Junk Plant Oconee: MULTIPLE MAIN STEAM RELIEF VALVES FAILED TO RESEAT

Update

Oconee is terrible accident or meltdown waiting to happen. It is too old and obsolete for them to keep up with maintenance...

***Hmm, This is PWR. It is pissing in your pants time if a steam generator feedwater side  is depressurized while the primary is still fully depressurized. As far as the steam generators tubes, if the secondary side of the system is depressurized at normal reactor pressure,  the d/p of the steam generator is additive across the tubes. In other words, with the secondary side depressurized, the tubes have to hold back the full brunt of the reactor pressure. With the secondary side pressurized, the d/p across the tubes is 1000 to 1500 psi less.

NRC: Main Steam Safety Valves 
 Main steam safety valves with sufficient rated capacity are provided to prevent the steam pressure from exceeding 110 percent of the main steam system design pressure:

• Following a turbine trip without a reactor trip and with main feedwater flow maintained, and • Following a turbine trip with a delayed reactor trip and with the loss of main feedwater flow. 

The total main steam safety valve rated capacity as indicated in Table 7.1-2 meets this requirement.  At the same time, each individual safety valve is limited to the maximum allowable steam relief valve capacity as indicated in Table 7.1-2 for a system pressure equal to main steam design pressure plus 10 percent overpressure.  This value sufficiently limits the potential uncontrolled blowdown flow and the ensuing reactor transient should a single safety valve inadvertently fail or stick in the open position. 

Six safety valves are provided per main steam line for the plant. Table 7.1-2 lists the set pressures for the main steam safety valves.  The main steam supply system safety valves are located in the safety-related portion of the main steam piping


USNRC HRTD 7.1-4 Rev 0209
upstream of the main steam isolation valves and outside the containment in the auxiliary building

Power Reactor	Event Number: 53329
Facility: OCONEE Region: 2 State: SC Unit: [1] [ ] [ ] RX Type: [1] B&W-L-LP,[2] B&W-L-LP,[3] B&W-L-LP NRC Notified By: JOE FRAVEL HQ OPS Officer: BETHANY CECERE	Notification Date: 04/13/2018 Notification Time: 06:07 [ET] Event Date: 04/13/2018 Event Time: 02:27 [EDT] Last Update Date: 04/13/2018
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY 10 CFR Section: 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B) - RPS ACTUATION - CRITICAL	Person (Organization): MARVIN SYKES (R2DO)

Unit	SCRAM Code	RX CRIT	Initial PWR	Initial RX Mode	Current PWR	Current RX Mode
1	M/R	Y	24	Power Operation	0	Hot Standby

Event Text

MANUAL REACTOR TRIP FOLLOWING MAIN FEEDWATER CONTROL PROBLEM "On 4/13/2018 at 0227 [EDT], the Oconee Unit 1 Reactor was manually tripped from 24 percent power due to the inability to control main feedwater flow through the Main Feedwater Control Valves using the Integrated Control System. Due to the RPS actuation while critical, this event is being reported as a 4-hour Non-Emergency per 10 CFR 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B). "Following the reactor trip, multiple Main Steam Relief Valves failed to reseat at the expected pressure. Using procedure guidance, Main Steam Pressure was lowered by 115 psig, resulting in the closing of all Main Steam Relief Valves. All other post-trip conditions are normal and all other systems performed as expected. Unit 1 is currently in Mode 3 and stable." Decay heat is being removed by the steam generators discharging steam to the main condenser using the turbine bypass valves. Units 2 and 3 are not affected by the Unit 1 reactor trip. The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

Exelon CEO and Officials: Mouthpiece Of Nuclear Industry And Best Truth Disruptor They Ever Had

They should have stated off with one plant building it on a expedited manner after all these years of stagnation. Building all these at the same time challenged the rather low capabilities of Westinghouse and the construction firms. I blame the nuclear world wide Republican cabal for this mess.      

The majority of the this is extremist Republican Ideology: How the Republication's control Nuclear Power and the NRC.

