A submarine and aircraft carrier metaphor…USS Hampton, Enterprise and Midway….

Why didn't the fleet's tempo and their well know resource troubles kill this guy? Hmm, they are talking about shutting down the government?

Navy’s top 5th Fleet commander found dead in his home

The commander of the Navy’s 5th Fleet was found dead in his home Saturday in Bahrain, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said on Twitter.

Vice Adm. Scott A. Stearney had assumed command of 5th Fleet and Naval Forces Central Command in May, a job that oversees U.S. naval operations in the Middle East.

Richardson said Bahraini authorities and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are coordinating but that “at this time, no foul play is expected" in the death of the 58-year-old man.

“This is devastating news for the Stearney family, for the team at 5th Fleet and the entire Navy,” Richardson said. “He was a good friend to all of us.”

Update Dec 3 

So a tremendous amount of submarine resources are sidelined based on inadequate budgets and the Russians are dangling submarines in the Atlantic? 

I remember being up there in the North Atlantic near the artic circle in a experimental submarine. We were at about 400 feet and we were riding smooth a silk. Then we had a circuit card go bad in the nuclear protections system. The nuclear plant tripped. It basically was a insignificant failure but we find it. On the surface we had a ragging north Atlantic storm. It was towards the end of my enlistment, I thought I'd seen everything a ocean could throw at us. We went to periscope level and started up diesel generator with the snorkel. The wave height was absolutely astonishing. Our sub design wasn't adequate for this one off submarine. We were a lot long submarine than normal. The waves we so bad, our front kept coming out of the water, This tripped the DG over and over again. We couldn't find the short, it was take a lot more time than expected. Our battery was running out of juice. We surfaced and put men on the sail. We were hoping this would prevent the DG from tripping. Our length and electric motor propulsion made it difficult to put the sub heading into the waves. One of the waves was so high, the bow and sail went underwater with the men in the sail. For some reason both sail hatches were open. We had thousands of gallons of seawater flood into the sub and we almost lost the men on the sail. We were almost out of battery power. The captain said get the men off the sail, close the hatches and go done to 400 feet. That is when we used the "battleshort switch". This switch saved our lives.  This switch overrides all nuclear protection functions. We emediately started up the reactor, after about 10 minutes, we discover were the bad card was and replaced it.  And then bam, we were back to smooth as silk operation.  

Commander of 2nd Fleet latest to sound alarm over Russian subs

Update Nov 28

***I wish I could blame this wholly on the Navy. But the public is really not interested in our military. The news media is worst.   

So how we are beginning to see how weak our Navy is coming out of our recent set of ship collusions and aircraft crashes in the last few weeks. In the same period, we see how secretly degraded our submarine fleet is. The idea they are yanking and cementing ships to a pier, has me wondering how bad the degradation was seen out to see. They must of have some really scary events out to sea and somebody realized how publicized a big event out to sea would be. As shown in the past, we have no idea what is going on Navy right now. So they played it safe by cementing ships to the piers. You will never see how ill prepared we are for the next war, until we can't operated our ship out to sea and a lot of our ships get sunk by the Russians.

The true warfighting condition of our military are being kept from the public's eye. It facilitates all the corruptions from defense contractors and the politicians. They are selling the public a defense readiness and durability way higher than actual. Remember our enemies got sophisticated satellites, amazing technical means and Russian spies and civilians. They can watch our floating submarines all over the world including where docked and it shipyards. They have been watching us for years. They clearly can put two and two together...they broadly can analyze the degraded condition of our fleet of submarines. And they can clearly tell when the politicians and defense establishment are putting one over on the public. I find this humiliating as hell. As always, all wars are called to a nation. Our enemies can figure out how weak we are...know they can probably kick our ass or hobbles our world wide interest for the next 50 years.

Here comes our budget war between the democrats and republican. The republicans are going to blackmail us with massive budget gets to our social programs to get their interest and the democrats are going to threaten massive budget cuts to the military to gain their politicals.

I swear, the Russian must have a lot of fun watching the great US show. We must entertain the hell out of the Russians or whatever.   

Watchdog report sounds alarm over military aviation readiness

Navy Says Deadly Ship Collisions Were 'Avoidable,' Faults Lack Of Preparation

CNO:‘No Surprises’ in GAO Report on Submarine Readiness Challenges

By: Megan Eckstein

November 26, 2018 10:49 AM 

The Los Angeles-class submarine USS Bremerton (SSN 698) transits Puget Sound while returning to Bremerton, Wash., for decommissioning. The 37-year-old Bremerton, commissioned March 28, 1981, is scheduled to begin the inactivation and decommissioning process at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in July. U.S. Navy photo.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said there are “no surprises” in a recent Government Accountability Office report that found the Navy has lost more than $1.5 billion and thousands of operational days over the past decade due to attack submarines caught in maintenance delays or sitting idle while awaiting an availability.

