Junk Plant Watts Bar 2 Main Transformer Explosion, Can You Believe This New Plant Dog? To top of page

Wonder how old the transformer was? It sounds like they controlled SG level well.

They called in the outside 3 fire department?

Power Reactor	Event Number: 52210
Facility: WATTS BAR Region: 2 State: TN Unit: [ ] [2] [ ] RX Type: [1] W-4-LP,[2] W-4-LP NRC Notified By: CHARLES BROESCHE HQ OPS Officer: MARK ABRAMOVITZ	Notification Date: 08/30/2016 Notification Time: 21:49 [ET] Event Date: 08/30/2016 Event Time: 21:20 [EDT] Last Update Date: 08/31/2016
Emergency Class: UNUSUAL EVENT 10 CFR Section: 50.72(a) (1) (i) - EMERGENCY DECLARED	Person (Organization): JONATHAN BARTLEY (R2DO) CATHY HANEY (R2RA) BRIAN McDERMOTT (NRR) BERNARD STAPLETON (IRD) CHRIS MILLER (NRR)

Unit	SCRAM Code	RX CRIT	Initial PWR	Initial RX Mode	Current PWR	Current RX Mode
2	A/R	Y	98	Power Operation	0	Hot Standby

Event Text

NOTICE OF UNUSUAL EVENT - FIRE IN A MAIN BANK TRANSFORMER A fault occurred on the unit 2 "B" main bank transformer resulting in an oil fire. The main turbine tripped resulting in a reactor trip. All control rods fully inserted and no safety or relief valves lifted. Decay heat is being removed via steam dumps to the main condenser and feeding steam generators with auxiliary feedwater. Electrical power is through the normal shutdown electrical lineup. Offsite assistance was requested from the county and off duty fire brigade members. At 2228, the fire was reported as out. Spray is continuing and a reflash watch is being set. Unit 1 continued to operate at 100% power throughout the event. Notified the DHS SWO, FEMA Ops Center, DHS NICC, FEMA National Watch Center (E-mail) and Nuclear SSA (E-mail). * * * UPDATE AT 2352 EDT ON 08/30/2016 FROM MICHAEL BOTTORFF TO JEFF HERRERA * * * "On August 30, 2016, at 2110 EDT, Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 2 reactor tripped due to an electrical fault affecting the 2B Main Bank Transformer, resulting in a fire in the transformer. "Concurrent with the reactor trip, the Auxiliary Feedwater system actuated as designed. "All Control and Shutdown rods fully inserted. All safety systems responded as designed. The unit is currently stable in Mode 3, with decay heat removal via Auxiliary Feedwater and main steam dump systems. Unit 2 is in a normal shutdown electrical alignment. "The fire was out at 2230 EDT. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation. "The fire was reported at 2149 EDT. Local Fire Departments responded to the site as requested. "The reactor trip and system actuation is being reported under 10CFR50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A) and 10CFR50.72 (b)(2)(iv)(B). "There was no effect on WBN Unit 1. "The NOUE was exited at 2342. "The NRC Senior Resident Inspector has been notified." The Licensee notified the State of Tennessee. Notified the R2DO (Bartley), IRD MOC (Stapleton), NRR EO (Miller), DHS SWO, FEMA Ops Center, DHS NICC, FEMA National Watch Center (E-mail) and Nuclear SSA (E-mail).

Junk Plant Fermi 2: About 50% power for 5 days

Didn't I have prior issues with this plant?

Heroin In Hinsdale, NH

Update 8/31:The hard drugs from Lawrence and Lowell comes from Dominican Republic heroin Kingpins. They bring in from their Island slum dummies to make a hit on their competitors and anyone else who gets in their way. They are very smart.

 “Nobody wants to listen,” LePage told the News Service in an interview between panel talks. “What I said was this: Meth lab arrests are white. They’re Mainers. The heroin-fentanyl arrests are not white people. They’re Hispanic and they’re black and they’re from Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts, Waterbury, Connecticut, the Bronx and Brooklyn. I didn’t make up the rules. That’s how it turns out. But that’s a fact. It’s a fact. What? Do you want me to lie?”

Junk Plant Watts Bar 2: Simulator Training and Fidility Sucks?

These are the guys with safety culture problems and the NRC is concerned TVA employees are talking to me.

