Nuclear Plant Fitness For Duty Testing

These guys figured out how to bypass drug and alcohol testing!

Melissa Ralph

Fitness For Duty Specialist

Watching over a nuclear reactor’s controls or supervising nuclear power plant maintenance are jobs that need a person’s full attention. Nuclear plant workers can’t perform properly if they’re overly tired, dealing with a medical concern or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. For those reasons, the NRC has strict “fitness for duty” requirements so companies can spot impaired workers and keep them out of the plant.

Human factors were in the spotlight after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. Afterward, we closely examined how human behavior affects nuclear plant safety. In 1989 the agency issued the first fitness for duty rules covering anyone with unescorted access to a nuclear plant, as well as workers whose duties affect safety, security or emergency preparedness.

Drug and alcohol testing is the program’s most obvious feature. New hires are tested before they get access to the plant, and companies must also conduct random, unannounced drug and alcohol tests for workers. The tests must cover a specific minimum set of drugs (including marijuana, cocaine and amphetamines) and companies can expand the test for additional drugs.

The rules also say workers can’t drink alcohol for at least five hours before their shift, and blood alcohol concentrations as low as 0.02 constitute a “positive” test. (For comparison, driving while impaired in the United States requires a 0.08 blood alcohol level.)

Plants must also test on-duty workers if they seem impaired or are behaving oddly, and workers must report anyone they think is impaired to management. Workers who feel impaired from being too tired must report themselves.

Workers are automatically drug and alcohol tested and assessed for being overtired if they’re involved in an onsite accident or event possibly caused by human error. Plants also test workers when they’re working extended shifts. All of these multiple layers of testing help ensure plant workers are fit for duty.

Plants give the NRC information from all these tests regularly. Reviewing this information shows that most of the positive tests – two out of three – comes from pre-access testing. So these impaired individuals never get into the plant. In the other cases the worker’s access is promptly revoked.

What happens to a worker with a positive test? The first bans the worker from the site for at least 14 days; a second revokes the person’s access for five years. If the worker has a third positive test or tries to cheat on a drug test the person is permanent banned from access to the site. Workers who want to restore access after a first or second positive test must go into a treatment program and have follow-up tests.

In 2008, we updated NRC regulations to strengthen the drug and alcohol test requirements and to enhance how companies manage work hours to prevent worker fatigue. Since then, the overall positive test rates have remained steady at about 0.62 percent. Last year 179,135 tests spotted 1,114 cases where a worker was positive for either alcohol or a drug.

We continue to examine new information about fitness for duty, as well as improvements in testing technology. We’re working on proposed updates to our rules based on this information. You can read more about today’s fitness-for-duty requirements on our website.

"We Cannot Let The Rest Of The State Starve"

You get the flavor...we are a city-state or a regional-state...the optics of a locally. We don’t belong to a greater state or nation. It is advertisement, newspaper and media fixation on all profits are local. Screw the greater good.

And so the fixation on the fuel tax and casino...it is the political ideological wars. It is a fixation of just thinking up any old excuse to obstruct government until my local ideological needs are met. I got to fee.
This is how our nation is going to collapse.

Contractors: Money is needed to fix N.H. highways

By NORMA LOVE

The Associated Press

Sunday, November 3, 2013
(Published in print: Monday, November 4, 2013)

A legislative stalemate over raising the gas tax and legalizing a casino could jeopardize the state’s biggest transportation priority and drive highway contractors out of New Hampshire to look for work in nearby states willing to fund infrastructure improvements.

The New Hampshire House passed a gas tax this year that the Senate killed, while the Senate passed a casino bill that the House rejected. Transportation Commissioner Chris Clement said this week that he’s worried funding won’t be available to finish expanding Interstate 93 – the top priority – as well as make other highway improvements.

“They’ve got to follow the work,” Clement said.

Lawmakers hoping to keep the I-93 project alive say funding must be in place next year to keep contractors from seeking guaranteed work elsewhere. They point to Massachusetts, which has just begun an effort to pump billions of dollars into its transportation network over the next decade.