According to the Nov. 19 report, “The Navy has started to address challenges related to workforce shortages and facilities needs at the public shipyards. However, it has not effectively allocated maintenance periods among public shipyards and private shipyards that may also be available to help minimize attack submarine idle time.”

Richardson, in a media call on Thursday during his Thanksgiving visit to USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), told USNI News that he found “no surprises in that report. Every bit of information in that is information we’re very, very aware of. We’ve been talking about the maintenance challenges at the public shipyards for some time, so no surprises there.”

The Navy this year released a 20-year, $21-billion plan to optimize and modernize its four public shipyards that work on attack submarines. But in the short term, Richardson said the yard readiness situation is “a very complex and stressed environment.”

The four yards are digging out of maintenance backlogs that built up due to insufficient manpower, unexpected work popping up once a ship got into the yard and other factors. The attack submarine force faced the brunt of the delays, though, because the yards prioritize ballistic-missile submarines (SSBNs) and aircraft carriers above the attack subs (SSNs).

Several instances have occurred where an attack sub idled at the public yard because the workforce was focused on a higher-priority ship, or where an SSN couldn’t even get into the yard because there was no capacity to work on it. Private shipbuilders Newport News Shipbuilding and General Dynamics Electric Boat have asked to help take on some of the SSN repair work the Navy can’t handle, and there has been discussion on how early to award that work to the private sector versus wait and see if the Navy can handle it itself.

These readiness challenges, though, come as operational commanders are asking for more and more attack subs to support their areas of responsibility, and subs are increasingly being requested to support high-end training with carrier strike groups, with P-8A aircraft and with each other for sub-on-sub training. As demand increases and readiness remains a challenge, the inventory may drop into the mid-40s, compared to a requirement for 66, due to planned decommissionings.

“In terms of the impact the attack submarine force has on the strategic environment, that’s also exacerbated by the fact that we’re [facing] a declining force level right now. Even as we build two Virginias a year, we’re taking submarines out of the inventory as they decommission. And so Navy leadership, including the Submarine Force leadership, Adm. [Charles] Richard, Adm. [Tom] Moore at [Naval Sea Systems Command – very, very focused on this, and so we’ll continue to adapt. All of those things you mentioned in terms of schedule adjustments, the back-and-forth in terms of taking advantage of all of the capacity in both the public and the private sector – that’s something that we talk about very very frequently as we try to optimize our way through these challenges,” Richardson told USNI News

Update Nov 28

***I originally published this on Nov 18, 2007?

...A submarine and aircraft carrier metaphor…USS Hampton, Enterprise and Midway….

As we have seen in recent congressional and executive level problems with funding our military…I think funding problems has undermined the ethics of the military in general since 9/11. Everyone is resourced strained…everyone is lying or distorting in order to meet a legitimate national security commitment….everyone wants to make it look good to their superiors. Nobody want’s to tell the president and congress that the “Emperor has no clothes”…that a con man has entered our minds declaring that it’s not as bad as it looks. I believe the military’s ethics is at a historic breaking point…worst than Vietnam.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor's_New_Clothes

Our submarine fleet is the weak link in the chain…it’s the loudest and leading indicator with the ethics and integrity of the whole military system. We have mismanaged this war so badly….it has undermined the ethics of the whole organization and our political system.

I believe our military is near a historic breakdown. Half of it is conscious…and the other half is cultural attributes of human behavior, in stress, and a lack of resources. At the end of the day, we have blinded ourselves from observing the behavior of each other in the name of survival and evolution…it’s a survival tactic.

I believe my Navy aircraft carrier fighter pilot buddy wasn’t talking about an event in the 1960’s and 1970’s… he was talking about the slide into devaluing and dehumanizing life…the sliding into self blindness and distortion….in the name of altruism and national security…that unstoppable decline into taking shortcuts and falsifying documents and events in the name of protection and doing your job with limited resources.

It is an extremely important metaphor for the military today and tomorrow.

"What gem? Several of Mike's emails caused me to rethink a notion I held since my first day observing this august body. That notion was that "can do," "make do," "go the extra mile," "not on my watch" were the necessary and appropriate watchwords of military service during the 60s and 70s, a time when an increasingly unpopular war was being financed very often out of operational, training and maintenance budgets, a time when the insanity of "Mutually Assured Destruction" became understandable, ergo, possible. These ill conceived notions caused us to devalue human life by wagering death and injury against "national security," and "getting the job done." It led us to several deaths, and near loss of Enterprise, to a very preventable fire, essentially caused by the lack of a jet starter hose of sufficient length to keep the starter engine exhaust a safe distance from missile warheads held on an F4's wing. Starter hoses were in short supply, so when the hose developed holes or breaks, it was common practice to simply shorten the hose. It led to my crash one night on the flight deck of USS Midway, killing 5, injuring dozens, destroying 8 aircraft, all for the shortage of operable Multiple Ejector Racks (MERs). The MER's failure caused two 500-lb bombs to be hung up on my starboard wing; normal procedure would have had me jettison both the bombs and the MER, but since MERs($4,000) were in short supply, the decision was made to bring the bombs and attendant MER aboard, a common decision primarily determined by the skill and experience of the pilot. Unfortunately, my starboard axle failed upon touchdown, and I rode the aircraft into the pack of parked aircraft, having lost the arresting cable. We must be constantly reminded of the atmosphere under which Scorpion was operating. I had minimized and discounted this "constantly scrambling and always behind" atmosphere as "Standard Operating Procedure." Mr Mulligan reminded me to not overlook the operating tempo of the time. I accuse no others of requiring this same reminder, but I owe Mike an apology for my discounting of him."