Licensee Event Report 391/2016-005-00, Main Feedwater Pump Trip on Loss of Condenser Vacuum Leads to Turbine Trip and Reactor Trip

On June 20,2016, the 28 Main Feedwater Pump (MFP) {EllS:P} kipped on a loss of vacuum in the 28 MFP turbine condenser, resulting in a loss of normalfeed {El|S:SJ}, and the subsequent trip of the main turbine. While operators were reducing power to within the capacity of Auxiliary

Feedwater (AFW) {EllS:BA} , the reactor tripped at 1540 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on Steam Generator Water Level (SGWL) Lo Lo in Steam Generator No.4. SG water level lowered rapidly due to shrink from the relatively cold AFW following the trip.

The cause(s) and circumstances for each human performance related root cause. 

Operations staff did not recognlze that, based on the system alignment present shown in Figure 1, that lowering the 2A MFPT condenser below a certain point would cause a loss of vacuum on the 28 MFPT condenser. Additionally, when taking manual control of steam generator water level, the TTDs for steam generator level were already actuated, and operators should have manually tripped the reactor prior to reaching an automatic trip. The MFPT Condensers for the 2A and 28 MFPs share a common MFPT Condenser Drain Tank. When AUOs drained the 2A MFPT Condenser completely, an air in leakage path was created from the turbine steam seals on the 2A MFPT (steam seals were out of service) through the 2A MFPT Condenser to the MFPT Condenser Drain Tank to the 28 MFPT condenser (see Figure 1). This resulted in a loss of vacuum on the 28 MFPT Condenser and a trip of the 28 MFPT.

Loss of the 28 MFP led to a main turbine trip. Operations attempted to reduce power such that the AFW system could maintain SG level, but were unsuccessful.

Mostly old Heroin Crime Related New Probation Violations in Superior Court

I doubt these people care if they are in Jail.

Cases resolved in Cheshire County Superior Court

Posted: Saturday, August 27, 2016 8:00 am

Cases resolved in Cheshire County Superior Court

By Sentinel Staff SentinelSource.com

Posted on Aug 27, 2016

by CLARK

New Hampshire residents were sentenced in Cheshire County Superior Court recently, in probation-violation, trespass and theft cases. Cases resolved include:

John A. Witfoth Jr., 30, of Keene was found guilty of violating his probation on a conviction for felony possession of heroin in July 2015 in Keene. He was sentenced to six months in jail and credited with 67 days served while awaiting resolution of his case.

Sean Campbell, 31, of Keene was found guilty of violating his probation on a felony conviction for selling heroin in Keene in July 2013. He was sentenced to six months in jail and credited with 30 days served while awaiting resolution of his case. He will be eligible for confinement on electronic monitoring if he enters a drug treatment program and completes the Cheshire County Behavioral Court program. Court documents don’t indicate how he violated his probation.

Nicholas Wardwell, 23, of Keene was found guilty of violating his probation on a conviction for possessing heroin in Keene in April 2015. He was sentenced to 120 days in jail, credited with 20 days served while awaiting resolution of his case, and will be eligible for home confinement on electronic monitoring. He was placed on probation for five years. Court documents don’t indicate how he violated his probation.

Andrew M. Fletcher, 49, of Loudon was found guilty of violating his probation on a conviction for possessing cocaine in Keene in January 2012. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail, to be served concurrently with a sentence on an unspecified charge handed down in 8th Circuit Court District Division in Keene. Court documents don’t indicate how he violated his probation.

Derek Parsons, 33, of Jaffrey was found guilty of two charges of violating his probation on convictions for possessing heroin and cocaine in Keene in January 2013. He was sentenced to six months in jail, credited with seven days served while awaiting resolution of his cases and will be eligible for electronic monitoring after Oct. 4. Court documents don’t indicate how he violated his probation.

Katherine Cady, 25, of Marlborough was found guilty of violating her probation on a conviction for possessing an opiate-based drug while an inmate at the jail in November 2014. She was sentenced to 11 days in jail and credited with 11 days served while awaiting resolution of her case. Court documents don’t indicate how she violated her probation.

Edward E. Favart, 45, of Rindge was convicted of misdemeanor criminal trespass for entering a home in Fitzwilliam without the owner’s permission in May. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail, all suspended, and assessed $620 in fees and penalties. He was ordered to have no contact with the home’s residents.

It’s The Non User Who Are Heroin Crazy…The Police, Courts and Feds Are Incompetent

This thing got to data intensive. We are not doing everything we can do?

There are sophisticated chemical analysis that could tell us the local where the heroin or poppies was produced. There is no doubt about it.

I don’t care how costly this is.  We should chemically surveill all heroin. Say get people to purchase heroin on the streets and then do the sophisticated chemical analysis it. Name, date and exact location… Collect and analyze all chemical identifiers on all heroin and put it on a national data base. We could do this overseas also. Collect samples on every arrest, do similar analysis on it and on the data base. We should be able to easily pick out the purity, fentanyl, carfentanyl, rat poison or whatever.

