Power Reactor Status Reports
1990s: | 1999 |
Page Last Reviewed/Updated Friday, December 29, 2017
Monday, January 07, 2019
NRC's Staff In Trouble
We are a week into 2019 and the NRC hasn't put a 2019 link into this important page yet. Waterford tripped, probably shutdown over the weekend. I can't click the 2019 link in order to reference back a few days, to figure out when Waterford tripped?
Entergy: Dog Plants Palisades and Pilgrim.
How close are we to collapse of a capacity factor accident. Remember these plants contain many millions of components. The complexity of the machines makes them a difference beast. If you ding the maintenance budget over and over, get away with really less than you need...you might not see any diffidence. There is a delay time on the decline of plant reliability. We are really getting into the realm uncertainty. If you plow a lot of money into the plant, you drastically reduce global uncertainty. Conversely, if you get a bad unexpectant accident, you might plow a ton of money, training and new people into the plant, but it would take years of this new intensity to even change the bad curve of reliability. And believe me, tons of money into a dog plant, new training, people, the NRC up your ass, this further disrupts the mojo of the staff.
I expect to see a accident the industry never seen before based on financially throttling maintenance, old age and obsolesce, widespread staff disillusionment and the neutered NRC. It is awful seeing the respected officials above you talking utter nonsense with the condition of the plant, the crazy new plant upkeep philosophy. You know these people are better than that. But you got to tow the party line.
I expect to see a accident the industry never seen before based on financially throttling maintenance, old age and obsolesce, widespread staff disillusionment and the neutered NRC. It is awful seeing the respected officials above you talking utter nonsense with the condition of the plant, the crazy new plant upkeep philosophy. You know these people are better than that. But you got to tow the party line.
This is getting really dangerous. That is a really bad accident if this occurs...you can certainly count on two or three known other component failures, maybe even poor training showing up, in this accident.
Power Reactor Event Number: 53813 Facility: PALISADES
Region: 3 State: MI
Unit: [1] [] []
RX Type: [1] CE
NRC Notified By: JACOB MILLIKEN
HQ OPS Officer: JEFFREY WHITEDNotification Date: 01/03/2019
Notification Time: 23:57 [ET]
Event Date: 01/03/2019
Event Time: 00:00 [EST]
Last Update Date: 01/04/2019Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B) - RPS ACTUATION - CRITICAL
50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A) - VALID SPECIF SYS ACTUATION
Person (Organization):
ERIC DUNCAN (R3DO)
Unit SCRAM Code RX Crit Initial PWR Initial RX Mode Current PWR Current RX Mode 1 M/R Y 85 Power Operation 0 Hot Standby Event Text
REACTOR TRIP DUE TO CYCLING OF TURBINE GOVERNOR VALVE
"At 2028 [EST] on January 3, 2019, with the reactor at 85% power, the reactor was manually tripped due to cycling of Turbine Governor Valve #4. The trip was uncomplicated with all systems responding normally following the trip. Investigation of the cause of the valve cycling is ongoing.
"All full-length control rods inserted fully. Auxiliary Feedwater System actuated as designed in response to low steam generator water levels. Operations stabilized the plant in Mode 3 (hot standby). Decay heat is being removed by atmospheric dump valves.
"This condition has no impact to the health and safety of the public.
"The licensee notified the NRC Senior Resident Inspector.
"This event is being reported pursuant to 10 CFR 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B) and 10 CFR 50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A)."
Power Reactor Event Number: 53815 Facility: PILGRIM
Region: 1 State: MA
Unit: [1] [] []
RX Type: [1] GE-3
NRC Notified By: PAUL GALLANT
HQ OPS Officer: DONALD NORWOODNotification Date: 01/05/2019
Notification Time: 17:30 [ET]
Event Date: 01/05/2019
Event Time: 00:00 [EST]
Last Update Date: 01/05/2019Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(3)(v)(A) - POT UNABLE TO SAFE SD
Person (Organization):
ANTHONY DIMITRIADIS (R1DO)
Unit SCRAM Code RX Crit Initial PWR Initial RX Mode Current PWR Current RX Mode 1 N Y 31 Power Operation 31 Power Operation Event Text
POTENTIAL LOSS OF MSIV SCRAM FUNCTION DURING MAIN STEAM LINE ISOLATION VALVE TESTING
"At approximately 1040 EST on January 5, 2019, during evaluation of test results for the 'C' Main Steam Isolation Valve (MSIV), it was determined that closure of three of four
Main Steam Lines would not necessarily have resulted in a full scram during testing due to failure of a limit switch (LS-6) associated with MSIV-1C while in the test configuration. This condition is being reported as an eight-hour, non-emergency notification per 10 CFR 50.72(b)(3)(v), 'Any event or condition that could have prevented the fulfillment of the safety function of structures or systems that are needed to: (A) Shut down the reactor and maintain it in a safe shutdown condition.'