CNO: Stressed fleet can’t sustain op tempo

By Sam Fellman - Staff Writer
Posted : Thursday May 3, 2012 9:54:14 EDT

The past year has seen the fleet straining to respond to successive crises around the world, from air and missile strikes against Libya and aid missions in the wake of Japan’s devastating earthquake last spring to escalating tensions with Iran over the past five months.

The Crews are seeing quicker turnarounds between deployments and longer cruises. In some cases, these have stretched past the normal six to seven months, out to eight months and beyond.

Recent examples abound. In March, the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group headed out on what’s expected to be a 7 1/2-month deployment only eight months after returning from their last cruise. Similarly, the Carl Vinson strike group deployed in late 2011 after 5 ½ months stateside. And then there’s the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group, which returned from an epic 10 1/2-month deployment in February.

Officials are warning this can’t keep up indefinitely.

Asked at an April 16 speech whether these mounting demands were allowing crews enough time at home and giving ships the opportunities for needed maintenance, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jon Greenert replied: “If we continue through, if you will, the [future years defense program], the next five years, at the pace we are at today, the answer to your question is no, we can’t run at that rate.

In testimony this spring on the budget, a chorus of Navy officials reiterated the continuing strain on the fleet.

The Navy can surge ships when war beckons and can also support a handful of very extended deployments, like the Bataan ARG’s 10 1/2-mother, one of the longest in decades, said retired Vice Adm. Peter Daly, former deputy commander of Fleet Forces Command, who said carrier deployments may stretch to meet the two-carrier requirement. “But when you wake up one day and find that your deployments, instead of being six to seven months, are 11 months and you’re not able to do the maintenance and the sustainability over the long-term, then you’re going to break things,” he said. “You’re not going to have a whole force.”

“The risk that I see is we maintain this op tempo going forward,” said Vice Adm. David Architzel, head of Naval Air Systems Command, at a March 22 hearing. “We have to ensure we can sustain the funding to allow us to have this in place.”

At that same hearing, Vice Adm. Bill Burke, deputy CNO for warfare systems, testified that “Navy readiness remains under stress as a result of our efforts to push the maximum available force forward.”

Money is the central issue. The current demand for ships, submarines and air wings outstrips the funding for them, Greenert said in testimony a week earlier, on March 15.

Daly, the retired three-star, agrees that there is a “mismatch” between the Navy’s operations and its funding. Each Navy budget is put together with assumptions about the operations pace and how much this will cost. And each year, it seems, this funding is quickly surpassed by the Navy’s real-world operations without adding funds back in later, Daly said.

Referring to Greenert’s remarks at the Navy League conference, Daly said, “I think he’s giving a cautionary note that if you continue to do that, you will get to a hollow force, you will break the force.”

“Ultimately, you’re balancing this on people, and your people pay the price. They work longer hours. They get over-stretched on deployments and family stress,” continued Daly, who is now the chief executive of the U.S. Naval Institute in Annapolis, Md. “And so if you just do more with less over too long a time — and I can’t tell you exactly where that marker is — then you got a problem.”

Russians Tipped Me Off To The Upcoming Ukraine Crisis?

Ukraine Crisis

The Russians have been signaling to me they were setting up a world wide crisis beginning last friday. Russians  have been flooding my blog with clicks. It is not the magnitude of the of the Russian new traffic...it is the amount of Russian traffic over average. It is a subtle tip off  to me. I missed out notifying everyone in the last few days indicating I am getting a lot of new Russian traffic, something is up. Generally I get (for me) lot of Russian traffic coming to my site compart to the tiny, tiny traffic I get normally get. And it ebbs and flows big time on a daily bases. And believe me, just because blogger indicates to me the level of daily Russian traffic to my blog, I have no way to know if it is real Russians traffic.    

They didn't indicate to me where and when the crisis was going to erupt...but one was around the corner. It is the Ukraine crisis that erupted just hours ago with marshal law and the Russians "taking" ships from the Ukraine. 

So this is the Russians playing their hand on how they are going to deal with the US post mid terms, the USA civil war emanating in our US House and the upcoming devastating report coming our of Mueller. 

The intent is to destabilizing the USA as much as they can in the next two years...

Hmm, our stock market has been weak lately and there are indications of future market weakness. Are they interested in cratering out stock market along with all the other troubles hitting the USA??? 

