Junk Plant Grand Gulf: A Host of Federal and State Agencies Investigating

Update Dec 20. 

What has drastically changed at Grand Gulf in the last few months? An environment the plant has never seen before. For decades the plant has run "silent and deep". There was almost no local news reporting about the plant no matter what you do. That is what money buys with politicians. They say the NRC is a independent agency, which is total bs.  When a plant crosses a Rubicon of intense new media attention, you watch how independent the NRC is. I seen this effect only many bad plants.       

Remember the democrats are coming to town after many years of NRC deregulation. But the democrats are dependent on the same campaign  money as the republicans?

***Entergy spends a lot of money of politics. They got all the regulators and politicians captured. That is how a plant get this bad.

The NRC is indifferent if their ROP is serving their communities and unreliable.  

Grand Gulf nuclear power plant troubles 'happening far too often,' Mississippi official says

Jeff Amy, Associated Press Published 9:36 a.m. CT Dec. 19, 2018 | Updated 10:15 a.m. CT Dec. 19, 2018
JACKSON, Miss. — Another unplanned outage at Mississippi's Grand Gulf nuclear power plant outside Port Gibson is adding to regulators' concerns over reliability problems at the largest single-unit nuclear power plant in the United States. The move is also heightening scrutiny over whether problems at Entergy Corp.'s plant may be affecting power markets.

Operators took the southwest Mississippi plant offline last week, citing problems with a turbine bypass valve. Last Wednesday's outage came to light Tuesday when the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced a special inspection.

"The reactor was safely shut down but some equipment issues occurred that the agency wants to better understand," the agency said in a statement.

It's at least the sixth unplanned decrease in output at the plant in the last 15 months, according to NRC documents. The plant has been running at reduced or zero power output for much of the time since 2016, according to an analysis published earlier this month by E&E News .

"Over recent years, Entergy's Grand Gulf Nuclear Station reliability record has not met the company's standards," spokesman Mark Sullivan wrote in an email Tuesday. He said the company has invested $265 million and hired about 200 employees seeking to improve operations.

Grand Gulf took a nearly six-month outage in 2016 and 2017 aimed at improving performance because the plant didn't, in the words of Chief Nuclear Officer Chris Bakken, "meet our standards of excellence." There was more self-scrutiny during a planned refueling outage this spring, with Entergy CEO Leo Denault promising investors in April that "we expect the reliability with the plant and its capability factor to improve going forward."

Sullivan, though, says improvement will take time.

The plant's troubles come as President Donald Trump continues to support plans to subsidize nuclear power generation for reliability purposes. Sullivan said the plant had restarted Tuesday and NRC figures showed its output was up to 18 percent.


Grand Gulf, which began generation in 1985, is 90 percent owned by Entergy and 10 percent owned by Cooperative Energy, a Mississippi group that supplies power to member-owned cooperatives. Entergy's subsidiaries in Mississippi, Arkansas, New Orleans and Louisiana have contracts to buy power from the plant.

In November, Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulators wrote Entergy a letter notifying that it was downgrading the plant's safety rating from green, the safest of four levels, to white, the second safest. The letter cited a number of equipment failures. Consequently, the commission said, it was planning a supplemental inspection to explore the root causes of the problems, to independently assess conditions and to make sure problems had been corrected and wouldn't recur.

Beyond questions of safety, the absence of Grand Gulf's 1,443-megawatt capacity can stress power supplies and may cause higher prices across Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and southeastern Texas, a region that includes not only New Orleans-based Entergy's utilities, but cooperatives and private utility Cleco of Pineville, Louisiana.

In January and September, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which manages the region's electrical grid, ordered emergency conservation because of possible power shortages. The September and January events both happened while Grand Gulf was offline or at low power. Entergy's River Bend nuclear plant near St. Francisville, Louisiana, was also offline during the January cold snap.

"Just the scale of it, it's so big that you notice when it's missing," said Ted Thomas, chairman of the Arkansas Public Service Commission. "It doesn't take many other issues in addition to give you a problem."

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corp. announced in September that they were jointly investigating the January event. The Louisiana Public Service Commission is also investigating.

Mississippi Public Service Commission Brandon Presley said Tuesday he would ask the agency's independent staff to investigate the outages and determine whether the commission should open an official proceeding.

"This has been happening far too often," Presley said.

Arkansas has not launched an official inquiry, but Thomas said Grand Gulf "has our attention."