We are protecting cartels not doing this…  

It is ridiculous we are not doing this now and decades ago…It's incompetent nationally not having the infrastructure to get the print out on all heroin chemical identifiers anywhere with 24 hours of arrest.  

Personally I think our government allows widespread addiction in the USA as a tool to support bad regimes in Mexico, South America and elsewhere. Over a billion dollars a year floods into the regimes from us.  

Why Haven't We Declared War On Somebody...Spun Up Our Military

It is a plague on the whole planet.  

Cincinnati sees estimated 78 heroin overdoses in 2 days

August 26, 2016

Associated Press

Save |            

CINCINNATI (AP) — Police in Cincinnati are asking for the public's help in finding the source of the suspected heroin behind an estimated 78 overdoses in two days this week.
Authorities believe the same batch is linked to three recent deaths.
They say there were an estimated 78 overdoses on Tuesday and Wednesday and 174 overdoses in emergency rooms within the past week. Local officials are calling it a public health emergency.
They suspect a drug used to sedate elephants that is 100 times as potent as fentanyl (FEHN'-tuh-nihl) could be behind the surge in overdoses.
County leaders say they'll seek funding for treatment that would come with expanded response teams.
The state reported Thursday that accidental drug overdoses killed an average of eight people per day in Ohio last year.

The Heroin Silk Road Into Winchester NH

The non I 91 route by UMass and onto Holyoke. I am convinced these colleges and universities are a magnet for Heroin and their dealers. Bryan sounds like he was as high as a kite... Using his girlfriends car? He must got a record.

Route 63 crash leads to arrest of New Hampshire man on trafficking heroin charge, Montague police say

By George Graham | ggraham@repub.com The Republican
Follow on Twitter
on August 26, 2016 at 12:32 PM

Updates story posted at 7:58 a.m.

MONTAGUE -- An early morning vehicle crash on Route 63 early Wednesday led to the arrest a New Hampshire man on a trafficking heroin charge.

The crash, reported about 6:30 a.m., took out a utility pole near Stone's Equipment Repair at 484 Federal St. and the male operator fled on foot, Police Chief Charles "Chip" Dodge said.

Police contacted the owner of the vehicle and when she arrived at the station, a man fitting the description of the driver who fled the Rout 63 crash, dropped her off in another vehicle, Dodge said.

An officer spotted that vehicle pull into a driveway of a residence known to the officer. The officer then approached the driver to ask why he was parked in the driveway of property that didn't belong to him, Dodge said.

The driver, while talking with police, appeared to be attempting to reach for something, Dodge said. When police asked the driver to step out of the vehicle they saw what appeared to be large clear bag of heroin in his pocket.

Bryan Stetson, 23, of Winchester, N.H., was charged with trafficking in heroin, possession of heroin with intent to distribute, conspiracy to violate drug laws and additional misdemeanor charges.

Police seized 27 grams of heroin.

He lived In Hinsdale. He going to blame his heroin addiction on this accident?

 Bryan Stetson, 18, of 12 Butler Ave., Hinsdale was sentenced to a year in jail, with 21 days to serve and the rest suspended, after being found guilty of aggravated driving while intoxicated. He was fined $1,000, plus court fees, and his license was suspended for 12 to 18 months. He will also have to install an ignition lock system in his vehicle for a year after he gets his license back. He was also placed on probation for two years.

Stetson was accused of driving drunk in Swanzey in September 2011 and causing serious injuries to himself.

He also pleaded guilty to disobeying an officer and theft by unauthorized taking, both misdemeanors, and was sentenced to a year in jail for each, all suspended.

He was ordered to pay $8,000 restitution to Isaac Rice and $6,475 to Cincinnati Insurance Co.

He pleaded guilty to an additional count of theft by unauthorized taking and was ordered to pay $50 restitution to Price Chopper of Keene. He was also fined $250, suspended.

An additional charge of aggravated driving while intoxicated was dismissed by prosecutors as part of a plea agreement, according to court documents.

The Quest To Maximize Profits or Minimize Corporate Financial Loses

Is the nuclear industry heading for this. Their risk perspectives is a quest for self regulation and controlling the NRC.

A Cheaper Airbag, and Takata’s Road to a Deadly Crisis

Shaving a few dollars off the price of a ubiquitous auto part helped save an obscure Japanese company, and led to the auto industry’s biggest recall.

By HIROKO TABUCHIAUG. 26, 2016

In the late 1990s, General Motors got an unexpected and enticing offer. A little-known Japanese supplier, Takata, had designed a much cheaper automotive airbag.

