The Popperville Town Hall

Friday, September 13, 2019

Prairie Island Steam Generator Comes from Saint Marcel and Might Be Defective

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-edf-safety/frances-asn-boss-says-at-lest-five-edf-nuclear-reactors-affected-by-anomalies-figaro-idUSKCN1VX0N7

France flags welding fault at five or more EDF nuclear reactors

PARIS (Reuters) - At least five nuclear reactors operated by French utility EDF might have problems with weldings on their steam generators, a fault which has raised fears of closures, France’s nuclear regulator was quoted as saying.

State-controlled EDF, whose shares were down 0.9% on Thursday, had said on Tuesday it had identified issues with weldings of some existing reactors, sparking a stock price fall of nearly 7%.

France has the world’s second-largest fleet of nuclear reactors behind the United States, but a spate of technical problems, coupled with hitches at reactors under construction, has tarnished EDF’s image as a leader in nuclear technology.

EDF has exported to China, Finland, South Africa and South Korea, with Britain also set to use its equipment.

“At least five nuclear reactors are affected by this problem,” Le Figaro newspaper quoted Bernard Doroszczuk, head of the ASN regulator, as saying.

“EDF has advised that in around a week it will give an exact number of facilities affected,” Doroszczuk added.

https://www.montelnews.com/en/story/at-least-5-french-reactors-affected-by-weld-issues--report/1042135

At least 5 French reactors affected by weld issues – report

(Montel) At least five French nuclear reactors are affected by a welding fault in steam generators, the head of France’s ASN nuclear safety authority told French daily Le Figaro late on Wednesday.

"EDF has said it will give more details on the number of components concerned in a about week… so it’s not over,” said Bernard Doroszczuk.

The comments came after operator EDF said on Tuesday that “several” French reactors were affected by substandard welding on some of their steam generators and that it was investigating the matter.

20 generators
The ASN said on Tuesday that “potentially” 20 steam generators were concerned by the faulty welds manufactured by Framatome at its Saint Marcel factory in the south of France since 2008, adding it would release more information in “the coming days”.

An official at France’s IRSN, the technical arm of the ASN, told Montel EDF and Framatome were confident that inspections on steam generators would reveal they were safe.

Steam generators are key components that convert water into steam from heat produced in a reactor core. Each of France’s 58 reactors typically holds between two and four steam generators.

The latest welding problems comes amid concern about other substandard welding at EDF’s new-generation European pressurised reactor (EPR) being built in Flamanville.

https://www.energy-reporters.com/industry/edf-admits-to-reactor-welding-issues-in-france/

EDF admits to reactor welding issues in France

By Energy Reporters | 12.09.2019 | Industry

The French state-run electricity provider EDF has admitted to possible weaknesses with components, including improper welding, used in reactors in France.

Shares slumped in EDF, which said Framatome, a company partially owned by EDF that supplies atomic equipment, had reported the issues.

The French Nuclear Safety Authority said around 20 reactors built after 2008 might be affected.

The authority reported that test results appeared to have been falsified and it had alerted prosecutors to possible fraud.

An EDF spokesman said it was too early to say if any of its 58 reactors would close. He said the safety authority had been informed this week.

He added that Framatome said it had not used the same welding technique in all of the reactors.

A factory making steam generators used in nuclear reactors had purportedly failed to follow standard procedures on the welds, EDF said.

The power giant said Framatome warned of “a deviation from technical standards governing the manufacture of nuclear-reactor components”.

“Post-Fukushima, safety rules are so stringent that unplanned halts are becoming more and more frequent,” said Tancrede Fulop, a Morningstar analyst. “That is undermining the nuclear case for a low-cost, base-load production of low-carbon electricity.”

The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) said last year that 71.7 per cent of France’s electricity came from nuclear sources, the world’s highest proportion.

Framatome’s factory in Saint-Marcel, central France, supplies heavy equipment for the sector, providing components for 106 reactors around the world.

EDF said the problem concerned components already installed in reactors and items being prepared for future installation.

“EDF, along with Framatome, has been conducting in-depth investigations to identify all affected components and reactors, as well as to ascertain their fitness for service,” EDF announced.

In 2016 EDF checked almost a third of its nuclear reactors after finding manufacturing problems in components made by Framatome, then called Areva, at its factory in Creusot.

That forced longer-than-anticipated maintenance outages, reducing EDF’s output.

