Whistleblowing can be used as a potent creative tool to help your bureaucracy evolve towards a more enlightened organization.
Phone: 1-603-209-4206 steamshovel2002@yahoo.com
Note: I constantly update my articles.
Comments at the bottom of the article are always welcome!!!
Mike Mulligan, Hinsdale, NH
The political muscle of ComEd/Exelon aced its last major test in 2016, when the energy companies finally passed what one Illinois House member referred to at the time as a "multibillion dollar corporate bailout" by electricity ratepayers to keep two of its nuclear power plants open.
The vote came after that year's election during the fall veto session, and it passed despite the fact that the Democratic-controlled General Assembly and Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner had not agreed on a state budget for nearly a year and a half. It was one of only a tiny handful of bipartisan bills signed into law during Rauner's term.
ComEd has had its shares of ups and downs in Springfield. It thrived under Gov. Jim Thompson, who strongly supported its push to build a large nuclear fleet. But most subsequent governors took a more populist position. And by the early 2000s, legislators felt ignored and even disrespected by the company.
That all eventually turned around as ComEd started catering to legislators in order to improve its Statehouse standing. The company stopped trying to ram through previously unseen legislation at the last possible minute in 2011, but had earlier made it much easier for members to do things like call in to check on constituent power outages, for instance. But, more importantly, jobs, contracts and other favors like keeping constituents' electricity service on when they couldn't afford to pay soon proliferated.
Like many large bureaucracies, once the corporate giant finally changed course it kept following that new route and continued expanding and "perfecting" its mission long after it should've moderated itself. It appears that it may have gotten sloppy, or much worse.
The company had been gearing up earlier this year to pass another major bill, which included locking in its favorable rate system for another decade. But then all the energy bills were suddenly set aside until the fall veto session.
That all eventually turned around as ComEd started catering to legislators in order to improve its Statehouse standing. The company stopped trying to ram through previously unseen legislation at the last possible minute in 2011, but had earlier made it much easier for members to do things like call in to check on constituent power outages, for instance. But, more importantly, jobs, contracts and other favors like keeping constituents' electricity service on when they couldn't afford to pay soon proliferated.
Like many large bureaucracies, once the corporate giant finally changed course it kept following that new route and continued expanding and "perfecting" its mission long after it should've moderated itself. It appears that it may have gotten sloppy, or much worse.
The company had been gearing up earlier this year to pass another major bill, which included locking in its favorable rate system for another decade. But then all the energy bills were suddenly set aside until the fall veto session.
The federal investigation of the company has since killed its bill for the immediately foreseeable future. The probe began in earnest in May with search warrants served on Statehouse insider and House Speaker Michael Madigan confidante Mike McClain (a former ComEd lobbyist who played an instrumental role in the company's many Springfield successes) and former Ald. Mike Zalewski over what the Chicago Tribune claimed at the time was a probe into how the former Chicago alderman with close political ties to Madigan received a ComEd contract.
ComEd and Exelon have since revealed that they've been subpoenaed twice by a federal grand jury, once over its "lobbying activities" and then for its "communications" with individuals including Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago). The search warrant of Sandoval's Statehouse office listed four unnamed Exelon officials.
The probe hasn't just toppled the company's legislative agenda. Fidel Marquez, the company's senior vice president of governmental and external affairs, and the CEO of Exelon Utilities Anne Pramaggiore, who had been ComEd's president and then CEO during its successful legislative run, have both suddenly retired.
The case could involve literally hundreds of favors over the years which combine to possibly form a pattern of corruption.
And then WBEZ reported that federal authorities are actually looking into whether ComEd hired "multiple politically connected employees and consultants in exchange for favorable government actions, including electricity rate increases." Many did "little or no work" and some had ties to Speaker Madigan, according to the story authored by Dan Mihalopoulos, Dave McKinney and Tony Arnold.
The story also reported that as of Oct. 18, Hooker is no longer working as a ComEd registered lobbyist through Mike Kasper, a major Statehouse lobbyist who also does a lot of legal work for Speaker Madigan.
But beyond whatever ComEd and Exelon may have done, what will be truly fascinating is if the feds ever publish a list of politicians who allegedly got sweet favors in return for their votes. That could be a long one.
...The utility who is overly dependent with obsolete nuclear plants. You know when women have reached the heights when they become deep in male style corruption. Chief of Exelon’s Utility Business Retires During Federal Probe
(Bloomberg) -- The head of Exelon Corp.’s utility unit has abruptly retired amid a federal probe involving its lobbying in Illinois.
Anne Pramaggiore, senior executive vice president and chief executive officer of Exelon Utilities, is leaving “effective immediately,” the company said in a statement Tuesday. Calvin Butler Jr., chief of Exelon’s Baltimore Gas and Electric utility, was named as her interim replacement.
Pramaggiore’s departure comes less than a week after Exelon disclosed in a regulatory filing that it received a subpoena from federal prosecutors asking for information related to communications with Illinois State Senator Martin Sandoval. In July, Exelon disclosed it received a subpoena related to its lobbying activities in Illinois.
Exelon fell as much as 2.3% Wednesday.