Junk Plant ANO Returns to Power Operation After Significant Feedwater Piping Replacement Job

update Nov 21

4% yesterday and 18% today...

***I wonder if they will come up to 100% quickly???

Junk Plant Hope Creek: Stupidly Damaged Fuel By Not Following Procedure

Update Nov 19

Basically, this is the kind of mistake you should take their license away from them for 6 months to a years.

***This can't come from a seasoned and well trained crew.  This is like getting into you car without keys. This is basically a very simple procedure. Basically up around 70% power, they drastically slowed down the increase in power to 100% and are required more reactor testing. This is so stupid, it has to go across all the crews. It was maliciously stupid....

November 14, 2018

EA-18-044 

(Here is the link) 08038    SUBJECT: HOPECREEK GENERATING STATION UNIT 1 – INTEGRATED INSPECTION REPORT AND EXERCISE OFENFORCEMENT DISCRETION 05000354/2018003

Inadequate Procedures for Fuel Conditioning Results in Multiple Fuel Leaks Cornerstone Significance Cross-Cutting Aspect Report Section Reactor Safety – Barrier Integrity

 Green  NCV 05000354/2018003-03 Closed H.6 – Human Performance – Design Margins 71153 (a.1) The inspectors documented a self-revealing Green NCV of TS 6.8.1, Procedures and Programs, when PSEG did not maintain adequate procedures for fuel conditioning.  Specifically, PSEG’s procedure for selecting the appropriate fuel PCI rules, NF-AB-440, BWR Fuel Conditioning, did not provide adequate guidance for protection of the fuel during restart from the April 2018 refueling outage (RF21).  As a result, PSEG’s selection non-conservative PCI rules resulted in three PCI fuel leaks.  Description:  HCGS is currently in operating Cycle 22 with a modified control cell core design strategy.  During RF21, a large number of GE14 fuel assemblies were replaced with new GNF2 fuel assemblies.  Each of the four Group 10A banked position withdrawal sequence control cells are at the center of two twice-burned GE14 (new fuel in Cycle 20) fuel assemblies and two once-burned GNF2 (new fuel in operating Cycle 21) fuel assemblies that form a control cell.  During Cycle 21, prior to RF21, the GE14 fuel assemblies were in the second row from the periphery (lower power), or outer edge of the reactor core.  In RF21, some of these fuel assemblies were moved from the outer edge, inward toward the core center (higher power) into the cells surrounding the four Group 10A control cells.  This type of movement is known to create a configuration that may reduce margin to pellet-clad interation related failures….

Just remember, the NRC would not be so fixed on the recent spate of problem, if I didn't the  problems much earlier.

Review of Equipment Issues Associated with the ‘H’ SRV and SRV Discharge Line:

The inspectors performed an in-depth review of PSEG's evaluation and corrective actions associated with multiple equipment issues experienced on the ‘H’ main steam safety relief valve (SRV) and SRV discharge line.  Specifically:

1. ‘H’ SRV Main Seat Leakage August 2014 (NOTF 20659947; ACE 70168360) documented loud cyclic banging noises coming from the TORUS area.  PSEG determined that there was significant leakage past the ‘H’ SRV main seat due to the existence of cold spring in the tailpipe during installation of the valve (NOTF 20661387 and NCV 05000354/2014005-01);

2. ‘H’ SRV High Tailpipe Temperature April 2018 and May 2018 (NOTF 20789878, 20794091 and 20794237) documented that during down power for and the start up from RF21, the ‘H’ SRV tailpipe temperature spiked up to 220 degrees Fahrenheit which is indicative of potential SRV main and/or pilot valve leakage;

3. ‘H’ SRV Vacuum Breaker Failure April 2018 (NOTF 20792630 and ERE 70199676) documents that one of the ‘H’ SRV discharge line vacuum breakers (F037H) failed open due to a missing locknut and damage caused by high vibrations and poor maintenance practices from item #1 above; and,

4. ‘H’ SRV Pilot As-Found Lift Test Failures May 2018 (NOTF 20794371, 70200658, and LERs 05000354/2018-002-00 and -01) documented the ‘H’ SRV pilot as-found setpoint testing.  Eight of HCGS’s fourteen SRV pilots lifted high (above the 3 percent TS limit).  The ‘H’ SRV pilot was the only valve that lifted high on the first and second as-found lift testing (8.3 and 3.3 percent).  

[Note that the 2-stage SRVs, manufactured by Target Rock, of which HCGS has 13 2-stage and 1 3-stage SRVs, have been subject to setpoint drift, typically in the increased setpoint direction at a number of boiling water reactor nuclear power plants, and that the specific setpoint drift issue will be addressed by the unresolved item (URI) opened in NRC Inspection Report, URI 05000354/2018001-02, Concern Regarding As-Found Values for Safety Relief Valve Lift Setpoints Exceed Technical Specification Allowable Limit.]