They’ll try to break the stalemate next year with bills to raise the state’s 18-cent gas and diesel tax and to legalize casino gambling. Some money from a casino could be used for highway projects. The Senate rejected a phased-in, 12-cent increase this year to the tax, which hasn’t been raised since 1991. Details have not been released on the Senate proposal for next year, but its prime sponsor said it won’t be as big of an increase.

“It’s not an exaggeration to say we have a catastrophic situation with our infrastructure,” said House Public Works Chairman David Campbell, who sponsored this year’s defeated gas tax bill.

Campbell and other supporters of increasing funding for roads and bridges are adopting a new tactic for next year. They’re gambling that the House can be swayed to pass a casino bill and that the Senate can be persuaded to increase the gas and diesel tax.

The risk is high that each chamber will stick to its established position and no revenue bill will pass.

That keeps Clement awake at night. The expansion of I-93 from four lanes to six lanes – and potentially eight – from the Massachusetts border to Manchester to ease traffic congestion and spur economic growth will stop, and even if the $250 million needed is later approved, construction won’t be done before the state’s environmental permit expires in 2020, which would lead to further delays and higher costs, he said. Design work on the remaining I-93 sections is being done in hopes money will be available within the next year to begin work in 2015.

The department also will begin running a deficit starting in mid-2015 that could force Clement to lay off up to 600 of his 1,600 workers and reduce services, including how often snowplow trucks complete circuits during storms.

More money is needed – and soon – to keep contractors from migrating to other jobs and to keep the department operating smoothly, Clement said.

“I am revenue agnostic. It doesn’t matter where the revenue comes from,” he said.

Contractors working on I-93 say that whether or when they pull out depends on if there’s money to do the work without leaving them idle waiting. Taxpayers will pay more if the job stalls, contractors said.

If a company already has its heavy equipment at the interstate, it costs less to move the machinery to a new site a few miles away, said Ryan Audley, vice president of R.S., Audley Inc., which is working on the Exit 4 interchange. If the equipment is moved to a new job location and later brought back, the costs for a contract can be hundreds of thousands of dollars higher, he said.

“We will have to go out of New Hampshire to bid projects,” he said.

If lawmakers don’t break the stalemate, Clement says he won’t pour all the state’s limited resources into finishing I-93 when there are so many roads and bridges in need of repair elsewhere.

More than 350 municipal bridges are on the state’s “red list” of structures badly in need of repair or replacement. An additional 140 bridges owned by the state are also on the list. The state has roughly 1,600 miles of state roads in poor condition, 1,900 miles in fair condition and 800 in good condition.

“We cannot let the rest of the state starve on the back of I-93,” he said.

Worst In Nation: Pilgrim Nuclear plant

Nov 7:

Plymouth nuclear plant receives lower performance ratin

PLYMOUTH – The news has not been good this week for Entergy Corp., the owner-operator of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. www

On Monday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced a performance rating drop for the Plymouth plant due to shutdowns with complications, placing it among 22 in the country requiring more oversight.

Two days later, federal regulators sent Pilgrim officials written notice that the plant’s standing will likely fall even further within the next couple months, placing it among the nation’s eight worst performers.

And on Thursday, a union representing Pilgrim plant workers, publicly condemned Entergy’s plan to lay off eight employees next month, saying the company shouldn’t be cutting staff at a time when the plant is rapidly dropping to the bottom of the country’s list of 100 reactors.

The NRC’s Wednesday letter to John Dent, Entergy’s site vice-president at Pilgrim, warned that the plant was headed for a further downgrade at the close of the year’s fourth quarter, based on the number of unplanned, forced shutdowns over the last several months.

Pilgrim, in fact, led the country in the number of shutdowns.

The letter fell just short of stating Pilgrim’s upcoming drop to the bottom eight was a certainty, and comments from the NRC’s spokesman Thursday were also just shy of a definite confirmation.

“Until we finalize the data, it’s not 100 percent,” Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said. “But we wouldn’t have put it in the letter if we didn’t think it was a good possibility it was going to occur.”