G.M. turned to its airbag supplier — the Swedish-American company Autoliv — and asked it to match the cheaper design or risk losing the automaker’s business, according to Linda Rink, who was a senior scientist at Autoliv assigned to the G.M. account at the time.

But when Autoliv’s scientists studied the Takata airbag, they found that it relied on a dangerously volatile compound in its inflater, a critical part that causes the airbag to expand.

“We just said, ‘No, we can’t do it. We’re not going to use it,’” said Robert Taylor, Autoliv’s head chemist until 2010.

Today, that compound is at the heart of the largest automotive safety recall in history. At least 14 people have been killed and more than 100 have been injured by faulty inflaters made by Takata. More than 100 million of its airbags have been installed in cars in the United States by General Motors and 16 other automakers.

Details of G.M.’s decision-making process almost 20 years ago, which has not been reported previously, suggest that a quest for savings of just a few dollars per airbag compromised a critical safety device, resulting in passenger deaths. The findings also indicate that automakers played a far more active role in the prelude to the crisis: Rather than being the victims of Takata’s missteps, automakers pressed their suppliers to put cost before all else.

“General Motors told us they were going to buy Takata’s inflaters unless we could make a cheaper one,” Ms. Rink said. Her team was told that the Takata inflaters were as much as 30 percent cheaper per module, she added, a potential savings of several dollars per airbag. “That set off a big panic on how to compete…

Self-Regulation Gone Wrong

Airbag design and performance specifications are set by a consortium of automakers, with little involvement by safety regulators. In congressional testimony, Takata has insisted that specifications set by the automakers did not anticipate the problems caused by exposure to heat and humidity over many years.

But a review of the consortium’s design and performance specifications by The Times shows the automotive industry had raised concerns about the risks of ammonium nitrate more than a decade ago.

A 2004 update to its specifications singled out ammonium nitrate inflaters and required them to “undergo added stability evaluation.”

The specifications from the consortium, known as the United States Council on Automotive Research, show a clear understanding of the damaging effects of moisture and temperature on airbag explosives. Inflaters must be evaluated for their “resistance to temperature aging in an environment of high humidity,” the specifications said.

The problem, it appears, is that no one enforced the specifications.

The update in the specifications was issued four years before Honda, the automaker most affected by the defective airbags, started issuing recalls in 2008. It was not until 2013 that other automakers started recalling cars with the airbags. Today, 64 million of the defective airbags have been subject to the recall...

Mexican Drug Kinspins Blackmailing USA With Synthetic Heroin Deaths

Who is with me, lets declare war on Mexico?  

(Or Russia, China or isis)

The DEA says it is made in China and Mexico. I think the China junk goes through Mexico, then into the USA. Who is to say the Mexican Cartels are blackmailing the DEA and USA, back off harassing us? A show of power. We got tremendous power you don't realize. We got the power to kill multitudes of heroin users in a specific local and you will never gain the evidence to know we cold bloodily killed the addicts. We just got to jack up the concentration of synthetic heroin in any locale. We got the power to kill thousands in one swipe and overload the police and medical of any city in the USA. A target is sighted on any city in the USA.  

Right, the cartels might call up the DEA in Mexico or tell a snitch to tell the DEA of the blackmail plot. Say advance notice Cincinnati and Ohio are going to have a tremendous spike in heroin deaths. Give advanced notice with a list of cities and towns going to have a tremendous spike of heroin deaths. Talk about the new introduction of carfentanal into the USA? Do you think for one minute the DEA and Obama would openly admit the Mexican Cartels(help from China, Russia Syria)have begun carpet bombing our towns and cities with synthetic heroin in a blackmail plot. Say it was a grand blackmail plot and the media got ahold of the plot, how do you think the USA would respond to this attack on the USA?        

Maybe they are blackmailing for Joaquín 'El Chapo'? We want better treatment and for him to stay in Mexico? We can kill thousands on our call. Maybe, they are angling to get him released?

Here Comes Carfentanal???

Originally posted on 8/18?

Update: 8/26

Who is with me, lets declare war on Mexico?  

The DEA says it is made in China and Mexico. I think the China junk goes through Mexico, then into the USA. Who is to say the Mexican Cartels are blackmailing the DEA and USA, back off harassing us? A show of power. We got tremendous power you don't realize. We got the power to kill multitudes of heroin users in a specific local and you will never gain the evidence to know we cold bloodily killed the addicts. We just got to jack up the concentration of synthetic heroin in any locale. We got the power to kill thousands in one swipe and overload the police and medical of any city in the USA. A target is sighted on any city in the USA.  