EDF has recently had to delay the launch a new-generation nuclear reactor. The Flamanville reactor in Normandy is now not due to begin operations until 2022, a decade behind schedule.

The utility is leading the controversial £19.6 billion project to build two similar reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset on the southwestern English coast. They are due to begin operation in 2025.

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Browns Ferry: Operators Denied Access To Safety Systems

Well, this is what you would see in a EMP bomb?

Power Reactor Event Number: 54266

Facility: BROWNS FERRY
Region: 2 State: AL
Unit: [1] [2] [3]
RX Type: [1] GE-4,[2] GE-4,[3] GE-4
NRC Notified By: RYAN GRIMME
HQ OPS Officer: THOMAS KENDZIA Notification Date: 09/11/2019
Notification Time: 03:10 [ET]
Event Date: 09/10/2019
Event Time: 19:34 [CDT]
Last Update Date: 09/11/2019

Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(3)(ii)(B) - UNANALYZED CONDITION Person (Organization):
FRANK EHRHARDT (R2DO)

Unit SCRAM Code RX Crit Initial PWR Initial RX Mode Current PWR Current RX Mode

1 N Y 100 Power Operation 100 Power Operation

2 N Y 100 Power Operation 100 Power Operation

3 N Y 100 Power Operation 100 Power Operation

Event Text

UNANALYZED CONDITION DUE TO LIGHTNING STRIKE

"A lightning strike occurred at approximately 1502 CDT on 09/10/2019, and a resulting power surge damaged some of the security door card reader system equipment. However, this did not affect access to plant areas for personnel who were already within protected area. At 1830 on 09/10/2019, it was discovered that some of the oncoming night shift personnel could not access particular areas that required the use of security card readers. Extent of condition check at 1934 on 09/10/2019 determined that access to 1A and 3A Electric Board Rooms, which contain remote shutdown panels and Fire Safe Shutdown equipment. was prohibited for the night shift personnel. This condition is reportable under 10 CFR 50.72(b)(3)(ii)(B) - Any event or condition that results in the nuclear power plant being in an unanalyzed condition that significantly degrades plant safety. Access was restored to all plant areas at 2106 on 9/10/2019. No plant events occurred during the time frame that the 1A & 3A Electric Board Rooms inaccessible that would have required access to these areas.

"The NRC Resident Inspector has been notified."

Saturday, September 07, 2019

I Got An Idea, Don't Buy Any Russian Uranium For US Plants

The vast majority of uranium powering our reactors comes from Russia. How about just not buying Russian uranium.

This is setting up USA to subsidize uranium cost to the utilities.

White House Considering Direct Purchases of U.S. Mined Uranium

By Brinkwire on September 7, 2019 demestic

(Bloomberg) — The White House is considering a plan that would have the government directly purchase uranium from U.S. producers as it contemplates ways to revive the flagging domestic mining industry.

A group set up by President Donald Trump to study the issue is considering a request by the nuclear industry to use the Defense Production Act, a 68-year-old Cold War-era statute once invoked by President Harry Truman to help the steel industry. The plan calls for requiring the government to buy American uranium to replenish their stockpiles and for other purposes, Paul Goranson, chief operating officer for Energy Fuels Inc., said in an interview.

Energy Fuels and Ur-Energy Inc. unsuccessfully petitioned the White House to put quotas on foreign imports of uranium. The concept of direct government purchases of U.S. uranium was among ideas discussed during a roundtable with administration staff and the nuclear industry at the Old Executive Office Building earlier this week, Goranson said.

“They seem receptive to direct purchasing of material,” Goranson said. “The president intends to take bold action on this. It’s got his attention now.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Share Rise

Shares in U.S. uranium producers rose on the report. Energy Fuels jumped as much as 11% while Ur-Energy climbed as much as 10%. Cameco Corp. increased about 2%.

Trump in July rejected the Commerce Department’s recommendation that he impose quotas on uranium imports using a trade law tied to national security concerns that he invoked to impose tariffs on steel, solar panels and hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods. Instead, Trump said a fuller analysis was needed and he directed his administration to identify other options. He created a nuclear fuel working group comprised of six cabinet secretaries and several other top White House officials.

The Uranium Producers of America, which represents miners including Cameco, is requesting “federal actions facilitating domestic uranium production” of at least 7.5 million pounds per year by 2025 and 10 million pounds per year by 2030, according to a letter the Santa Fe, New Mexico, trade group sent to the working group last month. That includes millions of pounds via contracts with the Department of Defense, requirements that government-owned utilities buy domestic uranium, and the creation of a new “Federal Uranium Security Stockpile.”

