Junk Plant Millstone As A Indicator Of Problems with SRVs and PORVs Valves Nationwide

New inspection report 2016004

This is a representative report indicating problems throughout the Industry with safety relief valves and PORV valves. Poor maintenance on the PORV valve gave us TMI. These problems go across the plant employees, manufacturers and vendors since 2006. The new valves were way less reliable than the old ones.

How we get to Pilgrim today is through the replacement of their two stage safety relieve valves. The reliability of the old valves were horrible. They put in refurbished three stage SRVs through the nuclear junks yards in 2011. The new SRVs began leaking emediately upon startup. They had horrendous leaking problems with the new valves effecting capacity factor. In 2013, I made a complaint to the NRC saying the valves have a common mode issues and they are extremely unreliable. The NRC blew me off. In the 2015 Blizzard hard plant trip and LOOP, two valves failed to operate when needed. We got here because I professionally so embarrassed the NRC.

1) The commonality between Millstone(PWR)and(Pilgrim) is upon startup with new valves, they emediately began leaking. It takes them many failures and many years to confront the defective new valves.  

2) Generally the SRVs and PORVs are indicator components. It indicates the bureaucracies are dysfunctional.  

3) With new valves and leaking, the NRC should have emediately ordered the plant to shutdown and fix them. On the second leak, we will shut you down for a year. That's being tough!!!       
That is how you make everyone else behave in the industry.

·        Annual Sample:  Unit 2 ‘B’ Power Operated Relief Valve (PORV) Leakage

a. Inspection Scope

The inspectors performed an in-depth review of Dominion’s identification and correction

of conditions adverse to quality associated with repetitive leakage of Unit 2 PORVs since

modification and installation in 2006 during 2R17. 

The inspectors assessed Dominion’s problem identification threshold, causal analyses,

extent of condition reviews, compensatory actions, and the prioritization and timeliness

of Dominion’s corrective actions to determine whether Dominion was appropriately

identifying, characterizing, and correcting problems associated with this issue and

whether the planned or completed corrective actions were appropriate.  The inspectors

compared the actions taken to the requirements of Dominion’s CAP and 10 CFR 50,

Appendix B and assessed the effectiveness of the implemented corrective actions.  

b.  Findings and Observations

No findings were identified.  

In 2006, Dominion chose to upgrade the Unit 2 Pressurizer PORV and Operator

Assemblies to mitigate damage associated with repetitive installation and removal to

support off-site surveillance testing of the original plant equipment.  The new PORVs

were designed to require less maintenance and to be tested in place.  During each fuel

cycle since installation, either one or both of the new PORVs have leaked by their closed

valve seats.  This condition has resulted in Dominion isolating PORVs during each of the

last four fuel cycles.  On November 17, 2016, Dominion isolated the ‘A’ PORV due to

leakage as captured in CR1054065. 

The PORVs provide overpressure protection for the reactor coolant system (RCS) by

relieving pressure to the quench tank thereby protecting the RCS against brittle failure.

Additionally, the PORVs are sized to ensure that departure from nucleate boiling

specified acceptable fuel design limits are not exceeded during analyzed events.  The

rated capacity per valve is one half the capacity that prevents lifting the RCS safety

valves during normal plant operations and transients including a loss of load from full

power.  Furthermore, this capacity is sufficient to prevent lifting the safety valves in the

event of a continuous control rod withdrawal from low power, in conjunction with a

pressurizer pressure trip of the reactor.  Blocking or isolating a PORV will prevent the

valve from automatically opening on demand.

To correct PORV leakage Dominion has performed three recent ACEs with limited

success.  ACE 18846, from 2012, concluded that the incorrect subcomponents,

mismatched valve seats and discs, were used when maintenance technicians swapped

out a damaged seat during installation.  Dominion also identified lost bench and post-

maintenance testing opportunities in addition to training and procedural enhancements. 