Right, the cartels might call up the DEA in Mexico or tell a snitch to tell the DEA of the blackmail plot. Say advance notice Cincinnati and Ohio are going to have a tremendous spike in heroin deaths. Give advanced notice with a list of cities and towns going to have a tremendous spike of heroin deaths. Talk about the new introduction of carfentanal into the USA? Do you think for one minute the DEA and Obama would openly admit the Mexican Cartels(help from China, Russia Syria)have begun carpet bombing our towns and cities with synthetic heroin in a blackmail plot. Say it was a grand blackmail plot and the media got ahold of the plot, how do you think the USA would respond to this attack on the USA?        

Maybe they are blackmailing for Joaquín 'El Chapo'? We want better treatment and for him to stay in Mexico? We can kill thousands on our call. Maybe, they are angling to get him released?   

***You get it, this thing is escalating by the minute. Honestly, we are putting a lot power into a few hands, with allowing these elicit and increasing powerful substances to enter our country illegally.

Wiki: Carfentanil or carfentanyl (Wildnil) is an analog of the synthetic opioid analgesic fentanyl. It is one of the most potent opioids known and the most potent used commercially. Carfentanil was first synthesized in 1974 by a team of chemists at Janssen Pharmaceutica which included Paul Janssen.^[1] It has a quantitative potency approximately 10,000 times^[2] that of morphine and 100 times that of fentanyl, with activity in humans starting at about 1 microgram. It is marketed under the trade name Wildnil as a general anaesthetic agent for large animals.^[3] Carfentanil is intended for large-animal use only as its extreme potency makes it inappropriate for use in humans. Currently sufentanil, approximately 0.05-0.1 times as potent (500 to 1000 times the efficacy of morphine per weight) than carfentanil, is the maximum strength fentanyl analog for use in humans

These substances are just too irresistible to a large percentage of our population and the massive profits corrupts all of our institutions.  Treatment, the cops, courts and jails are not even putting a dent on it. It just bankrupting everything it touches. The future trajectory of this thing is shocking. The old solution to this problem are just making us feel better, bolstering the establishment politicians, as the substances blot out the sun above all of us.  As America sleeps...

How much more concentrated can they make artificial heroin? What is the most concentrated form of synthetic opioids or similar acting substances known to mankind? Is there more powerful substances on the drawing board? What are the implication for society?     

The illicit institutions are beginning to shift over to highly concentrated and artificial heroin. It's a evolving monster...

China, Russia and the typical producers of heroin are involved. They got a highly organized underground distribution network throughout the USA. This network could be classified as a private institution its so large.

Personally I think this is a new form of foreign terrorism.  

Everything You Should Know About Carfentanil, the Drug Even Deadlier Than Fentanyl
       
By Allison Tierney

Staff Writer
August 10, 2016  

Photo via CBSA's Twitter

This post originally appeared on VICE Canada.

The Canadian Border Services Agency announced that earlier this summer a dangerous drug called carfentanil was seized in a package from China destined for Calgary. A potent synthetic drug more powerful than fentanyl, carfentanil is known for being a large animal tranquilizer and for its alleged use as a chemical weapon by the Russian military.

This is not the first time carfentanil destined for the illicit drug market has been found in North America. In July, health officials in Ohio issued a warning about the drug after a string of mass overdoses where the substance was found in the heroin supply. Over just three days, 25 overdoses were reported in Akron, Ohio—four of which were fatal; and in Columbus, ten overdoses occurred in a nine-hour window, including two fatal ones. A man in Ohio was charged in connection to a death and a number of overdoses following the incidents.

Canada's federal police service claims that as little as less than a grain of salt—20 micrograms—of carfentanil can be fatal. Public health officials are concerned that naloxone, the opioid overdose antidote, might not be as effective for someone overdosing on carfentanil.

In 2002, Russian military gassed Chechen rebels at a Moscow theater during a hostage situation. Scientific analysis of survivors' clothing and urine from the incident suggested there was evidence to support that carfentanil was one of two substances contained in the aerosol that was deployed. Reportedly, 125 died at the time due to a combination of the effects of the aerosol and a lack of medical care.

"It is hard to imagine what the impact could have been if even the smallest amounts of this drug were to have made its way to the street," said George Stephenson of the RCMP in a press release.

A kilo of the drug, which is a white powder, was seized on its way to Calgary in a package that was marked as printer accessories on June 27. According to the CBSA, this was enough carfentanil for "more than 50 million doses." A 24-year-old Calgary man named Joshua Wrenn has been charged with one count of importation of a controlled substance and one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking. Wrenn is scheduled to appear in provincial court on October 19.