"The system was restored from the testing configuration at 1057 EST and the failed trip channel was placed in the tripped condition at 1326 EST thus restoring the design function. There was no impact on the health and safety of the public or plant personnel. The NRC Resident Inspector has been notified."
Saturday, January 05, 2019
Entergy's Dog Plants Acting Up
What these guys got in common?
1) All on the way to permanent shutdown.
2) Unprofitable
3) Horrendous capacity factor problem.
3) Worst two plants in the USA.
Next Grand Gulf will have shutdown.
I could make the case these weak plants are steeling money from the other nuclear plants. This could knock a marginal good operating plant.
Pilgrim Powers Down Due to Faulty Valve
January 5, 2019
The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth is yet again operating at sharply reduced capacity following as officials continue to deal with valve issues at the plant.
As of yesterday, the facility was working at 23% capacity as workers deal with the problem.
In a statement to CapeCod.com, Pilgrim spokesman Patrick O’Brien that the power reduction came as a result of prescheduled maintenance.
“Pilgrim is currently operating at reduced power due to a scheduled backwash of the main condenser,” he explained.
According to Pilgrim, backwashes are routine maintenance conducted 5-6 times annually to ensure safe and reliable operation of the main condenser by removing mussel growth.
During this power reduction officials at the plant will also be conducting other scheduled maintenance and testing, and would not indicate when they expect to return to full power.
Valves are responsible for regulating water flow into nuclear reactors, and keeping them fully operational has been a consistent issue at the Plymouth facility.
Similar valve issues have led to a number of unplanned shutdowns of the plant this year alone.
Pilgrim is set to permanently close in mid-2019.
Palisades reactor shut down Thursday night
COVERT — Palisades nuclear power plant operators manually shut down the reactor Thursday after fluctuations of a turbine governor valve.
“These types of valves control the flow of steam to the turbine,” Palisades spokeswoman Val Gent said.
The event happened just before midnight Thursday and was classified as a non-emergency.
Gent said all systems responded as expected during the shutdown.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported that “all full-length control rods inserted fully. Auxiliary Feedwater System actuated as designed in response to low steam generator water levels.”
Gent said the plant is currently in a safe and stable condition and at no time was the health and safety of the public or plant challenged.
A detailed analysis of the cause and subsequent repair plan is underway.
Palisades returned to service Dec. 28 after a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage that began on Oct. 28. Only one more planned outage is scheduled before the plant is closed in spring of 2022.
Contact: anewman@TheHP.com, 932-0357, Twitter: @HPANewman
Monday, December 24, 2018
What Is The Real Function Of A Recession
Usually this thing is created on purpose and at some timely frequency. It purpose is to clear the rot, debt and corruption out of the system. We haven't one for years after the 2007 crash. You know, the interest rates have been unnaturally low since 2007 and everyone has been given too much credit. It is like pruning a pear tree to make the production and quality of the pears better. It is a bad debt reduction tools. If used right, it is very Healthy. Is this why the feds are raising interest rates. If past recession cycles are ineffective at reducing unproductive debt and they are very infrequent...you are setting yourself up for a cascading failures and many times into a depression. This ahead could be very dangerous...
Saturday, December 22, 2018
Georgia Public Service Commission Doesn't Trust Vogtle And The Southern Company
Update Dec 23
***More of same.
State regulators want more money to monitor nuclear project
Updated: Dec 22, 2018 - 11:25 AM
ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia regulators want more money to pay outside consultants to help keep track of the Plant Vogtle nuclear project.
WABE Radio reports that the Georgia Public Service Commission's staff is requesting an unprecedented additional $3.6 million for 2019. That's up from the existing $1.1 million in independent contractor monitoring funds.
The two new reactors - Vogtle 3 and 4 - were expected to cost Georgia Power $4.4 billion and be completed in April 2016 and April 2017, respectively.
Now, the projected cost is $8.4 billion plus $3.2 billion in financing costs.
The projected completion dates for the reactors are November 2021 and November 2022.
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Junk Plant Grand Gulf: A Host of Federal and State Agencies Investigating
Update Dec 20.
What has drastically changed at Grand Gulf in the last few months? An environment the plant has never seen before. For decades the plant has run "silent and deep". There was almost no local news reporting about the plant no matter what you do. That is what money buys with politicians. They say the NRC is a independent agency, which is total bs. When a plant crosses a Rubicon of intense new media attention, you watch how independent the NRC is. I seen this effect only many bad plants.
Remember the democrats are coming to town after many years of NRC deregulation. But the democrats are dependent on the same campaign money as the republicans?