Entergy spent hundreds of millions to increase the plant's generating capacity in 2012, setting it up to be a cornerstone of low-cost generation in the region for decades, especially after winning a 20-year extension of the plant's license from the NRC through 2044. But when it's down, utilities have to buy power from other plants in the MISO region.

"We're paying to have that plant generate and when it doesn't generate, we have to substitute," Thomas said.

Junk Plant ANO Unit 1 Trips Too

See! How overloaded is Entergy with both plants tripped?

Power Reactor	Event Number: 53793
Facility: ARKANSAS NUCLEAR Region: 4     State: AR Unit: [1] [] [] RX Type: [1] B&W-L-LP,[2] CE NRC Notified By: SEAN DAVIS HQ OPS Officer: DONG HWA PARK	Notification Date: 12/18/2018 Notification Time: 15:40 [ET] Event Date: 12/18/2018 Event Time: 00:00 [CST] Last Update Date: 12/18/2018
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY 10 CFR Section: 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B) - RPS ACTUATION - CRITICAL 50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A) - VALID SPECIF SYS ACTUATION	Person (Organization): RYAN ALEXANDER (R4DO)

Unit

SCRAM Code

RX Crit

Initial PWR

Initial RX Mode

Current PWR

Current RX Mode

1

A/R

Y

100

Power Operation

0

Hot Standby

Event Text

AUTOMATIC REACTOR TRIP - LOSS OF NON-VITAL BUS "On December 18, 2018 at 1126 CST, Arkansas Nuclear One, Unit 1 (ANO-1) reactor automatically tripped due to a loss of the A-1, non-vital 4160V bus. All control rods fully inserted. Loss of the A-1 bus resulted in de-energizing A-3 vital 4160V bus. Emergency Diesel Generator #1, K-4A, started automatically and is currently powering A-3 vital bus. Non-vital buses A-2, H-1, and H-2 and vital bus A-4 transferred power automatically to the Startup Transformer #1. Off-site power remains energized and available for ANO-1. The reason for loss of A-1 bus is unknown at this time. Currently, ANO-1 has stabilized in Mode 3, Hot Standby." Decay heat is being removed by the main condenser using the turbine bypass valves. The loss of the A-1, non-vital bus, is under investigation. The licensee has notified the NRC Resident Inspector and the state.

Great Netflix Australia TV Series...Much Better Than Homeland

How Australia, China and the USA does the lying intelligence deep state. The crux of the series is everyone lies their ass off...all the politicians of these nations, the intelligence communities and the local people lie their ass off for national and local ends. Of course, Australia and the USA are best friends. It is interesting and entertaining to see how their media sees the USA through the Australia's lens. The issues developed in these tvs series could pop right out of the news next week.

"Pine Gap" is a joint gigantic satellite intelligence facility deep in the interior of Australia. This site is not fictional...there is actually a real site like this. One of our largest intelligence sites. Man, is Austria scenery really beautiful.

"Secret City" is a political thriller based in the capital city of Canberra surrounding Australia, the USA and China buying huge resources in Australia. Australia has strict national security laws.

Australia has been taken over by extreme conservatives much like our nation. The got a wild man Trumpian figured being portrayed in Pine Gap...

I wonder what Australia is working through with these kinds of shows? Internal politics?  

Junk Plant Grand Gulf Christmas Season Scram

Update Dec 18

update 3pm. The NRC just called me up about my concern. They informed me Grand Gulf's incomplete daily event report is under investigation. The NRC feels it was grossly incomplete and insufficient too. 

The NRC said, the condensate and feedwater system is also under investigation for not functioning right. This is the normal way to keep the core cool. You see what is am saying, the normal way to keep the core cooled failed, there is no mention of this in first daily event report or the update. It almost looks like if it failed, we just don't have to report it.

The NRC says Entergy is spending a tremendous amount of money to upgrade the plant. They are happy with the effort. Well, to me they say it is safe and making a effort, but the agency knows the plant is a day. They can't put as much new gear into the plant, but it is a organizational problem. The people and relationships aren't fixed...  

Reposted...Originally posted on 12/13/2018

Mike Bowling, Entergy communications manager for the utility nuclear region, said plant operators manually took the plant offline at 1:51 p.m. last Wednesday after a turbine bypass valve was opening and oscillating.