“We may not be able to continue any operations without immediate relief from the impact of state-backed entities, which have distorted global prices and made it more difficult for free market mines in the U.S. to compete,” the group wrote in the letter, which included a request to direct payments to domestic uranium companies.

In a separate letter, the Nuclear Energy Institute, which represents nuclear reactor operators, also recommended the working group use the Defense Production Act to “accelerate the procurement” of domestic uranium as well as “incentivize” the annual purchase of domestic uranium through a tax credit for nuclear utilities.

In addition, the trade group urged expanding an Energy Department loan program to include domestic uranium projects and to ”modernize the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s regulatory regime to be more safety focused, risk-informed, timely, consistent, cost-contained, and transparent.”

(Updates with more details starting in seventh paragraph.)

Friday, September 06, 2019

How Does the Brunswick Plant Get To Be So Lucky

Electric Power
05 Sep 2019 | 19:41 UTC

Washington

Duke shuts Brunswick nuclear plant in North Carolina ahead of Hurricane Dorian

Author William Freebairn
Editor Keiron Greenhalgh
Commodity Electric Power

Washington — For the second time in a year, Duke Energy is shutting its two-unit Brunswick nuclear plant near Wilmington, North Carolina, in advance of the arrival of a hurricane.

Grand Gulf Had a Excellent August Capacity Factor

Pittleful before that.

Friday, August 23, 2019

China

I think the response to Trump and the USA is China is going are to make a bloody mess out of the Hong Kong protesters. That will make them look tougher to the USA, Hong Kong and the Chinese people. We are humiliating China.

I think this is going to make the HK protestors even more crazy, more confident... That is why China needs to go crazy on them...

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Hinsdale, NH: Bad Selectpeople, Bad Department, Bad Police Officers and High Turnover Of Officers

This comes from selectpeoples office. Effectively young people, the right young people, don't want to join the police departments nationwide because of their bad reputation in the media. And the economy is booming.

Redacted 'Laurie' list offers no answers for local additions

By PAUL CUNO-BOOTH Sentinel Staff

Twelve police departments from the region are now listed on the exculpatory evidence schedule, which tracks current and former New Hampshire law enforcement officers found to have lied, used excessive force or otherwise behaved in a way that could harm their credibility as witnesses.

This is what I think is the reason of the Laurie list. You get on this list as a police officer, every case of officer probably would get overturned. The state doesn't want justice with these cases and it is cheaper that way.

Officers stay on the list even after they leave an agency or stop working in law enforcement altogether. Because the state has not released an unredacted list, it is not clear who the officers are or whether they still work in the field.

Five local police chiefs said the officers listed from their departments are no longer employed there. In some cases, they said, the officers have been gone for years.

You know, the Keene Sentinel puts the disgraceful Hinsdale police department first in the article. There is absolutely no information our town has fixed this problem. I think the police department problem should be our highest priority. It is vital for our economic development. It effects our housing values. What company would want to move to Hinsdale that has a terribly dysfunctional police department.

“The three that are being reported on by this agency no longer work here,” Hinsdale Police Chief Todd Faulkner said. “I know that some of those names [being on the list] are a result of action that the department took.”...

The impedance of this meeting came from me. I asked about the problems with police in a prior selectmen meeting and it was recorded.

Pay cited for Hinsdale Police Department vacancies Posted Wednesday, June 5, 2019 7:51 pm

By Bob Audette, Brattleboro Reformer

HINSDALE, N.H. — The town of Hinsdale has 10 slots designated for its police department, counting the chief of police. But at this moment, it only has four officers and its chief.

"Our department is currently in crisis mode," said Corp. Adam Belville, reading from a statement during the Monday evening meeting of the Hinsdale Board of Selectmen. "Often times there is only one officer working at a time who is responsible for responding to calls and handling investigations."

After reading from his statement, Belville went on to describe the situation as "a boiling point."

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't have the best interests of the town and department in mind," said Belville, who noted many small-town departments get rookie cops who stay on board for a year or two for experience before hopping to a bigger city with better pay.

All four officers on the town's payroll went to Monday night's meeting, but Chief Todd Faulkner stayed away.

"They didn't tell the board anything that I haven't told the board before," said Faulkner, and most of that is about how much pay he can offer new recruits to the department.

