing rollers (see diagram below).  With the sight glass inverted, the scribe mark was 3/8-inch lower than if it was in the correct orientation.  Post-failure measurements identified that the scribe mark was 5/8-inch below the correct position.  The licensee concluded that adequate oil was initially provided following the sight glass reinstallation.  Evidence to support this included multiple successful surveillance tests with no increase in vibrations, including a 24-hour surveillance on January 12, 2015, and having an oil sample from the bearing on June 22, 2016, with no indications of abnormal wear.     On June 22, 2016, maintenance personnel changed the oil in the inboard generator bearing after taking an oil sample in accordance with Work Order 52656389.  Maintenance personnel documented leaving the oil level within the procedural limits relative to the scribe mark.  Vibrations and system performance were normal during the post-maintenance runs and surveillance tests on June 26, 2016.  The licensee determined that the inboard generator bearing had not been leaking oil between the oil change on June 22, 2016, and the September 16, 2016, surveillance failure.  

The licensee concluded that the oil in the inboard generator bearing heated up slowly during the 24-hour surveillance.  After 14 hours, enough oil had vaporized within the bearing casing that the liquid oil level became inadequate to lubricate the bearing, resulting in bearing failure.  Therefore, the inspectors concluded that the emergency diesel generator could have failed approximately 14 hours after the start of a postulated event between June 26, 2016, and September 16, 2016.  The inspectors concluded that multiple causes led to the lack of oil lubrication.  The licensee failed to incorporate vendor manual instructions to properly set and verify the correct oil sight glass scribe mark into Work Order 356569 for maintenance performed in 2014.  The licensee failed to train maintenance personnel to adequately identify and control critical parameters during maintenance, specifically the effects of sight glass installation and maintenance on bearing lubrication.  The inspectors also noted that work instructions in Work Order 52656389 did not specify the correct amount of oil to add when replacing the oil, or else measure the amount of oil removed and ensure that a like amount of new oil was added to the bearing.   On October 11, 2016, following bearing reassembly, a system engineer checked the level of the new sight glass and identified that the scribe mark was too low again.  The licensee found that the new oil level had been marked on the bearing housing prior to assembly, but that the oil level was below the vendor-recommended level.  In response, the licensee planned and executed a work order to set the oil level in relation to the generator shaft centerline in accordance with the vendor recommendations.  The inspectors noted that the licensee had not yet implemented corrective actions to prevent recurrence of the problem in that licensee’s work plans failed to include verification of the oil level relative to the generator shaft centerline after reassembling the bearing.  The licensee subsequently corrected the sight glass position and developed training and improved work instructions to ensure that the bearing oil level would be correctly established.   After the diesel bearing failure, the licensee verified through walk downs that all sight glass marks and bearing oil levels were adequate for other safety-related rotating equipment.  The inspectors also independently reviewed bearing oil levels.

January 20, 2017

SUBJECT:  WATERFORDSTEAM ELECTRIC STATION, UNIT 3 – NRC INTEGRATED INSPECTION REPORT05000382/2016004 AND 07200075/201600

Description.  On August 12, 2016, operations personnel noted elevated chilled water outlet temperatures on essential chiller B.  Specifically, chilled water outlet temperatures reached between 45 and 46 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to the 42 degrees Fahrenheit maximum allowed temperature.  Due to the elevated temperatures, at 5:04 p.m., operations personnel declared essential chiller B inoperable.  Because essential chiller A was already inoperable due to a previous component failure, and there was no applicable technical specification action statement, the licensee entered Technical Specification 3.0.3, which required the licensee to begin shutting down the reactor within 1 hour.

The licensee placed essential chiller AB into service in place of essential chiller B, and at 6:02 p.m., declared essential chiller AB operable, which provided the plant with one operable train of chilled water.  This, in turn, allowed the licensee to exit Technical Specification 3.0.3.  The licensee remained in Technical Specification 3.7.12 and the associated 72-hour shutdown action statement until maintenance was completed on essential chiller A and it was declared operable at 11:00 p.m., providing the plant with two independent, operable trains of chilled water.