In 2015, ACE 19950 found that Dominion failed to provide the vendor adequate testing

28

requirements in the purchase order for the PORVs.  Dominion further identified that the

welded in configuration of the current PORV design does not allow for testing prior to

restoring the system.  ACE 1028983, in 2016, observed that Dominion failed to take

proper action upon identification of PORV leakage due to procedural weaknesses.

The Dominion CAP procedure, PI-AA-200, provides instructions to station management

to ensure selection of the most appropriate causal analysis tools during CR screening.

Consistent with previous screening, CR1054065 was screened as Significance Level 2,

Potentially Significant Condition.  These conditions are identified as precursors to

significant events.  PI-AA-200, Attachment 6, “CAQ Screening Matrix,” recommends

consideration of a root cause evaluation (RCE) for potentially significant repetitive

conditions. The inspectors observed that Dominion initially elected to perform another

ACE for isolation of the ‘A’ PORV captured in CR1054065.  However, consistent with a

healthy corrective action program, station staff assigned analysis of the issue identified

that the three recent ACEs had not successfully prevented PORV leakage and

requested elevation to a RCE to ensure the appropriate rigor.  Dominion has scheduled

completion of the associated RCE (CA3048134) for February 12, 2017.

Junk Plant Pilgrim: Its the Political Campaign Contribution "Risk Perspective" Safety Philosophy, Stupid

As we said, We all got to get tough here to fix this. We are being taken advantage by the main stream utilities.

If there are 25 violations, the general safety level isn't green. It is green times green times green fifteen times to get you the general violation level. The way the NRC plays this out is if there were 100 green or insignificant violations then the general is just green.

Any violation of procedures, rules or report inaccuracies should be treated independent of component risk. It is a very serious violation as it impacts the ability of the NRC to carries out it responsibilities. 

My bet is a majority of these violation are going to be old violations that the NRC should have been identified for or five years ago. The NRC has been implicated with tolerating this kind of behavior.  

So there have been eight recent security violations and maybe fifteen plant violations.       

Pilgrim Nuclear Plant’s Neighbors Confront Regulators Over Safety

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — One by one, ordinary residents confronted the federal regulators, telling them during a three-hour meeting Tuesday night that the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station here was not safe and should be shut down.

Their chief piece of evidence? An internal email written Dec. 6 by the leader of a federal inspection team and sent accidentally — thanks to autofill in the “to” line — to Diane Turco, a citizen activist opposed to the plant.

The email outlined a host of problems at the aging plant, 40 miles southeast of Boston, including that the plant managers seemed “overwhelmed just trying to run the station.”

Ms. Turco immediately forwarded the email to The Cape Cod Times, which ran an article that set off alarm bells across the state and reignited residents’ long-simmering worries about the plant, which has been classified by federal regulators as one of the three worst-performing of the nation’s 99 nuclear plants.

The email — and the debate that has followed — have forced a painful reckoning here in Plymouth, where many residents have been supportive of the plant, which has long provided this historic town with high-paying jobs, a boon to the tax base and contributions to charities.

Finally, after weeks of escalating concerns, officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreed to meet with the residents and several elected officials here on Tuesday night.

The meeting drew 300 people in a snowstorm to a nondescript hotel ballroom, where many were armed with neon green placards saying “Shut Pilgrim Now.” The residents said they viewed the damaging email as exactly the sort of evidence they needed to finally make a substantive argument against the station.

But to the surprise of some at the meeting, the regulators acknowledged the problems. Donald Jackson, the inspector who wrote the email, discussed its main points. And the regulators said the problems raised in the message were being addressed and, most important, were not serious enough to close the plant.

“I have to have a sound technical and legal basis to do that,” Dan Dorman, the regional administrator for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said in an interview after the meeting.

“One of the purposes of this inspection was to dive deep into this station and see if that basis for closing was there,” he said. “And what I’m hearing right now from this team is they didn’t find it.”

In addition, he said, the commission would not intervene in the scheduled refueling of the plant, which is to take place this spring. The commission is to issue its final report in March or April and will return to Plymouth for a public meeting on March 21.