Hmm,it looks like the NRC has a beef with the manual shutdown. I doubt this was according to procedure. The safe and conservative thing to do was scram the reactor. A cycling turbine bypass valve places a plant in a unbelievably unstable condition. How do you really know what is broken or degraded...you can a conservative determination that it is only going to get worst. In recent years, to minimize reporting bad information to outsiders, they defer to a slow manual shutdown than at scram. Did they take the slow shutdown solely to minimize reporting requirements to outsiders? These guys have all sorts of special inspections for scrams and  huge down powers in recent years. This kind of behavior ends in downgrading grades of a plant. This is the worst preforming plant in the nation. Downgrading the scores of a plants means more inspections and they are very expensive. Maybe management's strategy to the ops department was it is cheaper to take a manual shutdown than a scram. Maybe saving money was the watchword than being safe and conservative.          

SO Grand Gulf was "shutdown". I am not sure if it was a slow normal shutdown or a scram. see how poor the wording is with it being a normal shutdown or a scram? 

What concerns me magnitudes more than all the broken and degraded equipment, the horrendous profitability and being unsafe is the extremely skimpy information in the first daily event reports. It prettifies the event by only telling us the equipment that worked at the plant. They are sterilizing the bad information coming out of the plant. I just gave  call to Mr. Dricks. Check out the new information in the special inspection notification.

This plant shouldn't be at power in this condition. The NRC should require to plant stay shutdown until the report comes out. That is what they do in Europe...a kind a incentive to keep your organization coherent or we will put you in the sidelines.

As a cautionary note, I think the NRC thinks this is a emergency situation. In recent years, they notify the outside a special inspection is coming 1 to 2 months after the plant shreds the bad information and they got a good coverup story going. In recent years, the NRC has drastically cut back doing special inspection and similar inspection. I don't think the on site inspectors were really doing their jobs.        

December 18, 2018 Contact: Victor Dricks, 817-200-1128that   

NRC Begins Special Inspection at Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Plant 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has begun a special inspection at the Grand Gulf nuclear power plant to review events that led to, and occurred following, an unplanned shutdown on  December 12. The plant, operated by Entergy Operations, is located in Port Gibson, Miss. The plant was operating at full power when operators noticed an unexpected increase in reactor power and decided to shut down as a precautionary measure. The reactor was safely shut down but some equipment issues occurred that the agency wants to better understand. The two-member NRC team will spend about a week on site developing a chronology of the event, and evaluating the licensee’s cause analysis and the adequacy of corrective actions. An inspection report documenting the team’s findings will be publicly available within 45 days of the end of the inspection.

Honestly, can we afford a nuclear plant meltdown or nuclear industry shattering event in our current national tribulations? 

Did anyone notice how long it takes to fix a declining and dangerous plant? It takes many many years like: Pilgrim, ANO and Grand Gulf. 

So it is a coverup. Again where is the feed system. From a professional's perspective, not notifying the NRC properly and incorrectly filling out the paperwork is a direct indication how incompetent these guys are. These guys in recent years was required to stay shutdown for 6 months, basically because their licensed operators were unsafe and incompetent. Entergy brought nuclear experts from far and wide in the USA to analyzed what is wrong with the organization and high intensity retraining for the control room operator. Missing the checkmarks in the paperwork is a indication these guys where in a rattled state.

I have been monitoring the nuclear area of LinkedIn. The headhunters are always advertising about getting professional(college degreed)staff to work in their southwest nuclear plants. It is unbelievable how short staffed they are with these people. It is more about not getting the professional people to work at the plant, than not getting enough college educated people to come to their plant. And by no means is getting degree people to come to the plant is sufficient to keep a plant safe. It takes a tremendous amount of training to bring these degreed people up to speed.        

Power Reactor	Event Number: 53788 ting
Facility: GRAND GULF Region: 4     State: MS Unit: [1] [] [] RX Type: [1] GE-6 NRC Notified By: GERRY ELLIS HQ OPS Officer: JOANNA BRIDGE	Notification Date: 12/12/2018 Notification Time: 17:29 [ET] Event Date: 12/12/2018 Event Time: 00:00 [CST] Last Update Date: 12/14/2018
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY 10 CFR Section: 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(A) - ECCS INJECTION 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B) - RPS ACTUATION - CRITICAL 50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A) - VALID SPECIF SYS ACTUATION	Person (Organization): NICK TAYLOR (R4DO)

