Are the McGuire and Brunswick Nuclear Plants' Emergency Diesel Generators Safe (4 plants)?

Update Sept 14, 2018

The problem with Brunswick nuclear plant is they are not self governed. The don't find things on their own or fix things before they break. The post Fukushima NRC inspection are an example of this.

Originally posted on Jan 1 2015...reposted from Apr 23, 2015  

05000369,05000324

The problem is:

You are always dependent on small potatoes third party vendors because the original Nordberg DG manufacturer is bankrupt.

It is repetitive with these kinds of failures such with Brunswick +

(Closed) LERs 05000369/2014-001-00 and 05000369/2014-001-01, Condition Prohibited by Technical Specifications (TS) due to Emergency Diesel Generator 1B

Failure

a. Inspection Scope 

This URI was initiated for the NRC issuance of Notice of Enforcement Discretion (NOED) 14-2-002, dated August 27, 2014, in order to review the circumstances that led to the NOED request to determine if any performance deficiencies or violations contributed to the need for the NOED. The inspectors reviewed the licensee’s LERs associated with the failure of the cylinder 5L intake valve stem on the 1B EDG, the licensee’s root cause investigation, and their corrective actions to address the failure. Previous evaluation of the accuracy and details of the licensee’s request for the NRC to exercise discretion not to enforce compliance with the required action completion time for TS Limiting Condition for Operability (LCO) 3.8.1 to allow extra time for the engine to be repaired was documented in NRC Integrated Inspection Report 05000369, 370/2014005.

The licensee established a formal root cause team consisting of six team members, including an outside industry diesel expert, to evaluate the failure and to determine applicable corrective actions. An extensive metallurgical laboratory analysis was conducted on the failed parts and further analysis was conducted by the disassembly of other cylinder heads on the 1B EDG during the subsequent fall 2014 refueling outage when the engine was removed from service. The inspectors found the licensee’s root cause evaluation to be detailed and exhaustive. The licensee determined the cause of the 1B

Basically crap parts... 

EDG cylinder 5L intake valve failure was due to the combined effects of three inlet valve sub-parts which were manufactured by a third party supplier outside of the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) (i.e., Norberg) specified tolerances. These manufacturing discrepancies included: 1) the inlet valve stem hardness/tensile strength was below specifications, 2) the hydraulic valve lash adjuster, which dampens the force between the intake valve and its seat, did not function properly due internal clearances being out-of-specification, and 3) the inlet valve spit rings, connecting the valve stem upper end to its rocker arm, was found with a larger radius. The combined effects of these out of tolerances resulted in inlet valve stem stresses beyond the endurance limit and subsequent valve failure due to high cycle fatigue.

The licensee implemented a number of corrective actions to address the causal factors identified. Actions were taken to place a hold on the procurement of the three out of tolerance components until the EDG parts procurement specifications were revised. The revision would add additional vendor verifications that the components meet the original Nordberg specifications. To address the immediate extent of condition to limit the vulnerability of similar cylinder components being out of tolerance, the licensee reviewed cylinder vibration and ultrasonic signature testing of each of the cylinders of all four EDGs to detect any inlet valve closure anomalies. In addition, during the Fall 2014 refueling outage, both the 1B and 1A EDGs were inspected to ensure no similar out of tolerance components were installed. Similar inspections are planned for the remaining 2A and 2B EDGs. In the interim, the licensee plans to continue conducting periodic cylinder performance signature testing to detect any abnormal change in cylinder performance. The inspectors verified that an adequate extent of condition review was performed for all EDGs, and concluded that there were no licensee performance deficiencies associated with the August 18, 2014, 1B EDG failure. This URI and associated LERs are closed.

b. Findings

No findings were identified.

Originally posted on 1/13/2015

Can you imagine having no manufacturer support, replacement parts stream or large DG engineering or maintenance service.

It is like owning a car and you have to contract through a private vendor service to get them to manufacture spark plugs according to your special specification. You just can't call the manufacturer with a parts number and get the item by FedEx delivery.  

Tim

Talked to the McGuire senior resident for about an hour today over this LER. He was a inspector for twenty five years. Couldn't get him to end the conversation. This is the LER:

LER 2014-01

Components inside the DG failed leading to a shutdown (Aug 2014). McGuire and Brunswick are the only plants in the USA who sports Nordberg DGs. Nordberg went out of business. Basically Duke bought the remaining shell of a company, mostly for the paperwork to support their DGs. They don’t have a typical repair parts stream…they contract to get replacement parts on their own. 