Entergy spokesman James Sinclair said the company did not wish to add anything to the statement it issued Monday. In the statement, Entergy said: “Operating Pilgrim at the highest levels of safety and reliability is our highest priority and we have conducted rigorous reviews of the plant shutdowns to identify needed improvements.”

Meanwhile Daniel Hurley, president of the Utility Workers Union of America Local 369, criticized his employer when contacted shortly after the union issued a press release.

The Pilgrim employees targeted for layoff are administrators, technicians and technical specialists.

“These employees write the procedures for everything being done at the plant,” Hurley said. “The facility is safe and reliable as long as it’s run by men and women trained to do it – all of them.” “There are no non-critical workers in a nuclear power plant,” the union president continued. “If anything, they should be hiring more workers.”

U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., joined the protest via a press release Thursday. “We know the best team at Pilgrim is the team that is there now, and has been there for years,” the senator said. “Entergy shouldn’t make cuts to that team, They should keep everyone on the job so Pilgrim is safe and operating smoothly.”

Meanwhile Sinclair defended the company’s decision. “The determination of positions that could be eliminated was based on careful consideration not to impact plant safety, security or reliability,” he said.

In light of this week’s development’s at Pilgrim, Diane Turco, a Harwich resident and founder of the anti-nuke group Cape Downwinders, repeated her group’s message that the time has come to shutter the plant.

“Entergy is criminally negligent for operating the Pilgrim Nuclear power reactor for profit over public safety, as is the NRC for recognizing the dangers and just giving lip service and labels to the real and serious threat to the population and environment,” Turco said. “We already know there are lots of issues there. We need to call on our legislators to shut Pilgrim down now.”

Pilgrim No. 1 in U.S. for shutdowns

This is the first installment of a two-part series about the future of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, which was published on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013.

PLYMOUTH — From broken water pumps, leaky valves and steaming pipes to elusive electrical problems, it's been a tough year for Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.

Related Links

PILGRIM'S FUTURE

Sunday:

Part 1:Pilgrim No. 1 in U.S. for shutdowns

Mondayz:

Part 2: Pilgrim plant: Taxing future ahead?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

2013 Pilgrim shutdowns and glitches

Jan. 10-17: Both recirculation pumps tripped, followed by a head drain valve leak

·         Jan. 20-24: Leaking safety valve

·         Feb. 8-16: Winter storm, 169 hours down

·         Aug. 22-26: All three main water pumps shut down

·         Sept. 8-17: Steam pipe leak

·         Oct. 14-21: Off-site power to plant unavailable because of NStar problem, which caused initial shutdown. Plant remained closed for two days after power restored because of faulty mechanical pressure regulator, which caused water levels in the nuclear reactor to become too high.

OTHER INCIDENTS

·         July 15: Loss of control room alarms. Plant stayed online. Alarms came back on with no explanation. Reason for malfunction never found.

·         July 16: Heat wave warmed seawater temperatures, forcing the plant to power down to about 85 percent intermittently. Federal regulation required seawater, used for cooling the reactor, to be no warmer than 75 degrees.

Source: NRC website and Entergy press releases

Entergy, Pilgrim's owner and operator, has poured $500 million into the 41-year-old plant since buying it from Boston Edison in 1999, yet mechanical problems and off-site power outages have forced the operation to shut down six times since January, making it No. 1 among the U.S. fleet of 100 commercial nuclear reactors for shutdowns this year.

Pilgrim has spent 79 days in shutdown since January, although company officials are quick to attribute 46 of those to planned refueling last spring.

Even when Pilgrim has been operating, the reactor has frequently been kept below peak level while workers address mechanical glitches. Between Aug. 22 and Sept. 21, for instance, the plant underwent two complete shutdowns and never reached peak power.

During July, a heat wave forced plant operators to frequently drop below peak levels because of the rising temperature of sea water used to cool the reactor. Federal regulations won't allow use of seawater above 75 degrees.