The inspectors reviewed associated documents and interviewed personnel to assess the adequacy of PSEG’s actions.  The inspectors also reviewed SRV main and pilot testing results, tailpipe temperature, main steam vibration records, and acoustic monitoring data.  The inspectors found the following issues during their review of the events listed above:

The inspectors found that PSEG had an extended timeline (6 months) and a lack of prioritization and ownership of the disassembly of the ‘H’ SRV pilot due to it lifting high twice (NOTF 20799218*).  Based on the inspector’s questions regarding timeliness, PSEG initiated a NOTF and actions to disassemble and inspect the pilot four months ahead of its original schedule.  As a result of the disassembly, PSEG’s determined that the pilot disc and valve body were severely steam cut and worn, with unknown impurities on the valve pilot disc.  PSEG initiated work group evaluation (WGE) 70200658 to evaluate these unexpected conditions;

WGE 70200658 was completed on September 21, 2018, for the ‘H’ SRV failed setpoint lift test high twice in which PSEG determined that the first high test lift was due to corrosion bonding, and the second high test lift was due to pilot valve wear between the disc and liner caused by steam cutting from a pilot leak during the last operating cycle.  PSEG’s WGE found that some of the unknown impurities were cobalt and nickel oxide due to the corrosion bonding experienced by the valve.  The WGE did not determine the source of the lead (Pb) in the impurities but pointed to the valve material test report that cites 0.5 percent of the total valve disc material being from ‘OTHER’ material.  The inspectors reviewed PSEG’s conclusion and discussed with PSEG on September 27, 2018, that the site is still awaiting feedback from the vendor and BWROG about the potential source of the lead in the impurities.


The inspectors determined that there was insufficient information provided by PSEG in licensee event report (LER 2018-002) for the as-found testing results of the SRV pilots, specifically, no information on the ‘H’ SRV pilot lifting high twice was reported As a result, PSEG initiated NOTF 20799025* and took corrective actions (70201546) to change their process for LER reviews to include a technical validation team review prior to submittal to the NRC;

The inspectors found that PSEG’s procedure for SRV removal and installation, HC.MDCM.AB-0006, was not revised in accordance with their causal evaluation (70168360) to include a step to unpin the spring can after installation of the SRV.  PSEG initiated a NOTF with actions to revise the procedure and review all completed SRV work packages to ensure all pins were removed (NOTF 20801471*, 20803451*, and 70202115).  As a result, PSEG’s review found that three SRVs replaced in RF20 did not have any documentation that their spring cans had been unpinned.  PSEG has created actions to conduct follow-up inspection of these SRVs (‘J’, ‘K’, and ‘R’) during the next refueling outage;

19


The inspectors found that PSEG’s NOTF 20661387 and 70169063-0010 never validated a questionable spring can setting for the ‘H’ SRV due to a lack of understanding the issue.  Because of this, inspectors also questioned the validity of PSEG’s causal evaluation (70168360) conclusions based on the as-found cold spring being expected because of the piping configuration.  The inspectors determined that during the development of the evaluation, PSEG did not consult the appropriate resources knowledgeable in pipe stress analysis.  As a result, PSEG took action to validate that the spring can setting was correct and initiated NOTF 20803213* with a recommendation from engineering to review the causal evaluation’s conclusions based on the inspector’s questions and an independent engineering assessment.  As of September 12, 2018, this recommendation was not supported by PSEG because the condition on the ‘H’ SRV is no longer present and there is no perceived value in performing the action.  The inspectors noted that as of the end of this inspection period, PSEG initiated NOTF 20806034 on October 1, 2018, for degrading conditions associated with the ‘H’ SRV main seat leakage increasing from ~155 pound mass per hour (lbm/hr) to approximately 323 lbm/hr since H1R21 (June 2018), which is similar to the conditions that occurred on the ‘H’ SRV in August 2014, and were the subject of PSEG’s causal evaluation (70168360).

The inspectors found that PSEG’s WGE 70173184 had not determined a basis for what amount of displacement is considered unacceptable.  In addition, PSEG had not performed trending of SRV piping misalignments as discussed in the WGE for RF19 (2015) and RF20 (2016).  PSEG initiated NOTFs 20803211* and 20803212* to address the inspector’s concerns and plans to perform extent of condition reviews of all SRV main replacements over the last few outages.

The inspectors evaluated all of the issues above in accordance with the guidance in IMC 0612, Appendix B, “Issue Screening,” and Appendix E, “Examples of Minor Issues,” and determined the issues were of minor significance because the inspectors did not identify any condition adverse to quality that were not appropriately corrected or scheduled for correction in a reasonable period of time as a result of PSEG’s administrative delays, lack of prioritization, and insufficient information.  Consequently, these issues are not subject to enforcement action in accordance with the NRC’s enforcement policy.

Junk Plant Palisades: More CRDMs Troubles

Nov 19.

Time to strap on your unqualified titanium gonad shields.


***Oct 20th troubles with CRDMs. Check out how expensive these two outages cost Entergy.

This are one of the three shutdown Entergy plants I have been watching. Basically not enough money to keep them running like a top and much weakened NRC. River Bend and Grand Goof.    