However, officials are saying this is the second such seizure of the substance in Canada. According to a member of the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians quoted by AP, "just a little bit short of a hazmat suit" is used to handle the drug when it's being prepared as a sedative for animals such as elephants.

"One can imagine that drug traffickers see persisting opportunity in Alberta because the response to the public health emergency here hasn't risen to match the magnitude or severity of our problem," Dr. Hakique Virani, an opioid addictions specialist in Edmonton, told VICE. In 2015, close to 300 people died due to fentanyl in Alberta—an increase of more than 75 percent from the previous year.

"This trend in illicit opioid trafficking is as frightening as it was predictable—we saw the drug trade attempt to decrease import weights while increasing overall supply... Now they've turned their attention to other known fentanyl analogs that produce effects in infinitesimal quantities," Virani said. "So long as there continues to be a large unmet demand for opioids because we aren't treating people with addiction, the illicit market will find ways to meet that demand... In the meantime, people die."

Trump Promises To Quickly Stop Heroin Entering USA

Better build the wall first....

Promises to liberate from the drug cartels!

Expensive Green Electricity Price Is Setting The Price Of All Electricity.

If you are a utility executive worrying about the drastic decline with the price of electricity caused by the fracking miracle, expensive green electricity is a way to support and increase your profits in the realm of deflationary nature gas prices.

All our federal and state subsidies for green energy is designed to boost the price of electricity of us all?

  

Block Island Wind Farm: Windfall for the politically connected

Published August 20. 2016 6:38PM | Updated August 21. 2016 7:23AM

By David Collins  Day staff writer

d.collins@theday.com  DavidCollinsct  

It's hard not to admire the five spanking new windmills off the southeast coast of Block Island, America's first offshore wind farm.

They seem to be getting good reviews on the island, too, where anxiety about how they would look seems to be subsiding.

The windmills, as seen in a series of mesmerizing aerial photos last week from The Day's Sean Elliot, are actually quite beautiful. From the air, the five look like a graceful art installation, statuesque sentinels staggered in a line just off the island's shoreline.

They are a gift to the island, a project that will replace an aging and derelict system of diesel power generators, running off fuel brought by ferry, that now produces the most expensive electricity in the country.

The island will not only see a drastic reduction in electric rates but also will be connected by cable for the first time to the mainland, a $100 million umbilical cord that also will bring high-speed internet.

The greatest beauty of the wind farm, though, may be seen by political observers, who can't help but marvel at the way this economic windfall has gone to the politically connected — millions of dollars in profit collected in little increments from all of Rhode Island's electric users.

The deal making for this at the highest levels of Rhode Island politics has gotten only scant attention in the extensive news coverage of the creation of America's first offshore wind farm.

One outspoken critic was the former attorney general of Rhode Island, Patrick Lynch, who cried foul about the above-market rates guaranteed for the windmill-generated kilowatts, while running for governor, a race he eventually abandoned.

"The 'demonstration project' off Block Island would demonstrate how easy it is to make money off Rhode Island," Lynch once complained.

One of the best explainers about the politics of this money-making clean energy deal appeared in Forbes last spring, under the headline: "Is America's First Offshore Wind Farm A Real Revolution Or Just Another Green Boondoggle?"

The long piece by staff writer Christopher Helman explains how the project got its guaranteed above-market electric rates after intervention by state lawmakers and then-Gov. Donald Carcieri.

Under the deal engineered by Carcieri, Rhode Island's regulated utility, National Grid, will be required to pay 24.4 cents per kilowatt hour for the windmill power — more than twice current market rates.

Sweetening the deal even more, there are price escalators of 3.5 percent a year, so that by the end of the 20-year contract period, National Grid will be paying 50 cents per kilowatt hour from the wind farm.

Forbes calculated that the wind farm eventually would generate some $900 million, and with $100 million in energy tax credits, the investors in the project are looking at a return on investment on the order of 7.5 percent.

"It is a legally guaranteed, risk-free money machine," Forbes noted.

And how did it happen?, Forbes asked.

"Connections," the magazine said, explaining that the farm developer, Deepwater Wind, is run by none other than Jeff Grybowski, former chief of staff to Gov. Carcieri.

Dead Ender Junk Plant Pilgrim On The Way Back Up

The Cape Cod Times. Do you think these guys have to abide to a set of rules, such that they can get free stories from Entergy and the NRC.

Why didn't they ask or why didn't the Cape Cod Times say Entergy declined to answer our question with what component failed? They only thing I can think of with this response was employee sabotage. They want the culprit to brag about it first?