The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts has been classified by federal regulators as one of the three worst-performing of the nation’s 99 nuclear plants. Credit David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe, via Getty Images

The conclusion angered and disappointed many of the plant’s opponents, but some said on Wednesday that the regulators’ conclusion did not leave them defeated.

“It is motivating us even more,” said Ms. Turco, the inadvertent recipient of the email, who is also the director of the Cape Downwinders, a group opposed to the plant.

 “We don’t know exactly what our next step is,” she said, “but we certainly aren’t going away or taking this lying down.” She said the activists intended to pressure Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, to revoke the plant’s operating license.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has classified Pilgrim, which went online in 1972, and two plants in Arkansas in a category called Column Four, one step away from being required to shut. All three are owned by Entergy Corporation, based in Louisiana.

After the meeting Tuesday night, Patrick O’Brien, a spokesman for Entergy, said, “The key for us is that the N.R.C. said the plant is safe to operate.”

The company is shutting the plant anyway by May 31, 2019, for financial reasons, Mr. O’Brien said. “With low gas prices, it’s not favorable to run a nuclear generating station and make money,” he said. But if the plant were to shut down early, Entergy would be penalized for failing to keep its commitment to contribute to the region’s electrical grid.

Driving Ms. Turco and other critics is the fear of an accident that, according to a 2006 study done for the state attorney general, could have the potential to contaminate millions of residents from Boston to Providence, R.I., cause 24,000 latent cancers in the region and result in $488 billion in damages.

Mr. Jackson, the inspector who wrote the errant email, said it was “a snapshot in time,” taken during the first week of a three-week inspection. In explaining his comment about plant workers being “overwhelmed,” he said that his team had shown up with 20 inspectors instead of the usual three or four, and that they had made many demands on the plant workers.

“I didn’t mean to leave the impression that operators in the control room were overwhelmed,” he said. There was a lot of confusion in that first week, he said, but eventually things settled down.

While the inspection is continuing, he said he expected the final report to find between 10 and 15 violations. “It’s clear they are a Column Four performer,” he said, “but we did determine that the plant is operating safely now.”

Junk Plant Hatch Going Crazy ON US

UNUSUAL EVENT - POTENTIAL SECURITY EVENT

Plant Hatch declared a notification of unusual event. Subsequent investigation determined the paraphernalia was related to plant drills. The Unusual Event was terminated at 1727 EST.

The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

Notified the DHS SWO, FEMA, NICC, and NNSA (via e-mail).

* * * RETRACTION FROM KENNETH HUNTER TO MARK ABRAMOVITZ AT 1829 EST ON 2/1/2017 * * *

The event was retracted.

The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

Notified the R2DO (Shakur), NSIR (Holian), IRD MOC (Gott), DHS SWO, FEMA, NICC, and NNSA (via e-mail).

Trump Threatening To Send In Our Military into Mexico

I give his presidency so far a triple "A" plus so far. He is the best president I've ever seen. Our ideologies don't even match.   

Trump also vented anger and touted his political accomplishments in a tense conversation with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, officials said. The two have sparred for months over Trump’s vow to force Mexico to pay for construction of a border wall between the two countries, a conflict that prompted Peña Nieto to cancel a planned meeting with Trump.
Trump told Peña Nieto in last Friday’s call, according to the Associated Press, which said it reviewed a transcript of part of the conversation, “You have a bunch of bad hombres down there. You aren’t doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared. Our military isn’t, so I just might send them down to take care of it.”

Junk Parent Corp Toshiba: Completely Pulling Out Of US Market?

I got an idea. Why don't the USA government purchase Toshiba's nuclear assets?