Bill Mohl, president of Entergy Wholesale Commodities, agreed in a recent interview that Pilgrim has had more than its share of problems.

"We've had our challenges with that facility this year," Mohl said. "But we are very focused on improving that operation."

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, after a five-year review process, agreed to re-license the plant for another 20 years just 16 months ago, despite considerable outcry from anti-nuclear groups and local and state officials, including the governor and attorney general.

"The issue is that the NRC has never truly met a plant it didn't like," said Jeffrey Berger, a former longtime chairman of the Plymouth Nuclear Matters Committee. "Many people, including me, quite pointedly question whether the NRC is the guard dog over the industry that it's supposed to be or simply the lapdog."

Darrell Roberts, director of NRC's Region I Division of Reactor Projects, in King of Prussia, Pa., countered that his agency did "an exhaustive review" of Pilgrim before granting Entergy a new license. "Pilgrim was the longest license renewal process of any plant," Roberts said.

ENTERGY: PILGRIM IS FINE

The operation's stuttering performance since its re-licensing, coupled with Entergy's recently announced plan to shutter its Vermont Yankee nuclear plant for financial reasons, has caused some to wonder about Pilgrim's future despite the decision by federal regulators to license it until 2032.

The plant's frequent unplanned shutdowns since January, with four of those related to mechanical problems, will probably also affect its level of oversight, once the NRC finishes its review of third quarter performance records, expected to wrap up next month.

"Shutdowns like that would get our attention," Roberts said.

More than three forced shutdowns in 7,000 operating hours (there are 8,200 hours in a year) will lower a plant's "performance indicators."

Pilgrim, now in a category that requires only standard oversight, may end up joining 22 other plants that must undergo more intense scrutiny.

Thomas Kauffman, spokesman for Nuclear Energy Institute in Washington, an advocacy group for the nuclear industry, argues that Pilgrim has a good operating record. The plant's three-year average for being at full operating level is 91 percent, Kauffman said, "several points higher than the U.S. nuclear fleet's national average."

Not surprisingly, Entergy officials also say Pilgrim is just fine, although a company spokeswoman refused discuss plant financial specifics.

"Pilgrim is about 10 percent larger than Vermont Yankee," said Entergy spokeswoman Joyce McMahon in an email. "In addition, Pilgrim is located in a region of the electrical grid where there is a stronger and growing demand for electricity. Those two factors provide Pilgrim with a significant economic advantage over Vermont Yankee."

In its announcement of Yankee's planned closure, set for the end of 2014, Entergy cited the low price of natural gas, increasing cost of meeting federal standards, particularly for smaller single reactors, and maintenance costs as reasons to shutter the 41-year-old plant.

Dave Lochbaum, director of the Nuclear Safety Project for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said Vermont Yankee has performed at 90 percent capacity over the last three years, "a tad below Pilgrim."

"It's hard to believe that such minor differences yield a red light for Vermont Yankee and a green light for Pilgrim," Lochbaum said. "At best, it would seem a yellow light for Pilgrim, cautioning about another premature retirement due to unfavorable economics."

OPPONENT: 'A DANGEROUS PERIOD'

Pilgrim has stirred up considerable public opposition over the years, particularly during the plant's re-licensing process, as well as since then.

Residents of the Cape are concerned about the plant's safety and the lack of an evacuation plan should there be an accident. That latter problem has prompted items such as T-shirts emblazoned with slogans like "No Escape from the Cape" and "Cape Evacuation Plan: Swim East."

Fourteen Cape towns, through town meeting or ballot votes, approved petitions last spring asking Gov. Deval Patrick, as the state's top official, to call for Pilgrim's closure because the safety of Cape residents can't be guaranteed.

Barnstable, the final town to vote, will consider the petition on Nov. 5.

"We've been concerned over public safety, but the decision has always been in Entergy's court on whether they operate or not," said Diane Turco, a Harwich resident and founder of the Cape Downwinders, the group that penned the petitions. "It will probably close down over company profits, not public health and safety."

Mary Lampert, a Duxbury resident and founder of Pilgrim Watch, has called Pilgrim "an antique."