• Counterfeit, Suspect, Fraudulent Items

I believe these replacement parts came from an ocean transportation company who owns big ships according to the resident. Seems old and obsolete Nordberg DG engines are popular in ocean shipping. The NRC is going to violate them in the future. The machine failed in Aug 2014 and the NRC still can't make their mind up to charge them or not.

"The cause of the EDG 1 B cylinder 5L failure is high cycle fatigue of the inlet valve due to the combined effects of three inlet valve train parts which were manufactured outside of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) specified tolerances.

The following factors caused the 5L inlet valve failure:
* Inlet valve stem hardness/strength below specification
* Hydraulic lash adjuster internal inadequate clearance
- Inlet valve keeper inadequate upper ID radius and thickness

You can imagine Duke going to the large DG manufacture for independent advice...do you think these out of tolerance parts will be safe and not cause us problem? If they were a valid manufacturer, you know they would say replace it.  

Interaction of the above factors subjected the cylinder 5L inlet valve to forces beyond the design and endurance limit. Evidence of inadequate manufacturing was confirmed by inspection, measurement, and testing of the EDG 1 B cylinder 5L inlet valve train components. No single factor on its own can cause an inlet valve failure. A combination of the above factors created the conditions necessary for a failure of the inlet valve from high cycle fatigue over a relatively long time period. EDG 1 B operated for approximately 13 years with the out of tolerance parts. All of the above parts issues were created during manufacturing by inadequate adherence to original Nordberg specifications for materials and tolerances by a third party supplier that is no longer in operation."

You get it with the above, how far down the pike you willing to go with a no longer in operation machine manufacturer ( Nordberg) and then the third party parts supplier who no longer is in operation also. Now the parts are made fraudulently in China. What are we going to think if these parts came from a chain of 5 or 6 no longer operating third party suppliers. That is two corporations. You notice the NRC doesn't specify the third party. This should go to the justice department.   

I consider not having a traditional manufacturing company backing up these machines as an un-reviewed safety issue. I told the inspector you got two separate parts found to not meet manufacture specs…how can you trust all the other parts. It got by Duke's QA and their black market parts company is supposed to have nuclear grade QA. Duke has proven themselves as not being a good owner of a DG manufacturing company. You got to test a representative sample of replacement parts to see it them meet specs( they are). I told the inspector making a plant engineer basically playing manufacturer and ordering the manufacturing of parts, plant or corporate engineering isn’t designed for that. It eats up engineering resources and it might cause them not to watch other problems.

I posed the question, well, why can’t you order them to replace all the dgs with new machines. Get a giant manufacture with large engineering services on their machines and the replacement parts traditional stream. He says it is impossible, the specific DGs are integral to the licensing of the plant. Even putting in new machines, it wouldn’t be the original quality. What bs! He said it would be cheaper building a new plant than ripping out an obsolete dg and installing an identical or better dg. If a dg fails in a way it can't be used again...it means the plant would have to permanently shutdown.

He says that is why the industry has never changed out not even one dg in all of the history. 

They could do as a LAR…it certainly is a lot smaller job that replacing SGs. 

The resident brought in NRR and other staff…because the parts had an inadequate pedigree.They really have no idea where the parts came from and they are worried they come from a Chinese fraudulent parts sweat shop?

He was vaguely talking about Duke installing non-nuclear grade DGs outside the building to compensate for the reduced quality with their Nordberg DGs. The Nordbergs would still be used and operational…but some amount of outside non nuclear grade capacity would be in standby in case of failure. I told him don’t worry about in the end, risk perspectives will say it is risk insignificant. He doesn't get my humor.

I found it suspicious as hell I couldn't get him to hang up? 

Mike

 Duke owns Brunswick today. 