Following inspector questions, the licensee performed a calculation showing that adequate cooling capacity could be provided by the essential chillers with an outlet temperature of 46 degrees Fahrenheit.

In troubleshooting the event, the licensee found that the guide vane arm and actuator linkage for essential chiller B was assembled inappropriately.  The guide vane actuator was previously replaced during an essential chiller B outage on April 11, 2016; however, post-maintenance testing, an activity affecting quality to ensure that the safety-related chiller would perform satisfactorily in-service, did not discover the inappropriately assembled components.

Following the April 11, 2016, outage, the chiller was found repeatedly tripping on low refrigerant pressure.  However, the licensee mistakenly believed the failures were due to a faulty capacity control module.  The licensee replaced the capacity control module and returned essential chiller B to service on April 22, 2016.  Again, post-maintenance testing did not discover the inappropriate guide vane arm and actuator linkage.  The inappropriate guide vane and actuator arm linkage assembly went undetected until a large load from switchgear ventilation was placed on the chiller on August 12, 2016, resulting in its inoperability.

During extensive troubleshooting following the August 12, 2016, failure, the licensee inspected the guide vanes and found them inappropriately aligned.  The licensee corrected the guide vanes, restarted essential chiller, and declared it operable on September 3, 2016.

The guide vane and actuator arm assembly work is normally performed by a mechanical maintenance technician, but during the April 11, 2016, maintenance outage, the work was performed by an electrical technician.  The work was not verified by anyone from mechanical maintenance.

The Toshiba Meltdown 0ver US New Nuclear Plants

They get most of the new fuel ore from the Russians and there is no centrifuging in the USA. Everything is controlled by foreigners.    

Toshiba’s loss from N-unit may hit ¥700 billion

8:36 pm, January 19, 2017

Jiji Press TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Toshiba Corp.’s loss from its nuclear power plant business in the United States may balloon to as much as ¥700 billion, it was learned Thursday.

As the massive loss will inevitably lead to a sharp decrease in its capital, the electronics and machinery giant is considering receiving capital injection for its mainline semiconductor business and seeking financial support from the government-affiliated Development Bank of Japan, informed sources said.

Toshiba will also speed up work to map out a reconstruction program through talks with its creditor banks, the sources said.

Behind the massive loss is a surge in nuclear plant construction costs in the United States.

In late 2015, Toshiba acquired a U.S. nuclear plant builder through U.S. subsidiary Westinghouse Electric Co. Later, the Toshiba group faced an unexpected increase in costs for constructing four nuclear power reactors in the United States, according to the sources.

Previously, Toshiba had told the creditor banks that its nuclear plant-related loss would likely total between ¥100 billion to ¥500 billion.

Currently, Toshiba is working with an auditing firm to finalize the total amount of the loss, the sources said.

As of the end of September last year, Toshiba’s equity capital stood at ¥363.2 billion.

Due to the possibility of Toshiba seeing its debts exceed assets because of the heavy loss, the company is considering spinning off its flash memory division and accepting investment for the business from outside of its group, the sources said.

Toshiba has requested the creditor banks to maintain their loans until the end of February. To replenish its capital, Toshiba may study measures such as issuing preferred shares that do not carry voting rights and taking on subordinated loans, part of which can be counted as capital, according to the sources.

What Is The Meaning of Indian Point's Baffle Bolts Problem?

1) They just aren't inspecting the vessel and vessel components enough in order to save a few pennies?

2) Their scientific analysis with the degradations mechanism are grossly insufficient or corrupted based on profits.

3) Many times they use the excuse with the extreme radiation fields, they defer or cancels inspections based on it's too expensive or the dose rate to employees makes the job to difficult and threatening to their health.

This is going cause many more surprises in the coming decade...

For many folks, this is just a fight for survival, finding big problems in the core will cause the plant to shutdown. So they will turn their eyes away from the problem in order to feed their families.

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.