"The plant was built when leisure suits were in style," Lampert said. "I think we're in a particularly dangerous period with an old reactor and no investment. People are thinking, 'Should I live here?'"

There is also some worry in the plant's host town. "Every time I get a shutdown notice, it makes me more concerned about their operating system," Plymouth Town Manager Melissa Arrighi said. "I think there's a townwide desire they improve safety and security. Fukushima made us all sit back and say, 'Do we have enough in place to protect our residents?'

FIVE REACTORS CLOSING

Peter Friedman, a retired naval nuclear engineer and current chairman of the mechanical engineering department at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, said Pilgrim and other U.S. nuclear plants are strictly regulated and safely operated.

"People should realize that a statistical analysis of base-load power generators like coal, natural gas and hydroelectricity, nuclear power is by far the safest, and that includes accidents at Fukushima Dai-ichi, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl," Friedman said.

None of glitches that caused Pilgrim's shutdowns or power downs this year posed any risk to the public, he said.

Nuclear plants in the United States are staffed with personnel who are more highly trained than their counterparts at Fukushima, according to Friedman.

Meanwhile, five reactors are slated to close within the next year: Crystal River 3 in Florida, Kewaunee in Wisconsin, Vermont Yankee in Vermont and two reactors at San Onofre in California. Kewaunee and Yankee will close for financial reasons. San Onofre and Crystal River are closing because of mechanical problems that proved too expensive to repair.

All five are shutting down before their licenses were set to expire.

Lochbaum said it's not uncommon for plants to close before the expiration of their licenses. "To date, about two dozen nuclear power reactors have been permanently closed in the U.S.," Lochbaum said. "Only one (Big Rock Point) shut down at the end of its operating license period. All the rest shut down unexpectedly ahead of the license expiration date."

Entergy's Mohl remained vague when asked recently whether any consideration was being given to closing Pilgrim anytime soon.

While he said there were no current plans to shutter the plant, Mohl added, "We're always looking at holding and optimizing an asset, selling it or shutting it down."

Eastern Metro New Hampshire Centric

Bottom line, if your bridge isn't red listed...it is a political decision wholly controlled by the fraudulent bridge inspection,...you are shit of of luck.

 The whole 10 year transportation plan is scam to make us feel better with NH doing nothing around our route 119 1921 bridges...

Give us the appearance of movement, when there is not a chance in the world.

State House Memo: We need a 21st-century transportation network

By Councilor CHRIS PAPPAS
For the Monitor

Friday, October 25, 2013
(Published in print: Saturday, October 26, 2013)

Every two years the Executive Council updates the state’s 10-year transportation plan, structuring funding for roads, bridges, airports, buses and rail for the next decade. As the council holds more than two dozen hearings across the state to solicit public input, two facts are becoming abundantly clear: New Hampshire’s transportation network is in need of repair and expansion, and there’s not enough money available to get the job done.

 

The public has done an excellent job identifying the state’s substantial transportation needs. In Londonderry, I heard about the need to finish Interstate 93 and develop Pettengill Road south of Manchester-Boston Regional Airport. In Hooksett, residents shared important traffic and safety concerns on major state roads going through town. In Manchester, I heard about the need to reconstruct Exits 6 and 7 on Interstate 293 and for the state to invest more in mass transit. There’s widespread concern about delays to the Route 101 widening project in Bedford. In Loudon, residents made a compelling case for safety upgrades on the Route 106 corridor and the expansion of the Bow-Concord stretch of I-93.

 

Statewide, there are nearly 500 red-list bridges and 5,000 miles of state roadway to repair and maintain, not to mention a backlog of important new road projects that are languishing on the shelf.

Some communities are underserved by transit, and the overall network lacks connectivity for many people and economic centers.

 

Transportation projects are economic generators, infusing our state with much-needed construction jobs and lasting economic, public safety and quality-of-life benefits.