November 24, 2009:NRC SPECIAL INSPECTION 05000325/2009011 AND 05000324/2009011

"Brunswick and McGuire are the only two operators in the United States that utilize Nordberg EDGs in nuclear safety-related applications. Progress Energy and Duke Power Corporation are partnered with ESI as owners of the Nordberg nuclear EDG design and share information regarding the Nordberg EDGs. This provides Progress Energy with the availability of shared resources and access to a spare Nordberg diesel at the McGuire nuclear plant for training and troubleshooting. Also, operating experience gained from McGuire provides immediate feedback on key diesel issues or previous maintenance activities."

https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/view?AccessionNumber=ML15005A044

LER 2014-01-01: Condition Prohibited by Technical Specifications (TS) due to Emer ency Diesel Generator 1 B Failure.

Excepts from the LER: 

Brunkswick "Cape Fear River" Is Exspected To Exceed 23 Feet Above Sea Level

Hurricane Day Sept 14

Burnell, Scott (NRC spokesmen)	Thu, Sep 13, 3:38 PM (16 hours ago)
to me

Hello Mr. Mulligan;

Based on available information, impacts from storm surge, winds and flooding at Brunswick and other plants in Florence’s path will fall well below the plants’ design parameters. One reactor at Brunswick has started shutting down; both Brunswick reactors are expected to be fully shut down hours before hurricane-force winds could affect the site. All U.S. nuclear power plants have the additional resources (such as pumps and generators) and procedures required by the NRC after the Fukushima accident to maintain key safety functions after any severe event. Available information indicates the plants can remain safe during the storm without the post-Fukushima equipment. Following normal NRC procedures, the agency has dispatched additional inspectors to plants in the storm’s path. The NRC staff will continue inspecting plants’ storm preparedness and response actions as conditions require.

Scott Burnell

Public Affairs Officer

Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Mike Mulligan <steamshovel2002@gmail.com>	Thu, Sep 13, 8:04 PM (12 hours ago)
to Scott

Mr. Burnell,

I think you are a good guy. 

But somebody has been giving you bum and inaccurate information.

State officials project the "Cape Fear River" is going to exceed their record of 23 feet. That is a measly three feet with a not tested safety margin. The complexity of this thing is one-off event and is too difficult to comprehend. As we speak, Hurricane Florence is struck for 24 hours in the Gulf Stream. The hurricane is strengthening. 

I give it a 50% of a meltdown.

75% chance of a NRC and industry shattering event. The Republican are pissing their pants over of the possibility of loosing their elections and the House and Senate. We are in a terrible position with Trump and a restless nation. The political blow back like TMI is going to be horrible.

Big congressional investigation of NRC and industry after the blue wave. Matter of fact, I think the republican have been so vulnerable and insecure...they will investigation crazy to save their ass.

We got the new media to document the industry's and NRC's spin. We are very happy with that. Do you realize the precipice you are in? Got CNN's Anderson Cooper to park his ass just miles from the Brunswick for the duration of the hurricane.

Biblical flooding all over the high concentration of nuclear plants in the South. I'd be watching for dam failures in this area and unforeseen local flooding on site. Precipitation beyond the design and licensing of the plants. Four or five hurricanes line up behind Florence. There might be another hurricane hitting this area?

         

Honestly, I am praying for all of you.

Sincerely,

Mike Mulligan 

Hinsdale, NH 

CNN's John Berman is in Wilmington NC and on TV right now. Hurricane rain and wind has been pelting him all night. Twenty two inches of rain has already fallen on Wilmington. The total rainfall is expected to be over 40 inches. John is about to go through the first eyewall. The hurricane is running down the coast. He is facing biblical precipitation and hurricane surge. Wilmington is 30 miles north of the Brunswick plant. We are actually seeing what the Brunswick plant is going go through. The Brunswick plant will enter and exit the eye wall too. The eye is going to go right over the Brunswick plant. North of Wilmington is now on the extreme surge side of the hurricane. They are having biblical surge flooding right now. This going to be a extremely prolonged hurricane event. It is an extremely slow moving hurricane. Wilmington just picked up 4" of rain an hour. The biblical surge wall is scheduled to begin to hit the Brunswick plant at around midnight. They are expected to go though two or three or more tidal cycles during the hurricane surge. On each tidal peak surge, the total surge gets worst and worst.    Then, the river surge from upstream rain will occur in two or three days. Update: The hurricane Florence's eye wall just made landfall six miles north of Wilmington.              