Leak being repaired at Palisades

By ALEXANDRA NEWMAN - HP Staff Writer
3 hrs ago

COVERT — A through-wall leak was found at Palisades nuclear power plant last Saturday during a visual inspection of the reactor head, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported Wednesday.

The NRC released a notification that the non-emergency leak was found on a reactor vessel head control rod drive nozzle. An NRC metallurgical specialist was on site inspecting Palisades’ reactor vessel assessment activities when the problem was identified.

The resident inspectors were onsite as well and were notified when the discovery was made.

In addition, Palisades found similar ultrasonic test characteristics in another nozzle while assessing the condition of other control rod drive nozzles, but this nozzle did not exhibit evidence of through-wall leakage.

Palisades will repair the problems before the plant restarts from the current refueling outage.

Last week, the plant officially began a scheduled $62 million refueling and maintenance outage. It is the first of two remaining at Palisades before the plant’s retirement in spring 2022.

Why Has Cooper Been Shutdown For So long.

Obviously they are in refueling outage. Sept 29 is when it shutdown. Forty six days so far?

Junk Plant Watts Bar Still A Very Troubled Plant

Remember this is the new massively non transparent NRC. Most plant this cycle get zero or one findings.

November 1, 2018

 SUBJECT: WATTS BAR NUCLEAR PLANT – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION  INTEGRATED INSPECTION REPORT 05000390/2018003 AND 05000391/2018003 

 Dear Mr. Shea:
 On September 30, 2018, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) completed an inspection at your Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2.  On October 24, 2018, the NRC inspectors discussed the results of this inspection with Mr. Tom Marshall and other members of your staff.  The results of this inspection are documented in the enclosed report.
 NRC inspectors documented four findings of very low safety significance (Green) in this report.   These findings involved violations of NRC requirements.  The NRC is treating these violations as non-cited violations (NCVs) consistent with Section 2.3.2.a of the Enforcement Policy.
 

Advice To House Majority Democrats: Need Emergency Hearings On "So Called" NRC Reform And Deregulation

Markey is long gone from the house. He was the prime mover with keeping the industry on its toes. The much younger generation has absolutely no interest in voting or nuclear power interest and their intentional lying. Who is going the take Markey's old position in the house The pro safety stalwarts are dead or dying off. Nuclear Energy is fading from our collective historic memory. 

And, we in a gigantic financial nuclear crisis. 

Basically, in the last three years, the NRC has drastically reduced industry's transparency and severely weaken regulation. As in all our agencies. 

As a first step, the House should force the NRC to put back on the internet the NRC's blog. They should allow outside people like me the ability to comment (and get a official response) on their old style blog and it would be retained in their system for posterity. This tool is very powerful.  This is contingent on the NRC would put on the blog a comprehensive list of current issues and restore transparency.

The Navy has on their "Navy Times" a similar government blog where the public can comment their newspaper and get a response from the Navy officials. It too has disappeared from the internet.  The New US agency social media like facebook and  twitter have been generally designed to push the Republican propaganda. They are really not adequate for accepting, recording and getting official's responses.   On the big picture, all the US government blogs mostly begun on the Obama, should be updated and restored to the Obama form.

Believe me, Democrats in power and heads of agencies and beyond hates these kinds of transparency and accountability...  

The Real Entergy Shows Its Ugly Head

Is this just training for Entergy? 

Entergy thinks we’re stupid

(Honestly, you are stupid.) 

Updated 7:28 AM; Posted 7:28 AM

 Entergy New Orleans CEO Charles Rice, at left in gray suit, listens as protesters oppose the $210 million gas-fired power plant that Entergy proposed for New Orleans East. The council approved the plant with a 6-1 vote after an hours-long hearing in March. (Kevin Litten, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune) 

By Tim Morris, Columnist

timothy_morris@nola.com

Fining Entergy New Orleans just $5 million for seeking to subvert the democratic process, mislead the City Council and wage war on residents hardly seems adequate.

For starters, there is the question of whether a $5 million fine will get the attention, let alone change the behavior, of a company with annual revenues of $11 billion and literal power over 2.9 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

And then there is the sheer hubris the company displayed in trying to rig a political process that was already so embarrassingly weighted in its favor that no self-respecting Las Vegas bookie would have taken odds against council approval of the company’s plans for a new gas-fired power plant in New Orleans East.

Taking council members at their word that the 6-1 vote for the plant last March was based on the testimony of “experts,” what advantage did Entergy gain by hiring actors to show up at hearings in matching orange T-shirts, carrying mass-produced signs and reading heartfelt pleas for jobs, power and an end to “cascading outages” from prepared scripts?

Was then-Entergy CEO Charles Rice really that obsessed with overwhelming and humiliating activists and concerned residents with a shock and awe campaign of paid protesters? Text messages and other previously private communications uncovered by an independent City Council investigation certainly suggest that.