***Entergy spends a lot of money of politics. They got all the regulators and politicians captured. That is how a plant get this bad.
What has drastically changed at Grand Gulf in the last few months? An environment the plant has never seen before. For decades the plant has run "silent and deep". There was almost no local news reporting about the plant no matter what you do. That is what money buys with politicians. They say the NRC is a independent agency, which is total bs. When a plant crosses a Rubicon of intense new media attention, you watch how independent the NRC is. I seen this effect only many bad plants.
Remember the democrats are coming to town after many years of NRC deregulation. But the democrats are dependent on the same campaign money as the republicans?
***Entergy spends a lot of money of politics. They got all the regulators and politicians captured. That is how a plant get this bad.
The NRC is indifferent if their ROP is serving their communities and unreliable.
Grand Gulf nuclear power plant troubles 'happening far too often,' Mississippi official says
Jeff Amy, Associated Press Published 9:36 a.m. CT Dec. 19, 2018 | Updated 10:15 a.m. CT Dec. 19, 2018
JACKSON, Miss. — Another unplanned outage at Mississippi's Grand Gulf nuclear power plant outside Port Gibson is adding to regulators' concerns over reliability problems at the largest single-unit nuclear power plant in the United States. The move is also heightening scrutiny over whether problems at Entergy Corp.'s plant may be affecting power markets.
Operators took the southwest Mississippi plant offline last week, citing problems with a turbine bypass valve. Last Wednesday's outage came to light Tuesday when the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced a special inspection.
"The reactor was safely shut down but some equipment issues occurred that the agency wants to better understand," the agency said in a statement.
It's at least the sixth unplanned decrease in output at the plant in the last 15 months, according to NRC documents. The plant has been running at reduced or zero power output for much of the time since 2016, according to an analysis published earlier this month by E&E News .
"Over recent years, Entergy's Grand Gulf Nuclear Station reliability record has not met the company's standards," spokesman Mark Sullivan wrote in an email Tuesday. He said the company has invested $265 million and hired about 200 employees seeking to improve operations.
Grand Gulf took a nearly six-month outage in 2016 and 2017 aimed at improving performance because the plant didn't, in the words of Chief Nuclear Officer Chris Bakken, "meet our standards of excellence." There was more self-scrutiny during a planned refueling outage this spring, with Entergy CEO Leo Denault promising investors in April that "we expect the reliability with the plant and its capability factor to improve going forward."
Sullivan, though, says improvement will take time.
The plant's troubles come as President Donald Trump continues to support plans to subsidize nuclear power generation for reliability purposes. Sullivan said the plant had restarted Tuesday and NRC figures showed its output was up to 18 percent.
Grand Gulf, which began generation in 1985, is 90 percent owned by Entergy and 10 percent owned by Cooperative Energy, a Mississippi group that supplies power to member-owned cooperatives. Entergy's subsidiaries in Mississippi, Arkansas, New Orleans and Louisiana have contracts to buy power from the plant.
In November, Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulators wrote Entergy a letter notifying that it was downgrading the plant's safety rating from green, the safest of four levels, to white, the second safest. The letter cited a number of equipment failures. Consequently, the commission said, it was planning a supplemental inspection to explore the root causes of the problems, to independently assess conditions and to make sure problems had been corrected and wouldn't recur.
Beyond questions of safety, the absence of Grand Gulf's 1,443-megawatt capacity can stress power supplies and may cause higher prices across Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and southeastern Texas, a region that includes not only New Orleans-based Entergy's utilities, but cooperatives and private utility Cleco of Pineville, Louisiana.
In January and September, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which manages the region's electrical grid, ordered emergency conservation because of possible power shortages. The September and January events both happened while Grand Gulf was offline or at low power. Entergy's River Bend nuclear plant near St. Francisville, Louisiana, was also offline during the January cold snap.
"Just the scale of it, it's so big that you notice when it's missing," said Ted Thomas, chairman of the Arkansas Public Service Commission. "It doesn't take many other issues in addition to give you a problem."
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corp. announced in September that they were jointly investigating the January event. The Louisiana Public Service Commission is also investigating.
Mississippi Public Service Commission Brandon Presley said Tuesday he would ask the agency's independent staff to investigate the outages and determine whether the commission should open an official proceeding.
"This has been happening far too often," Presley said.
Arkansas has not launched an official inquiry, but Thomas said Grand Gulf "has our attention."
Entergy spent hundreds of millions to increase the plant's generating capacity in 2012, setting it up to be a cornerstone of low-cost generation in the region for decades, especially after winning a 20-year extension of the plant's license from the NRC through 2044. But when it's down, utilities have to buy power from other plants in the MISO region.
"We're paying to have that plant generate and when it doesn't generate, we have to substitute," Thomas said.
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