The I-93 widening project, currently under way from Windham to the Massachusetts border, is the state’s most critical one. This artery is a lifeline for our economy, but the state is still $250 million short of completing the project. If left unfinished, an inadequate I-93 will be a detriment to New Hampshire motorists and our economic fortunes.

 

Finding money for new projects is particularly challenging because of years of flat federal transportation aid and the shrinking purchasing power of our state’s gas tax.

 

Unless something changes, we will not have the capacity to look far beyond I-93 and basic maintenance over the next decade.

 

Guided by metrics on condition, safety, mobility and economic impact, the council is working with the Department of Transportation to finalize a plan that prioritizes our many local, regional and statewide needs. This will have to be done within the confines of current funding realities and will be sent to the governor and Legislature for their consideration next year. At that point, it will be up to legislative leaders to have a full discussion about whether the 10-year plan is adequate in terms of its breadth and scale.

 

If they have listened to what the public has said at the Executive Council’s hearings and the data provided by DOT, they will know that we run the risk of shortchanging communities and our future if we do not expand the scope of this plan.

 

New Hampshire must develop a 21st-century, intermodal system of transportation that connects our people and our economy. Currently, we are struggling to simply patch up the one we inherited from last century. This 10-year plan should not be a catalog of projects that will never be initiated; it must be a road map for long-term success.

 

If the legislative and executive branches can set aside ideology and assemble a robust and responsible plan, I’m confident New Hampshire’s future as a place to live, work, and do business will be better than ever.

(Executive Councilor Chris Pappas is a Democrat from Manchester. His district includes the local communities of Allenstown, Bow, Chichester, Deerfield, Epsom, Hooksett, Loudon, Northwood, Pembroke, and Pittsfield.)

Congressional Study Finds Inconsistency in Nuclear Safety Enforcement

Oct 22: So i saying the south and west NRC region's enforcement is perfectly consistent...hear, see and speak no evil. That is why there are so many plant in such serous condition without much chance of the NRC pushing them into being good nuclear corporate citizens. Are they playing up to our regional difference with our individualist and extremist anti government and free market political philosophies? What it the best interest of the rate payer and our nation. The west and south just portrays events inaccurately different to their public for the same reason...congressional and presidential campaign contribution distorting federal over site.

 The GAO is a paper tiger.

You can clearly see this in this report where they don’t identify particular plants and corporations. Like is there any relationship with lost power operations, scrams, unscheduled shutdowns and down-powers? The GAO is basically a paper tiger where our legislators have pulled away from these guys the power to enforce truth telling and full disclosers or you go directly to jail. These guys should be like the FBI or other federal agencies, in that if you are in a  investigation and you lie or withhold information, then you sit in jail for many years. 

You get don’t you...the GAO has the ability to be very influential...but they have been defanged many years ago by both the Dems and Republicans at the behest of campaign contributions.  

 

The New GAO Report: Or maybe the GAO just got its head up their ass.

Basically I think the GAO has been captured by the extremist republicans and the nut bag teabaggers over anything nuclear. That how i see it over the years and they are part of the problems with our nuclear industry, as we can't see accurately the real problems and fix it. The GAO is basically a function of congress and they have become highly sensitive with the powerful southern and nuclear political contingent. These guys stick together and they are very potent. The GAO has been intimidated for years and they really got no transparency with the agency and certainly within a nuclear. They got minimal skills and education with understanding anything nuclear power plant.   

Congressional Study Finds Inconsistency in NuclearSafety Enforcement

The number of safety violations at U.S. nuclear power plants varies dramatically from region to region, pointing to inconsistent enforcement in an industry now operating mostly beyond its original 40-year licenses, according to a congressional study awaiting release.

The Southeast, with the most reactors of the NRC’s four regions, had the fewest such violations, according to the report, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press

The study also says that the NRC’s West region may enforce the rules more aggressively and that common corporate ownership of multiple plants may help bolster maintenance in the Southeast.