"This is a war and we need all the foot shoulders [soldiers] we can muster," he says in a discussion of whether Entergy would be willing to pony up for more ersatz supporters.

It’s never a good look when the head of a major utility is caught equating what is supposed to be a fair and open democratic process with all-out warfare, especially when his side has actual nuclear power and the resistance is mostly worried about how a new plant will affect their property values, quality of life and their children’s health.

This is the worst use of political dirty tricks since Richard Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President, CREEP, tried to bug the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate in the campaign against South Dakota Sen. George McGovern. The “third-rate burglary” eventually spawned an investigation that forced Nixon to resign from his second term in the face of impeachment.

Nixon, by the way, defeated McGovern in a historic landslide with the Democratic challenger winning only in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia while losing everywhere else, including his home state of South Dakota.

There has never been any evidence that any of Nixon’s subversive political knavery had much impact on the electoral outcome. But that’s what happens when the political process, which is supposed to be “war by other means,” is embraced as actual warfare.

Only in this case, the “foot shoulders” were more “Hogan’s Heroes” than “Saving Private Ryan.” Did anybody really think that hiring local actors to appear in public venues was going to escape detection?

At some point isn’t someone going to notice that a beer-drinking buddy who used to be laser-beam focused on playing a cadaver on “NCIS: New Orleans” was suddenly a rabid convert to extolling the virtues of a “safe, reliable gas-fired peaking power plant over the alternative of being 100 percent reliant on transmission during a storm."

They must have thought we were all that stupid.

And even as the City Council’s investigation uncovered damning communications between top Entergy executives, the company continued to claim it has been duped by the outside public relations firm it hired to sell the plant proposal. Investigators also complained that Entergy has been less than forthcoming in forking over information requested. Not exactly encouraging signs moving forward.

What we need is more lifetime voters, folks who make it habit to get to the polls — informed and engaged.

Rice abruptly stepped down as Entergy’s CEO in August to take on a new role in — I’m not making this up — the company’s legal department.

Perhaps he will get to review the resolutions passed last week by the City Council that could include that $5 million fine and other requirements meant to induce a “sea-change in the corporate culture” at Entergy New Orleans.

City Councilwoman Helena Moreno called the episode “just plain sad and disappointing" and lamented that Entergy had "lost sight of the company they’ve always claimed to be.”

NHDOT Are Scumbags

Update Nov 5

The Keene Sentinel and 99% of the mega rich newspapers owners are infected with the same philosophical mental model defect. Basically, me saying two plus two equals four. They would come back, I can't report that because you showed me no proof. The bankrupted black and white philosophy of them picking and choosing what is evidence and proof that is needed to report the truth to the best of their ability. They are too lazy to get off their fat asses to see something beyond the surface truth and their simpleton model of how the world in their heads works. Usually there is a agenda under this: I've got a keep my job and feed my family and the owners got to make the paper comport to their own monied ideology. More likely, I will never get advertising revenue if I tell what is really going on.    

***Why can't the Keene Sentinel connect the dots? I hear rumors they are shutting down. Most of their facility, including the front desk, are a shithole. 

I think this state wide NHDOT inspections on Truss bridges comes out of my activities with the Brattleboro/Hinsdale route 119 bridge. I have been accusing the state of doing fraudulent bridge inspection based on politics and favors beginning in 2011. I have been saying for many years now the conditions of the bridges are a lot worst than the bridge NHDOT inspections. This year it went from a perfectly safe bridge to a red listed bridge needing a special inspection every 6 months. From a normal five year bridge inspection schedule to a once every 6 months inspection. The next inspection grade down is a shutdown. For years now, I have been picturing up the horrible conditions of my bridges. The facts on the ground here is the state has no engineering mechanism to predict the decline with this ancient bridge. This is what was proven in Hinsdale this year.

(added)
The rub here, with the skimpy state inspections, they don't collect enough data points to truly understand the accurate condition of the bridge inspection and be able to anticipate the material degradations. Fixated on the black and white engineering philosophy of facts and evidence. Can't image what information is missing from your skimpy inspections process. As I've said for years, their inspection presses are made flawed for political considerations, but they think their processes are dead on accurate. Honestly, the only people allowed to inspect the bridges should be highly educated and trained state employees. The state should have total control of these employees and they not be loyal be loyal to any other interest. But this is the NH advantage? Hate governed and barely fund the NH agencies. I don't trust the  bridge inspection contractor. As I said before, the non government bridge inspection contractor is only answerable to money and profits...         

The new bridge's price is somewhere near $60 Million dollars...

There is a high probability 

Nov 4

Lane closures slated on Charlestown bridge

By Sentinel Staff

12 hrs ago

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

CHARLESTOWN — Motorists who travel the bridge that carries Route 11 across the Connecticut River between Charlestown and Springfield, Vt., can expect up to five days of lane closures starting Monday, the N.H. Department of Transportation has announced.

The closures are to allow for what the department describes in a news release as an “in-depth inspection” of the span. The inspection is part of a statewide effort to assess the condition of New Hampshire’s truss bridges, according to the state transportation department.