Pramaggiore’s sudden exit following the subpoenas “cannot be interpreted in any other way as being directly related to each other,” Greg Gordon, an analyst at Evercore ISI, said in a research note. It increases the risk that the company could be under scrutiny for criminal behavior, he said.
“The situation looks unpalatable in the short term but a lot of risk looks priced in,” Gordon said.
The Chicago Tribune reported earlier this month that federal agents had raided Sandoval’s office and were searching for information related to concrete and construction businesses and lobbyists and public officials. Officials were also looking for “items related to any official action taken in exchange for a benefit,” the Tribune reported, citing documents released by the Illinois Senate.
Exelon’s statement on Pramaggiore’s retirement Tuesday didn’t reference the subpoenas. Nor did it give a reason for her departure.
“We thank Anne for her valuable service,” Exelon CEO Chris Crane said in the statement. “We are confident this will be a smooth transition.”
(Adds analyst comment in fifth paragraph.)
--With assistance from Will Wade.
To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Ryan in New York at jryan173@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Joe Ryan, Joe Carroll
This is our US military consolidating our position in the middle east preparing to go to war with Iran. A message to Iran: Do you think there is any advantage to hit us now with a bigger 9/11.
This is the adage of poking a mad dog and allowing him to strike you first. The pre-story of WW II and Bin Lauden.
Was the guy who was canned a burnt offering to the NRC?
DTE hires Navy vet to head Fermi 2 nuclear plant
DTE Energy has named a Navy veteran and longtime industry leader as its new chief nuclear officer.
Peter Dietrich is responsible for overall operations at the Fermi 2 nuclear power plant. The Fermi 2 is a 1,200-MW facility along the shore of Lake Erie in southern Michigan.
Prior to joining Detroit-based DTE, Dietrich was chief nuclear officer for the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. and Nawah Energy Co. He also worked in leadership roles for Southern Edison, including chief nuclear officer.
Other nuclear plants where Dietrich served in executive levels include the James A. Fitzgerald and Pilgrim stations.
Dietrich succeeds Paul Fessler, who has served at DTE for more than 41 years. Fessler...
Organization: Framatome Inc. Date & Time: October 18, 2019, 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM Location: NRC One White Flint North, O4B6 11555 Rockville Pike Rockville, MD Purpose: Framatome representatives will provide the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff a status of Framatome evaluations and potential conclusion as it related to those welds identified to be in deviation from the requirements of Section III of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Boiler and Pressure Vessel (B&PV) Code. Category: This is a Closed meeting. This meeting is closed to the public because it contains trade secrets and commercial or financial information (proprietary information) that will be discussed during the meeting. Participants: NRC External Kerri Kavanagh Victor Montalbano, Framatome David Rudland Jeff Fleck, Framatome Steven Bloom Brian Haibach, Framatome Kamal Manoly Ashok Nana, Framatome Tim Wiger, Framatome Gary Peters, Framatome
CLOSED MEETING AGENDA Framatome Evaluations of Deviations of Weld Requirements Deviations from Technical Standards October 18, 2019, 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM NRC One White Flint North, O4B6 11555 Rockville Pike Rockville, MD
Time Topic Speaker Closed Session 9:00 AM Introduction and Opening Remarks NRC/Framatome 9:10 AM Background information of the identified deviation Framatome 9:30 AM Results of Evaluations and Calculations Framatome • ASME B&PV Code • Part 21 10:30 AM 10 minutes Break 10:40 AM Technical Questions NRC 11:30 AM Next Steps Framatome/NRC 11:40 AM Opportunity for Comments Licensees 11:55 AM Closing Remarks NRC/Framatome 12:00 PM Adjourn
I don't see any attempt to find out how widespread the drug falsification is?
EA-19-089 Mr. Michael Yox Regulatory Affairs Director Southern Nuclear Operating Company Vogtle 3 & 4 7835 River Road, Bldg. 140 Waynesboro, GA 30830 SUBJECT: NRC OFFICE OF INVESTIGATION REPORT 2-2018-0029
Dear Mr. Yox: This refers to the investigation completed on July 23, 2019, by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) Office of Investigations (OI), at Southern Nuclear Company’s (SNC) Vogtle Nuclear Plant Units 3 & 4 construction project. The investigation was conducted to determine if a contract supervisor and two contract employees at Southern Nuclear Operating Company's Vogtle Electrical Generating Plant, Unit 3 (Vogtle), in Waynesboro, Georgia, willfully violated a licensee procedure regarding compliance with fitness for duty (FFD) requirements, which included any attempt to subvert the required testing process. Based on the investigation, OI did substantiate that a contract supervisor and one contract employee deliberately violated a licensee procedure regarding compliance with FFD requirements in that they attempted to subvert the required testing process. After considering the information developed during the investigation, the NRC has concluded no further action is warranted. This decision was made after considering corrective actions you have taken to resolve the issues. Specifically, SNC performed an investigation, substantiated the concerns, developed appropriate corrective actions and ultimately placed all three individuals in question into the Personnel Access Data System (PADS) with a lifetime ban.