The west and the south generally have plants that have horrific and uncontested known long term violations with NRC regulations. The NRC might ignore a NRC region or slap them with a horde of insignificant violation...but these powerful coalitions of nuclear plant owners in the south and west are totally immune with changing their horrific behaviors. The southern and western NRC regions are a hubris/arrogant nontransparent and stubborn group.  The upper west is just about as bad but they haven't been caught with their pants all the way down to their knees because of huge exelon. These huge energy companies got congress and the president completely in their pockets!

Region 4 has San Onofra who has been known for many years with running totally out of control with not following regulations and ending with a two plant shutdown over new bum steam Generator. Fort Calhoun has been shut down for many years and they were discovered with a horde of many long term undiscovered violations of NRC regulation until a mid west flood got their attention. It take a terrible incident to change the heart of the NRC if we are are lucky...it doesn' t come from the heart of this agency to do what is right for our nation.I think the NRC knew a horde of nuclear plants were running like this and they just ignored it as a favor to the industry. Wolf Creek is in the same boat.

One of the worst plants and nuclear corporations in the nation is Brown Ferry and TVA. Again the NRC has turned their eyes away from confronting the powerful south political  contingents...tolerated long term violations of regulation that lead to a valve failure. A tremendous amount of safety equipment was degraded or broken at the same at one Browns Ferry plant...basically TVA knowingly created this with the long term complacency of the agency. Their whole fleet has become suspect and the current issues today indicate with all the NRC's and TVA's effort...the fleet is still overwhelmed with past and new problems.  

The game over and over with the NRC, is the agency turns their eyes away from numerous long term known rules violation caused by political intervention and then  the agency discloses an unimagined shocking incident that just shows up out of nowhere. This forces the agency to out massive mounts of plants known rules violation over many years to regain their credibility.  This hide-and-seek  and purge cycle happens over and over again.

Basically, if you don't rock the boat we will close our eyes to rules violation no matter what they are...if you draw attention to yourselves we will violate any of you if you burp. This is he result of massive corporate political pressure...  

... Basically the south and western NRC regions got the same problem but handle it in different ways.  Their inspectors are intimidated by their managers and potent political pressures generated by the powerful electric utilities. The got the NRC in their pockets.

The South...the inspector just turns their eyes away from massive rule breaking because the antigovernment southern political philosophy generates or forces them to behave in this way.

The West...the inspectors generates a blizzard of insignificant violation to bamboozle the population into thinking the NRC is strict. The so call western individualistic and anti-government political philosophy generates pressures to stir up meaningless paper violation while allowing the plant to be run to the ground by not following engineering codes or agency rules...

It is all massive political pressures that blind’s the public from really knowing what is going on and it turns off the NRC oversight switch for political payola...  

One blinds the public with bullshit and the other has the power to make the inspector shut their eyes at work!

The West and South just have differant ways to turn off the NRC switch...but they accomplish the same thing.

The upper mid west Region 3...the rotten Blagojevich-Exelon political influences are so intense on the bottom level NRC inspectors..everything in region 3 is a black hole. Nobody can see anything!   

Once the rules and laws were designed to control the outlaws.

Now the rules and laws are designed to control the  the police and NRC...give total permissives for bad plants and crooks to do anything....

 

 

Out Of Control Rogue Nuclear Corporation

You see how they are still making good profits at Entergy this quarter but still starving their nuclear plant.

 

The first and second worst plants in the nation are both managed Entergy. Then we got the debacle of Vermont Yankee, Palisades and Pilgrim...

Report: Indian Point plant had most nuclear violations in U.S.

JIM FITZGERALD | AP

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — The Indian Point power plants in the New York suburbs have been cited for more violations than any other nuclear site in the country, although 99 percent were low-risk violations, according to a federal report awaiting release.

The Government Accountability Office report, using figures from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said four of the 384 citations between 2000 and 2012 were for "higher-level" violations. Many plants around the nation have more in that category.

But no plant site had more total violations. The closest to Indian Point's total was at the Cooper plant in Brownville, Neb., which had 374 violations. Eleven of those were "higher-level" violations, the report says.

Cooper has just one reactor, while Indian Point has two.

Lower-level violations are those considered to pose very low risk, such as improper upkeep of an electrical transformer.