"Every year I have expressed to the town that pay is an issue," said Faulkner. "I am sympathetic about how the budget works and how much the people of Hinsdale are paying in taxes, but the hiring pool that's out there is not sustainable and my officers will do what's right for them and their families, regardless of how dedicated they might be to Hinsdale."

Starting pay in Hinsdale is about $19 an hour, or $39,520 a year, for applicants with no certification. With prior experience, the starting pay is a little less than $22 an hour, or about $45,760 a year.

"Do you feel one of the biggest factors in the retention of officers has to do with pay?" asked Selectmen Mike Carrier during the Monday night meeting. Carrier himself is a police officer with the Winchester Police Department and a former member of both the Hinsdale and Brattleboro police departments.

Belville said there are a lot of factors weighing against Hinsdale and other small-town police departments, but pay is one of the major factors.

"Larger departments ... are definitely dangling the pay in front of them," he said. In addition, he noted, officers can work at a larger department and have a smaller caseload because there are more officers on staff.

Sgt. Joshua Murray put it more bluntly.

"Would you go to the town that pays less to do more or go to the town that pays you more to do less?" asked Murray.

Up until about two years ago, said Faulkner, the town guaranteed all of its employees a 3 percent pay raise each year, dependent on a performance review, in addition to cost-of-living increases, amounting to about 5 percent a year.

The town went to performance-based pay raises for two years, he said, but this year has placed a freeze on all pay raises.

The Hinsdale police budget for fiscal year 2019, which ends June 30, is $1,390,493.

Both Belville and Faulkner acknowledged that all the departments in the region are fighting over the best applicants, but only the ones, like Keene, that offer a better starting pay, are winning.

The Keene Police Department is currently hiring, with a starting pay between $43,992 and $55,681, depending no experience.

Pay in nearby Winchester is similar to what is offered in Hinsdale, said Chief Mike Tollett, who has eight full-time slots, counting himself, all of which are filled. However, noted Tollett, one of his officers is leaving on Saturday. Pay starts at about $19 an hour for non-certified officers and $21 to $22 per hour depending on experience.

"Winchester is horrible with pay," said Tollett. And that's not just in his department. "No town employees got annual raises or cost of living increases."

In the past, said Tollett, the way to get a pay raise in the Winchester Police Department was to get promoted.

Something Unusual Is Going On At Browns Ferry

Update

Aug 22, 2019

Lighting Alost Took out Browns Ferry

Update

https://whnt.com/2019/08/09/tva-completes-457-million-extended-power-uprate-modifications/

Considering how old and obsolete these plants are, it's a three unit facility, a $500 million upgrade is just peanuts. They didn't go big enough to tell you the truth.

***This just happened overnight. These guys just spend a lot of money upgrading the capacity of the plants and components. A few years back they were continually down powering in the summer because the river water going into the plants was too hot. They spent a lot of money to counteract the hot summer time southern water going into the plants. They are lost a tremendous amount of electricity going into the plant. My best guess its the hot water has come back or overwhelmed the new cooling towers.

unit# 1 50%

2 50%

3 90%

Friday, August 16, 2019

?

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
FULL WRITTEN EXPLANATION

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted to close the following meeting:

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

10:00 a.m. Briefing on NRC International Activities (Closed Ex. 1 & 9)

The Commission voted 4 to O on August 1, 2019, to close this discussion which is reasonably expected to involve classified information and which premature disclosure would be likely to significantly frustrate implementation of a proposed Commission action.

Attendance

Commissioners and members of their staffs Executive Director for Operations and members of her staff Director, Office of International Programs Representatives of Commission staff offices \

Contact Person for More Information

Denise McGovern, Office of the Secretary (301-415-0681)
Denise McGovern o~--J.Vvl,~ Office of the Secretary 08/#

Power Reactor	Event Number: 54266
Facility: BROWNS FERRY Region: 2 State: AL Unit: [1] [2] [3] RX Type: [1] GE-4,[2] GE-4,[3] GE-4 NRC Notified By: RYAN GRIMME HQ OPS Officer: THOMAS KENDZIA	Notification Date: 09/11/2019 Notification Time: 03:10 [ET] Event Date: 09/10/2019 Event Time: 19:34 [CDT] Last Update Date: 09/11/2019
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY 10 CFR Section: 50.72(b)(3)(ii)(B) - UNANALYZED CONDITION	Person (Organization): FRANK EHRHARDT (R2DO)