The closures will be in effect daily as needed, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., as weather allows.

Drivers will be alerted to the lane closures by people with flags as well as by warning signs, and they’re encouraged to use other routes if possible due to the resulting delays.

Junk Plant Grand Gulf: Isn't It About Time For A Scram Or a Prolonged And Deep Downpower?

Update Nov 7

Well, River Bend and Grand Goof are back a 100%. I still feel Grand Gulf is heading to a big fall. This round of erratic ops was just a warning.

But ANO unit 2 is still in a huge unexpected feedwater leak outage...

Entergy plants.

Update Nov 6

Grand Gulf 85%

The good news, River Bend is back to 100% power and Entergy always had plentiful nuclear engineering positions.

Update Nov 5

Grand Gulf is down to 92% power today.

Nov 2 62 % power
Nov 3 62
Nov 4 93
Nov 5 92

I would consider this a pretty large down power event. There is a slight chance this a adjusting control roads.

River Bend has had pretty erratic power operations this past week or so too.

What is going in at Energy's in region 4?

***River Bend has been erratically up and down in power for the last 5 days. Big moves.

US Terrorism Against Leftist Top Leadeship

Update

See, took the Saudi story right off the air?

***I think we got it all wrong. This US terrorism is a distraction from the Saudi murder with the Washington Post reportor. Factions within the Trump administration or our Defense establishment wanted to buy time to come up with a acceptable coverup story. They might cave to profond troubles with defense contracts and the Saudis being isolaled from the world.

ANO 2: What The Hell Is Going On With Their 9/16 Feedwater Leak

So they immediately scrammed or shutdown. This is a drastic example of how much deregulation has been going on with the NRC. Where is the event report on feedwater leak or on the shutdown or scram. This would have been required in the Obama years.

They scrammed or shutdown on Sept 16, 2018 and it is now Oct 25...that is 39 days. I wonder where the leak was located?  The feedwater pressure is up to 1000 psi and around 600 degrees. If the leak was in the primary containment, it would be a more of a safety concern. It certainly is a employee safety concern.

This sounds like many feet of feedwater pipe is being replace...

A leak in the feedwater system can emediately fill up a room with steam. This kind of leak has killed 4 people I believe the Surry plant. It wrecks havoc with creating shorts and equipment problems throughout the plant.  

Dead Ender Palisades: Losing NRC Faith in Science and Engineering over CDRM Leaks

This is what a plant looks like at end of life, when they are starving funding to the plant. Lot of equipment troubles showing up and losing employees prodigiously. What do we have about 10 plants in this condition is the USA? A big accident waiting to happen killing the rest of the industry.

Didn't they put in new CDRMs due to continuous leaks in around 2015. Check out my comments on this. Check out my comments below the article? Once President Trump came into power the NRC shutdown the "NRC's Blog". So they replace all but eight CRDMs in 2015. A CRDM replacement job is tremendously expensive and the radiation dose for the employees. Don't get me talking about titanium gonads protection for this job. Is the leak in the eight not replaced CRDMs in 2015...the the titanium gonad outage...or the rest of the CRDMs that were replaced. Is it a new CRDM or a old CRDMs. Basically the design of the reactor and the associated CRDMs was defective from day one of plant operation. It is a very old reactor. Palisades has the worst CRDM leak rate in the industry.         

An Inspector’s Perspective On the Control Rod Drive Mechanism Housing Flaws At Palisades 

Palisades maintenance outage underway

· By JIM DALGLEISH - Assistant Local News Editor
· 2 hrs ago

COVERT — The Palisades nuclear power plant is starting its second week of a repair outage, which comes in advance of a planned refueling outage, the plant and federal regulators reported.

Plant spokesman Nick Culp said Friday that operators shut down the reactor Oct. 13 for planned work on a degrading control rod drive seal.

However, “during the scheduled maintenance, an internal transformer fault occurred, resulting in the loss of power supply to several components,” Culp said. “At all times, the plant remained in a safe and stable condition. Palisades employees are working to replace the transformer. (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) inspectors were made aware of the planned shutdown and have been kept informed throughout.”

The NRC on Friday reported that the step-down transformer failed as crews tried to restart the reactor after the drive seal repair.

For proprietary reasons, Culp said, plant owner Entergy does not divulge when the plant will restart or if managers will roll the current outage into the refuelling outage. It will not say when the refuelling outage was to start.

“This maintenance project comes after 198 days of continuous safe operation and is reflective of our ongoing commitment to running the plant well,” Culp said in a statement. “... During the coming outage, Entergy will invest tens of millions of dollars in the plant’s safe and reliable operations.”

The fall refueling outage will be one of the last two before the plant shuts down in 2022, Culp said. 

Flooding Upstream Of The South Texas Nuclear Project, What Rivers?

Update

The site is not under a threat. 

***Hmm, Llano River and Colorado River. Plant is just south west of Houston on the coast. Central Texas is being inundated with precipitation.