Entergy Nuclear, owner of Indian Point, issued a statement saying it "has received the most regulatory scrutiny of any plant in the country." It said, "Entergy's commitment to address even minor issues and enhance safety is unrelenting."

1968 Springfield Ma Elevated I-91 Crumbling

1968 Springfield Ma elevated I91 Crumbling

Massachusetts approves study to overhaul Interstate 91 through Springfield

BOSTON — In a step forward for a massive transportation project in Western Massachusetts, the state has chosen a consultant to study possible alternative alignments for Interstate 91 through Springfield, while highway officials proceed with a plan to replace decks on a deteriorating elevated portion of the highway in the city.

The transportation department on late Friday said that it has picked the Cheshire, Conn.-based consulting firm Milone & MacBroom Inc. to evaluate alternatives for a section of Interstate 91 including possibly depressing the highway section to ground level or below ground.

At the same time, the state highway division will be moving forward with a plan to replace decks on the crumbling Interstate 91 viaduct, a spokeswoman said.

"We have an immediate need to replace the decks that are elevated," said Cynthia Roy Gonzalez, the transportation department's assistant secretary for communications, on Tuesday.

She said she could not say when construction would start on the deck replacement, other than to say it would be soon.

She said that Milone & MacBroom would study a section of Interstate 91 south of the most elevated portion of the viaduct near the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield.

At the same time, the state highway division will develop a plan for replacing the decks of the existing Interstate 91 viaduct, which has raised safety concerns. In April, after a big chunk of concrete fell from the section, Gov. Deval L. Patrick said the state would have "a big, big problem" if the Interstate 91 viaduct falls down.

Chicopee Mayor Michael Bissonnette said it is important to find a solution to the I-91 viaduct. Bissonnette said if it continues to crumble, it might need to be shut down. He said it's the most important transportation priority in Western Massachusetts. "We have to have a plan," he said.

While $400 million is the estimate for replacing the viaduct, the cost could run to $1 billion if part of the highway is depressed to ground level or a tunnel, Bissonnette said.

The upcoming study by Milone & MacBrooms, which has an office in Springfield, is aimed at taking up some longtime concerns that Interstate 91 hurts access to the Connecticut River and to attractions such as the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield.

The study also comes while MGM Resorts International is planning an $800 million casino in the South End of Springfield that would front Interstate 91 and would draw most of its traffic from the highway. MGM is competing with Mohegan Sun Massachusetts in Palmer for a single state casino license for Western Massachusetts.

Timothy W. Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, which had a representative on a panel to select the consultant for the study, said the deck replacement needs to happen soon, but it's a good idea to look at future alternatives for aligning the highway.

According to an overview of the study provided by the transportation department, the depression of the highway section to ground level or below ground could be less disruptive to Springfield than the current design. In the long term, it might also be better for the environment and the economy than the existing configuration, the overview said.

Roy Gonzalez said below ground could mean a tunnel or "a boat section," where the road is below grade with retaining walls.

"The study will entail the development and analysis of a full range of alternatives including interchange, highway and non-highway improvements as well as options and design elements that improve access in all modes," said the overview, which was provided at the request of The Republican.

The state is starting contract negotiations with Milone & MacBroom with a goal of starting work in January, Roy Gonzalez said.

Milone & MacBroom will coordinate with the state highway division as it moves forward with its proposal to replace the decks on the viaduct.

The planned Milone & MacBroom study is another step toward deciding the future of the highway.

Francis DePaola, administrator for the state highway division, has said the decks on the viaduct could be replaced in two years.

At the end of June, Richard A. Davey, secretary and CEO of the transportation department, said the Interstate 91 project is a priority and the state is "very committed" to getting it done. Davey has said that the overhaul of the viaduct could cost $400 million. Davey has said the elevated section is in terrible condition, but it is safe and it is being monitored by the state.

Roy Gonzalez said the transportation department likely will secure funding for the Interstate 91 project if state legislators, as expected, approve a transportation bond bill filed by the governor in March.