Toshiba puts overseas nuclear operations under review

Toshiba Corp said it will sell a minority stake in its memory chip business as it urgently seeks funds to offset an imminent multi-billion dollar writedown, adding that its overseas nuclear division – the cause of its woes – was now under review.
The drastic measures are set to be just some of the tough choices the Japanese conglomerate will have to take as proceeds from the sale are likely to only cover part of a charge that domestic media has put at $6bn.
Still battered by a 2015 accounting scandal, Toshiba was plunged back into crisis when it emerged late last year that it had to account for huge cost overruns at a US power plant construction business recently acquired by its Westinghouse division.
Describing the nuclear division as no longer a central

The NRC should emediately issue a stop work order across Toshiba's US nuclear assets based on the parent corporate inability to keep their nuclear assets their primary focus. The new build is only going decline from here. You catch the massive musical chairs across Toshiba and the nuclear construction corporations in the last few years. The business and corporate climate has become just too chaotic in recent years to maintain quality in their nuclear business.  

business focus for the firm, chief executive Satoshi Tsunakawa said Toshiba will review Westinghouse’s role in new projects and whether it will embark on new power plant construction.
The division will also now fall under direct CEO supervision.
Tsunakawa added Toshiba was looking to sell less than 20% of its memory chip business – the world’s biggest NAND flash memory producer after Samsung Electronics – which comprises the bulk of the conglomerate’s operating profit…

Junk Plant Columbia: Another Plant Spinning Wildly Out Of Control

A whistleblower made a earlier series of complaints to a newspaper about this. This set up much more attention to the plant. It sounds like more whistleblower complaints in security. 

You are a very powerless person at a nuclear plant. You desperately try to gain attention to a declining plant by going to the newspapers. A series of articles get written concerning secret problems, tremendous attention is drawn to the plant. Things begin to change. I was there. So you exercised great power for a few seconds. It is the first time many of these individuals felt the use of independent power. The use of power even for few seconds to preform a greater good, was the most addictive force I ever felt. Power is easily abused concerning these events.   
  

NRC inspection verifies Richland nuclear plant security concerns

Apparent security-related violations were verified during a Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspection of the nuclear power plant near Richland, according to an NRC letter made public Thursday.

Inspection results for Energy Northwest’s Columbia Generating Station are being “considered for escalated enforcement action,” said the Jan. 10 letter to Mark Reddemann, Energy Northwest chief executive.

However, since Energy Northwest identified the issues and based on the NRC understanding of actions taken to increase security, a civil penalty may not be warranted, the letter said.

The specific issues were not made public and an inspection report describing the apparent violations was not released to maintain plant security.

Energy Northwest said in a statement that in April it notified the NRC of an issue with “security procedures surrounding on-site storage of radioactive material.”

“At that time we had already implemented lasting and effective corrective actions,” Energy Northwest said. “We also plan to bring in a group of industry experts to help us further strengthen our programs in this area.”

NRC discussed the circumstances of the apparent violations, the significance of the issues and the need for lasting corrections at a Dec. 5 exit meeting after the inspection, according to the NRC letter.

Before the NRC makes an enforcement decision, Energy Northwest may respond to the inspection report or may request a conference to allow it to provide its perspective and any other information to the NRC. The conference would be closed to the public.

A year ago Energy Northwest paid a fine of $35,000 to the NRC over security incidents that occurred between 2012 and 2014.

Energy Northwest described the fine as being related to two security officers who were inattentive at their posts. Whistleblower letters sent to the Energy Northwest executive board said the two guards were taking nude photos while on duty.

The letters also alleged that a security officer was playing a geocaching game on duty. Gamers were invited to attempt to enter a controlled area for the nuclear plant via an online game app.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Update Jan 27

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

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

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

***An absolution system

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

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

Junk Plant Grand Gulf: Delay Startup to Fix Safety Culture

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

What is the date for restart...

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

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

ADVERTISING

inRead invented by Teads

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

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

The Meltdown of Toshiba Just Got Much Worst.

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

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

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

January 26, 2017 (Mainichi Japan)

Japanese version

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Millstone Wants Access to Bigger Markets for its Electricity 

Stephen Singer Contact Reporter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Entergy does this over and over again?

January 19, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

January 20, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Toshiba Meltdown 0ver US New Nuclear Plants

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

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

8:36 pm, January 19, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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