Sheehan said the faulty parts have been replaced.

“The company has shipped the removed parts to the valve vendor for further examination,” Sheehan said. “We will review those results as soon as they are available.”

?

Don't you think its a little arrogant, with Entergy and NRC not explaining what caused the slow MSIV timing before they began the start-up?

It sounds like they changed out the air actuator for the valve?

Junk Plant Watts Bar 2: New Plant Scram On Unreliable Equipment.

Power Reactor	Event Number: 52194
Facility: WATTS BAR Region: 2 State: TN Unit: [ ] [2] [ ] RX Type: [1] W-4-LP,[2] W-4-LP NRC Notified By: DAVID ALLEN HQ OPS Officer: JEFF HERRERA	Notification Date: 08/23/2016 Notification Time: 15:30 [ET] Event Date: 08/23/2016 Event Time: 13:56 [EDT] Last Update Date: 08/23/2016
Emergency 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 MICHEL (R2DO)

Unit	SCRAM Code	RX CRIT	Initial PWR	Initial RX Mode	Current PWR	Current RX Mode
2	M/R	Y	43	Power Operation	0	Hot Standby

Event Text

MANUAL TRIP DUE TO A LOSS OF MAIN FEEDWATER "On August 23, 2016, at 1356 EDT, Watts Bar Nuclear Plant [WBN] Unit 2 reactor was manually tripped due to a loss of main feedwater. "Concurrent with the reactor trip, the Auxiliary Feedwater system actuated as designed. "All control and shutdown rods fully inserted. All safety systems responded as designed. The unit is currently stable in Mode 3, with decay heat removal via Auxiliary Feedwater and main steam dump systems. Unit 2 is in a normal shutdown electrical alignment. "The cause is currently under investigation. "This is being reported under 10CFR 50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A) and 10CFR 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B). "There was no effect on WBN Unit 1. "The NRC Senior Resident Inspector has been notified."

Junk Plant Fitzpatrick: Power at 45% For Three days

Power been at 85% since they destroyed one of their giant condensate pumps.

Junk Plant Cook: Steam Lines Vibration Cause Giant Leak

What does that say about their problem detection program before the component fails? I'd be looking for some recent increase of vibration causing a rapid failure.  

 

Bridgman Nuclear Plant Finds Cause Of July Shut Down

By Rebecca Thiele • 8 hours ago

 

Officials at D.C. Cook Nuclear Plant in Bridgman may have found what caused a steam pipe to burst in July. The plant was shut down for a week last month after pressure from a faulty steam pipe wore a hole in the wall of the turbine building. 
Turbines help power the plant - which Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials say ultimately keeps the reactor cool. Tom Taylor is the resident inspector at D.C. Cook for the NRC. He says the supports holding the steam pipe up likely weren’t sturdy enough, causing the steam pipe to vibrate and crack.
“Over time some vibrations might have caused some weakening of some of the joints that then led to the failure,” he says.
D.C. Cook Communications Manager Bill Schalk says the pipe was fixed before the plant came back online, but plant workers hope to have a more permanent solution by the fall.
“When we are shut down in October there’ll be a more comprehensive modification to that so that either there won’t be that vibration or that there’ll be sufficient hardening of that particular area so the vibrations wouldn’t result in any failure of the pipe,” says Schalk….

 

Cover-Up In Hinsdale, NH: Vt Police Agencies Overwhelmed With Heroin Cases and Carfentanil Suspected

But Hinsdale is OK...

With Overdoses Increasing, Vermont Adds New Drug Detectives

Vermont State Police and Sen. Patrick Leahy announced a federal grant will add personnel to the Drug Task Force

The Vermont State Police and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, announced Monday that a federal Justice Department grant funded six new positions on the Vermont State Police Drug Task Force. 

The $1.4-million grant will pay for five detectives and one intelligence analyst, who will focus on disrupting the sale of heroin in Vermont, the commander of the Vermont State Police said.

The expansion increases the number of Task Force investigators from 19 to 24, according to Vermont State Police and Sen. Leahy. 

"In my years in the Senate, and in my years before it as a prosecutor, I've never seen anything like this," Leahy said of the opiate addiction epidemic. "I've never had anything that's torn at me as much as this does."

Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Harry Chen said Monday on average, emergency services teams in Vermont are now seeing an average of 2.2 or more overdoses a day from heroin or prescription pill abuse. While those overdoses aren't all fatal, that's a big number in a small state, Chen said. 

The addition of powerful painkillers like fentanyl and carfentanil, which is used to sedate elephants and large animals, is adding new dangers to the national heroin epidemic, Chen noted. 