These projects would have been a hell of a lot cheaper if they were totally prepare from the get go. The truth is the gigantic construction was too big for even the largest utility. It has always been this way. The industry should have been more involved in this project. Each plant should have sent a few very educated and skilled employees to Vogtle and Summer. They should have sent a army of utility employee ants to monitor this project just like they did in the TMI meltdown. Only the government is big enough and powerful enough to ever attempt such a huge project. 

There is no reason, because of the powerlessness of the NRC...Vogtle in unlike Summer. The huge Southern company is just very good at hiding their flaws and controlling the NRC...

Exelon CEO and Officials: Mouthpiece of Nuclear Industry and Best Truth Disruptor They Ever had

No new nuclear units will be built in US due to high cost: Exelon official

Washington (Platts)--12 Apr 2018 554 pm EDT/2154 GMT

Due to their high cost relative to other generating options, no new nuclear power units will be built in the US, an Exelon official said Thursday.

So here goes the big utilities with their decades long explanation with what happened in Vogtle and Summer. The utilizes were just too incompetent with managing the earlier new build programs. The nuclear designs were incomplete in the 1970s, just like today. Basically, the public of the times were mistrustful(Vietnam and Watergate) of government. Some of it was focused on the nuclear industry and all there terrible accidents. The public was hot, they made the NRC do their jobs. It wasn't a voluntary action. So the NRC mandated changes of designs.

As the nuclear renaissance came into view, they blamed all the troubles with 1970s new build on the NRC. This is how they defanged the NRC. It is a abomination with this arm of the government they didn't defend themselves in the setup of the Nuclear Renaissance with their troubles in the 1970s and 198os. It is like this regulatory agency participated in engineering their weakness in the face of the massive Nuclear Renaissance. It is utter insanity!!! It is a dire indication of how captured the NRC is today. Most troubling in the all of this, is the astonishing weakness in the feckless public involvement and in our news media. It is as if we all were captured by nuclear industry and their gigantic utility corporate interest. The citizens of the USA truly get what they deserve.           

"The fact is -- and I don't want my message to be misconstrued in this part -- I don't think we're building any more nuclear plants in the United States. I don't think it's ever going to happen," William Von Hoene, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Exelon, told the US Energy Association's annual meeting in Washington. With 23 operational reactors, Exelon is the US' largest nuclear operator.

"I'm not arguing for the construction of new nuclear plants," Von Hoene said. "They are too expensive to construct, relative to the world in which we now live."

Nuclear power in the US "at this point is really a bridge to a different kind of carbon-free world," he said.

If the existing nuclear units in the US can be kept operational despite the economic challenges they face, and technology can be developed to store energy generated by renewable technologies, which are currently intermittently available, "then we won't need these [new nuclear units] at that point," Von Hoene said. "And we won't build them because they'll be too expensive."

"I think it's very unlikely that absent some extraordinary change in environment or technology, that any nuclear plants beyond the Vogtle plant [in Georgia] will be built in my lifetime, by any company," Von Hoene said in an interview at the meeting Thursday.

The two-unit expansion of Georgia Power's Vogtle nuclear plant has experienced first-of-a-kind design, licensing, procurement and construction delays, leading in part to the bankruptcy of main contractor Westinghouse. Georgia Power says Vogtle-3 and -4 will begin commercial operation in November 2021 and November 2022, respectively.

Von Hoene's stance includes so-called small modular reactors, or SMRs, and advanced designs, he said.

"Right now, the costs on the SMRs, in part because of the size and in part because of the security that's associated with any nuclear plant, are prohibitive," Von Hoene said.

"It's possible that that would evolve over time, and we're involved in looking at that technology," Von Hoene said. "Right now they're prohibitively expensive."

The US Department of Energy defines SMRs as reactors of less than 300 MW that are designed to be built in factories and shipped for installation as demand arises.

NuScale Power submitted its certification application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in January 2017 for an SMR design, and the agency accepted the application in March for a full technical review.

NuScale is targeting commercial operation of its first SMR for 2026 at the Idaho National Laboratory. Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) would own the plant, which would be operated by Energy Northwest. UAMPS has not yet decided whether it will construct the reactor.