***Will they not follow public warning regulations in the name of altruism. We don't want to disrupt the rescue and recovery activities. They probable have reductant ocean level detectors and alarms in the control. At this Ocean level we got to heighten the site activities and at this ocean level we got declare an Unusual Event. This first emergency notification is when you are required to notify the state officials and NRC. The more serous the event, you do more things and bring in extra people. I mean you got biblical flooding and a host of other issues. It is almost a guarantee you are going to quickly overwhelm the state and federal officials the developing nuclear crisis. So Duke, the NRC and state official, in secrecy, might withhold public notion towards the greater ends of serving the community. Think how disruptive this will be for Duke?  Really serving their own ends.

Matter of fact, in Fukushima, with the intensification of the nuclear crisis, then meltdown, they might have been withholding the public notification of the conditions of the plant so as not disrupt the tsunami rescue and recovery effort. We they do that in the USA?          

OK, Cooper is on the shores of the "Cape Fear River" near or in Southport NC. Just gave Duke's spin on the plant. With that, Duke just destroyed the nuclear industry if the barriers get over-topped and the NRC lost their integrity. Remember on a recently shutdown nuclear plant there still is tremendous decay heat. They can still make up to 10% power with the plant shutdown. Also, Fukushima was shutdown just prior to the meltdown, much like Brunswick.  

He is in North Myrtle beach. I wish I paid attention with Cooper.   

CNN's Anderson Cooper just now says Brunswick's "Cape Fear River" is expected to exceed the hurricane surge record of 23 feet. His station for this hurricane is going be just a few miles from Brunswick. Three feet of surge level is a terrible safety margin. I think he is in Southport NC. 

As I said, what is your definition of sea level? There is many definitions for a assortment of purposes.      

Brunswick is built at an elevation of 20 feet above sea level and designed to withstand a storm surge of 22 feet, which would leave the plant’s emergency generators high and dry.

The barriers are designed to repel a storm surge of 26 feet, said NRC spokesman Scott Burnell, citing documentation submitted by Duke Energy. 

Will Duke Energy’s Brunswick nuclear plant’s flood barriers stop Hurricane Florence?

By John Murawski

jmurawski@newsobserver.com

September 12, 2018 12:25 PM

Hurricane Florence is shaping up to be the most powerful storm to ever threaten Duke Energy’s 1970s-era Brunswick nuclear plant, a 1,200-acre energy complex sitting in the path of the monster storm.

And it will be the first major test of the safeguards installed at the dual-reactor plant, about 30 miles south of Wilmington, since the 2011 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan, which is the same generation and design as the Brunswick plant.

Seven years ago, a tsunami swamped Fukushima’s emergency backup generators, cutting off power that was needed to pump water to constantly cool the facility’s radioactive nuclear fuel. The loss of power caused nuclear fuel to overheat in three reactor cores, triggering hydrogen explosions and spewing radioactivity into the atmosphere.

Brunswick is one of about two dozen U.S. reactors that relies on General Electric nuclear technology that dates back to the 1960s, designed at a time when engineers underestimated the vulnerability of nuclear facilities during natural disasters.

The nuclear industry has learned about the limitations of its early optimism the hard way: at Three Mile Island, at Chernobyl, at Fukushima; and also during periodic forced shutdowns in this country when nuclear plants were repeatedly fined by regulators for falling short of safety standards and posing unacceptable risks to the public.

The Fukushima disaster raised questions about the Brunswick plant’s capability to withstand massive flooding, and caused the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to determine that is not fully safe without modifications. As a result, Brunswick’s emergency plan now calls for installing nine temporary flood barriers in advance of a hurricane, to compensate for deficiencies in the original design.

“The good news is, because of Fukushima, the plant is better prepared,” said Dave Lochbaum, director of the nuclear safety project for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a watchdog group. “If it hadn’t been for Fukushima, that vulnerability would not have been identified.”

Nuclear plants have consistently proven hardy against hurricanes. Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 storm, passed directly over the Turkey Point plant in Florida in 1992, causing extensive damage to communications systems and the fire protection system, but the nuclear safety infrastructure remained intact, according to the Union of Concerned

Apples and oranges. Hurricane Fran passed inland many miles north of Brunswick. The highest speed winds and surge totally missed the Brunswick nuclear plant. It was very fast storm. It was conducive to a small surge. While Florence is a huge storm and it is almost going to be stationary as it goes over or passes east of the plant. This is conducive to a big storm surge.  