It is thoughtful of you to notify me about the degraded torus paint job. I am surprised to first see up as a CL and not a violation. It is interesting remembering seeing this kind of problem many decades ago and then this guy shows.
I just tried to look up this document and it doesn't seem on your site yet.
Heller, James <James.Heller@nrc.gov>
To:Michael Mulligan
Oct 8 at 1:08 PM
Mike - - one more time. I am told it is available for public view
Jim
NRC Issues Confirmatory Action Letter to Fermi Nuclear Power Plant
Confirmatory Action Letter - Fermi Power Plant, Unit 2 Commitment to Address Degraded Torus Coatings
Yahoo/Inbox
Heller, James <James.Heller@nrc.gov>
To:steamshovel2002@yahoo.com
Cc:Taylor, Thomas
Oct 7 at 6:22 PM
Mike - - my name is Jim Heller. I am the Region III senior allegation coordinator. It has been a while since we talked. I believe the last time was about 7 months ago when we talked about
Licensee Event Reports that addressed relieve valve testing at LaSalle.
On 7/12/2019, you talked to Tom Taylor, NRC Fermi Senior Resident Inspector, and discussed the special inspection that was underway to look at torus coating degradation. Tom provided me his
notes from the conversation between you and him. Tom correctly informed you that any information developed during the inspection was pre-decisional and he was unable to discuss or comment on any of the information developed during the inspection. Based
on Tom’s email to me I made a mental note to provide you information as it became publicly available.
I believe ADAMS Accession Number ML19280D881 has information applicable to the subject you discussed with Tom. The document title is “Confirmatory Action Letter - Fermi Power Plant, Unit 2 Commitment
to Address Degraded Torus Coatings”
I was living in Atlanta Georgia during the great drought of 2007-2008. Lived right next to Lake Lanier. Basically over development without building adequate infrastructure...like reservors. The Chattahoochee had big troubles low river flows and too much water withdrawals for cities and industry. It seemed at the time barge traffic on the river was more important than drinking water. It is a large section of society living on the edge.
Blistering heat and little rain is causing a 'flash drought' in the South
Doyle Rice, USA TODat Updated 1:39 p.m. ET Oct. 4, 2019
The South has endured a double whammy of blistering heat and a lack of significant rainfall over the past few weeks, triggering what climate experts are calling a "flash drought."
The drought, which is affecting 45 million people in 14 states, is cracking farm soil, drying up ponds and raising the risk of wildfires.
“Typically we look at drought as being a slow onset, slow-developing type phenomenon compared to other disasters that rapidly happen, so this flash drought term came about,” said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center. “The idea is that it’s more of a rapidly developing drought situation compared to what we typically see.”
This is a rather high level official submitting a 2.206 on the problems of Grand Gulf. This guy basically is challenging the ROP and its effectiveness on this very troubled plant. This is unbelievably unusual and the importance of this interagency battle can not be under estimated.
Ok, so do we know how the cracks will behave in a LOCA?
There is massive assumptions going on and little science.
This seems to be related to the Areva Le Creusot forge over hydrogen flaking. Any connections to the new Framatome forge issue. Areva and Framatome are one and the same.
Mechanisms of Cracking Associated with Weld Deposited Cladding As discussed in WCAP-15338-A [1] and repeated here, underclad cracking was initially detected in 1970, and has been extensively investigated by Westinghouse and others over the past 30 years. This type of cracking in reactor vessels has also been identified in France and Japan, in addition to the United States. The cracking has occurred in the low alloy steel base metal heat-affected zone (HAZ) beneath the austenitic stainless steel weld overlay that is deposited to protect the ferritic material from corrosion. Two types of underclad cracking have been identified. Reheat cracking has occurred as a result of post weld heat treatment of single-layer austenitic stainless steel cladding applied using high-heat-input welding processes on ASME SA-508, Class 2 forgings. The high-heat-input welding processes effecting reheat cracking, based upon tests of both laboratory samples and clad nozzle cutouts, include: strip clad, six-wire clad and manual inert gas (MIG) cladding processes. Testing also confirmed that reheat cracking did not occur with one-wire and two-wire submerged arc cladding processes. The cracks are often numerous and are located in the base metal region directly beneath the cladding. They are confined to a region approximately 0.125 inch deep and 0.4 inch long. Cold cracking has occurred in ASME SA-508, Class 3 forgings after deposition of the second and third layers of cladding, where no pre-heating or post-heating was applied during the cladding procedure. The cold cracking was determined to be attributable to residual stresses near the yield strength in the weld metal and base metal interface after cladding deposition, combined with a crack-sensitive microstructure in the HAZ and high levels of diffusible hydrogen in the austenitic stainless steel or lnconel weld metals. The hydrogen diffused into the HAZ and caused cold (hydrogen-induced) cracking as the HAZ cooled, Destructive analyses have demonstrated that these cracks vary in depth from 0.007 inch to 0.295 inch and in l~ngth from 0.078 inch to 2.0 inches. Typical cold crack dimensions were 0.078 inch to 0.157 inch in depth, and 0.196 inch to 0.59 inch in . length. As with the reheat cracks, these cracks initiate at or near the clad/base metal fusion line and penetrate into the base metal.