"We are, quite frankly, overwhelmed at the moment on the law enforcement end of things with the amount of heroin that's coming into the state currently," said Col. Matt Birmingham, the commander of the Vermont State Police. "Our investigations are up about 70 percent this past year on heroin alone."

Junk Plant Pilgrim: The "C" MSIV Has At Least Been Broken For Six Months

Originally posted on 8/19, reposted because on new information.

Update 8/21

Today at 11:14 AM

Michael Mulligan <steamshovel2002@yahoo.com>

 To allegation@nrc.gov allegation@nrc.gov

Dear Sir,  

Could you past pass this onto the direct supervisor of the Pilgrim Plant NRC inspectors. It is my opinion the current NRC residents in Pilgrim are doing an exemplary job and are heroic in nature against the tremendous negative forces of Entergy. I give the NRC my permission to pass this e-mail onto Entergy.  

Mike Mulligan  

Hinsdale, NH

 

Dear Sir,

Better yet, could you put my preceding degraded MSIV e-mail on the docket?

 

Thanks,

Mike Mulligan

Hinsdale, NH 

Proposing rust particles degrading MSIVs in safety compressed air indicates they had known this was a widespread problems seen in other components. All safety components supplied by safety related compressed air should have been called inop. That would get them to fix it.

Was the recent MSIV testing part of the normal scheduled testing, or was Entergy suspicious something was wrong with this valve? 

As I told the inspector, this MSIV issue is the exact pattern leading to the SRV failures. How could the NRC let them get away with this?

I ask the inspector to look into the similarities of the C main steam line SRV degradations and C MSIVs timing degradation and air tube crack . 

My god, look at how deeper C SRV degraded and the much shorter time the C SRV was in the plant compared to A? You now need to do a evaluation on all the C SRV leakages from new installation in 2011. Was there some mysterious forces going on in the C SRV causing this guy to degrade faster and deeper.

Main Steam Safety Relief Valves Determined to be Inoperable Following Evaluation

On January 27, 2015, during winter storm Juno,

On March 12, 2015, after further evaluation of system performance of SRV-3A and SRV-3C, along with results of valve internal conditions identified during physical inspection, the valves were determined to have been inoperable for an indeterminate period during the last operating cycle. Specifically, SRV-3C was determined to be inoperable based on its on-demand performance at low reactor pressures, as well as the visual conditions that were identified during the inspection process. SRV-3A was considered inoperable based on it having similar internal indications as SRV-C when it was disassembled and inspected. SRV-3A was installed in May 2011 and SRV-3C was installed in October 2013.

Remember, Dead-Ender plants like Oyster Creek and Pilgrim are exempt from federal regulations.

If this inops all MSIVs retroactively, there is going to be hell to pay???     

Update

The NRC resident told me half the problem are the weaselly rules of the NRC. Didn't have proof it was inop.

Why in the world is the NRC allowing the plant to operate till the weekend.

My theory is abnormal vibrations in the Main Steam Lines...

***This is from the inspector...they are pissed as hell.

They basically got quarterly test cycling of the main steam isolation valve. This is the same valve that failed a year ago. Three quarters ago, this MSIV failed testing. I asked the inspector, well why didn't they shutdown. Pilgrim came back with, we think is a particle in the valve or air system causing the valves testing failure. We cycled the piss out of the valve, we're good now...we think we blew out the particle. A bunch of valve position cycling came within tech specs. I think she said after, one quarter testing showed normal timing, while the other showed within tech specs, but longer than normal times. The latest then failed testing leading to the shutdown.

The NRC is assuming the valve was inop and incapable of working since the first failed test 6 months to 9 months ago. It might never been operable since last shutdown.

 This is a big deal.

Let play this out. Lets say the Entergy explains to the NRC, we are shutting the plant down because we think something is wrong with the C inboard MSIV. The NRC would emediately think this is suspicious. Lets say they pop open the valve finding significant damage imparing long term operability. Then the NRC would come back asking well, what is your evidence the valve was impaired leading to the testing causing the shutdown. They would be looking for a falsification issue.

Now a ginned up failed test a day ago, might get them cover to enter a shutdown and repair of valve, with the prying questions of the NRC...

I questioned her on the SRVs. Are there any leaks and abnormal tailpiece temperature indications. She said there were none. I asked, are they going to yank out the SRVs and do pressure lift testing. She said its not required and she does expect Pilgrim to do this testing. But the NRC is requiring Pilgrim to cycle the SRVs during this cool down or shutdown. The NRC is going to be in the drywell to observe the testing results. The is highly abnormal.