Scientists. Several storms have passed close to Brunswick, including Hurricane Fran in 1996, which made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane.

During Hurricane Matthew in 2016, wind speeds never reached hurricane force at the Brunswick site and there was no flooding, said Duke spokeswoman Karen Williams.

A modern fortress guarded by armed security, the Brunswick plant is touted by Duke as one of the most robust type of structures standing in the Unites States. But a year after the Fukushima incident, Duke Energy discovered scores of potential areas of leakage and water penetration at Brunswick that had to be fixed. Duke identified the problems as missing seals, missing or corroded bolts, broken links or pressure plates, corrosion, open terminal boxes, gaps in weather stripping on doors and inadequate repairs for previous leakage.

Brunswick is built at an elevation of 20 feet above sea level and designed to withstand a

NOAA says you can expect with a cat 4 hurricane three to greater six inches ocean surge over-topping the facility. Honestly, I don't trust NOAA with their computer modeling of hurricane surge levels...I don't trust the NRC's and the licensee modeling of the storm surge and anything associated with the licensee analysis of the storm surge. There is too much self interest involved with in all of this.

storm surge of 22 feet, which would leave the plant’s emergency generators high and dry. Brunswick, which is four miles inland, can withstand maximum sustained winds over 200 miles per hour of a Category 5 hurricane, Williams said. 

Florence is expected to make landfall as a Category 4, which ranges from 130 mph to 156 mph; but Galen Smith, the plant’s on-site resident inspector with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said flooding poses the greater threat to the facility.

As far as wind damage goes, Smith said that the structures containing Brunswick’s twin nuclear reactors are virtually impenetrable, enclosed in walls several feet thick that are cast from concrete and rebar.

Emergency generators are a nuclear plant’s artificial life support, fired up when a nuclear facility is put in mandatory shutdown mode during a hurricane that can knock out the power grid, which would be the plant’s normal source of juice. The generators operate the pumps that supply the water needed to cool the reactor core and keep radioactive fuel rods from overheating and triggering a runaway nuclear reaction.

“We have verified the capability to withstand a total loss of electric power to our plants,” Williams said. “We have verified our capability to withstand flooding and the impact of floods on systems inside and outside the plant.”

At least two NRC inspectors will ride out the storm inside the plant, Smith said, and they have been making rounds daily to monitor the progress as plant operators prepare for the storm. Smith said Brunswick has five on-site diesel generators that are backed up by two additional generators installed at elevated levels to stay dry if high waters defy all estimates.

“They have everything they need to operate the plant safely,” Smith said. “It’s just a matter of executing at this point. Even if the storm is bad, they should do fine.”

The temporary flood barriers, called “cliff edge barriers,” hint at the remote potential for catastrophe inherent to the business of splitting atoms to make electricity. In nuclear parlance, a “cliff edge” effect refers to a small variation in plant conditions that can trigger an abrupt change, pushing a nuclear plant over the cliff, from normal functioning to a critical state.

Brunswick’s “cliff edge” barriers will be installed to prevent sea water from gushing through doorways that protect safety equipment and sensitive areas of the plant. The barriers are designed to repel a storm surge of 26 feet, said NRC spokesman Scott Burnell, citing documentation submitted by Duke Energy.

Each barrier consists of an aluminum plate fasted to the wall with stainless steel anchors and backed by a rubber strip to create an waterproof seal. They will be installed at nine doors in the diesel generator building, control building and in the reactor building’s airlock doors. It takes workmen up to 2 1/2 hours to install each barrier, and Duke begins setting up the barriers as soon as a hurricane watch is issued. 

The cliff edge barriers are not considered some crude patch job, but a high-tech upgrade. Burnell characterized them as part of Brunswick’s long-term strategy for “dealing with events that might exceed the plant’s original design basis.”

urric

Cape Fear River Height and Weather Data: USGS Data at Highway 74/133 Near Brunswhick Nuclear Plant

USGS 0210869230 NE CAPE FEAR R AT US HWY 74/133 AT WILMINGTON, NC

Estuary or ocean water surface elevation above NAVD 1988, feet

Most recent instantaneous value: 2.00 09-13-2018   12:00 EDT

A lot of good weather and river level indication. It is few miles upriver from Brunswick nuclear plant. y