Why the Summer Nuclear Plant New Build Failed: The Republicans Defanged The NRC

In the set up for the Nuclear Renaissance, the republicans severely limited what the NRC could inspection. The project was sickening chaotic for many years and the NRC wouldn't shutdown the project. It would have been in the national interest for the NRC to keep this project coherent. It is the exact problems we had in the 1970s and 1980s.

If the NRC would have yanked or put a stop work order on half the new build in the 1970s and 1980s, drastically slowed the new build, we would have had a much brighter nuclear industry today.    

Santee Cooper secretly griped for years about SCANA's 'ineptitude' in failed S.C. nuclear project

By Andrew Brown and Thad Moore abrown@postandcourier.com tmoore@postandcourier.com

Apr 8, 2018

COLUMBIA — Santee Cooper executives secretly fretted for years that its partner SCANA was incapable of overseeing the construction of two nuclear reactors in South Carolina but continued to forward payment after payment for the now-abandoned project, according to internal records obtained by The Post and Courier​.

The state-run utility’s small nuclear team called the leaders of SCANA "naive" and lamented their inexperience with big construction contracts. 

They questioned whether SCANA officials were "too nice" to be leading such a huge undertaking — one of the country's first nuclear construction projects in decades…

Junk Plant Pilgrim: Disgracefull non conforming condition in

This is a flaw in NRC regulation. I mean, somebody purchased them. Non conforming means not knowing for the life of the plant what the true engineering condition of the plant. Having a lot of nonconforming condition of the plant means is you really don't know how the plant work under severe condition or components will break down expectantly. They need to face a severe consequence for this condition. The rub here, is you can see the ineffectiveness of all the NRC activities throughout the plant's life. 

The safety analysis is paper or computer whipped. There really is no actual testing of the piping, say during in a earthquake, where we could prove if it is safe or not. They could make a exact model of the piping system and shake the hell out of it in a test stand.

Paper or computer whipping is highly susceptible to fraud and corruption...  

!!!! THIS EVENT HAS BEEN RETRACTED. THIS EVENT HAS BEEN RETRACTED !!!!!
Power Reactor	Event Number: 53287
Facility: PILGRIM Region: 1 State: MA Unit: [1] [ ] [ ] RX Type: [1] GE-3 NRC Notified By: JOSEPH FRATTASIO HQ OPS Officer: VINCE KLCO	Notification Date: 03/25/2018 Notification Time: 23:43 [ET] Event Date: 03/25/2018 Event Time: 16:16 [EDT] Last Update Date: 04/13/2018
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY 10 CFR Section: 50.72(b)(3)(ii)(A) - DEGRADED CONDITION 50.72(b)(3)(ii)(B) - UNANALYZED CONDITION	Person (Organization): RAY MCKINLEY (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

CONTROL ROD DRIVE PIPING POTENTIALLY INOPERABLE "On March 25, 2018 at 1616 hours [EDT], with the reactor in cold shutdown condition, two control rod drive piping lines were determined to be potentially inoperable in the event of a design basis earthquake due to support defects. The control rod drive piping forms a portion of the reactor coolant pressure boundary and primary containment boundary. "The supports will be repaired prior to plant startup. "This event had no impact on the health and/or safety of the public. "The NRC Resident Inspector has been notified." The licensee will notify the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. * * * RETRACTION FROM JOE FRATTASIO TO HOWIE CROUCH AT 1500 EDT ON 4/13/18 * * * "The purpose of the notification is to retract ENS notification 53287 made on 03/25/18 for Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. The previous notification reported that control rod drive (CRD) piping could be potentially inoperable in the event of a design basis earthquake, at the time of discovery, due to piping support defects. Subsequent evaluation has demonstrated that the piping was not inoperable. "Specifically, after an engineering evaluation, it has been determined that the CRD Hydraulic System operability was never lost and the system was operable, although non-conforming, based on the support configuration not conforming to the pipe support drawings. The affected pipe supports have been restored or reworked to the proper design condition in accordance with the design drawings. The CRD System has subsequently been restored to a fully operable status." Notified R1DO (Jackson) and IRD MOC (Pham).