Unit

SCRAM Code

RX Crit

Initial PWR

Initial RX Mode

Current PWR

Current RX Mode

1

M/R

Y

100

Power Operation

0

Hot Shutdown

Event Text

EN Revision Imported Date : 12/17/2018 EN Revision Text: MANUAL REACTOR SCRAM DUE TO FAILED OPEN TURBINE BYPASS VALVE "At 1351 CST, the reactor was manually shutdown due to 'A' Turbine Bypass Valve opening. The Main Steam Line Isolation Valves were manually closed to facilitate reactor pressure control. Reactor level is being maintained through the use of Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System, Control Rod Drive System, and High Pressure Core Spray System. High Pressure Core Spray System was manually started to initially support reactor water level control. Reactor Pressure is being controlled through the use of the Safety Relief Valves and the Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System. The plant is stable in MODE 3. "The cause of the 'A' Turbine Bypass Valve opening is under investigation at this time. "The NRC Resident Inspector has been notified." * * * UPDATE ON 12/14/18 AT 1140 EST FROM GERRY ELLIS TO TOM KENDZIA * * * "This is an update to EN # 53788 to correct an error on the event classification block of the form. The original notification did not have the block for 8 hour notification for Specified System Actuation checked. The actuation of Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System was discussed in original notification." The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector. Notified R4DO (Taylor).

Update

Remember, River Bend and Grand Gulf by the USC are considered unprofitable. See, Entergy doesn't want to spend enough money to keep the nuclear industry respectable.   

This already looks like a coverup. They doing a lot less public reporting than just a few years ago. The Core Spray system was terribly unreliable as far as a few years ago. What would happen if the high pressure core spray system would have failed yesterday. It already looks like a tremendous quantity of equipment  failed yesterday. 

"High Pressure Core Spray System was manually started to initially support reactor water level control."   

This is very problematic. Why didn't the normal feedwater system work? This is the normal way to feed the core. What is wrong with the normal reactor feed system. So the turbine control system failed...why is Do this guys have a HPCI system. These guys are notorious for poorly training their employees and maintaining the their safety equipment. Did they initially only have Core Spray to feed their vessel?      

***I am convinced all these scrams, down powers and startups are setting up the nation for a reactor accident we never seen before.   

Well, since the beginning of Nov 2018, I have been looking for a scram. Here it is. River Bend had the last Christmas scram. So far this is the Christmas season scram. There is plenty of time left for a Christmas day scram. 

These guys are notorious for extremely slow startups to full power. Usually equipment troubles causing it. Going to watch them closely this startup.   

There is a high probability we could get two scrams. Everything has changed, as news media and the state grid regulators have been highly sensitized over poor capacity factor.

Basically this is where financial and southern business ideology override the facts and engineering. This is the limited money we apportion to a plant, we don't care how erratic the plant has become. We got captured the local news media, the politicians, the local regulators and Feds, they don't give a shit how erratic our plant becomes.  

Power Reactor	Event Number: 53788
Facility: GRAND GULF Region: 4     State: MS Unit: [1] [] [] RX Type: [1] GE-6 NRC Notified By: GERRY ELLIS HQ OPS Officer: JOANNA BRIDGE	Notification Date: 12/12/2018 Notification Time: 17:29 [ET] Event Date: 12/12/2018 Event Time: 00:00 [CST] Last Update Date: 12/12/2018
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY 10 CFR Section: 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(A) - ECCS INJECTION 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B) - RPS ACTUATION - CRITICAL	Person (Organization): NICK TAYLOR (R4DO)

Unit

SCRAM Code

RX Crit

Initial PWR

Initial RX Mode

Current PWR

Current RX Mode

1

M/R

Y

100

Power Operation

0

Hot Shutdown

Event Text

MANUAL REACTOR SCRAM DUE TO FAILED OPEN TURBINE BYPASS VALVE "At 1351 CST, the reactor was manually shutdown due to 'A' Turbine Bypass Valve opening. The Main Steam Line Isolation Valves were manually closed to facilitate reactor pressure control. Reactor level is being maintained through the use of Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System, Control Rod Drive System, and High Pressure Core Spray System. High Pressure Core Spray System was manually started to initially support reactor water level control. Reactor Pressure is being controlled through the use of the Safety Relief Valves and the Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System. The plant is stable in MODE 3. "The cause of the 'A' Turbine Bypass Valve opening is under investigation at this time. "The NRC Resident Inspector has been notified."