Gigantic Terrorism Explosion in North Korea's Congressional Building

"North Korea's Kim seeks to cement power at rare congress" 

Kim Dead and North Korean government and military beheaded. Absolute chaos in country. Secret CIA or Chinese plot to drive N Korea into jointing the nations of modernity. USA immediately makes safe or destroys all in-country nuclear weapons and nuclear facilities. USA placed on highest state of alert and 100,000s of USA troops and equipment flooding into S Korea and Japan. Chinese troops massing along their boarder with NKorea by the millions  The private Trump forces are already in country and building resorts and top notch hotels.

A NKorean "Eagle Eye" movie but successful. Or Clare's idea of "total war" in "House of Cards". Son of a bitch, Is "House of Cards" going to be good next year. You know Homeland's Carrie Mathison and friends of ShowTime, their next job is trying to fix North Korea.     

Wouldn't that be a cool movie?

 

That would be a good "Secretary of State" tv program.

 

Can't you just wait for Trump:)

(Come on, Kim and Trump in a spitting match, who do you think is going to win???) 

Electric Utility Stock Stampede of Institutional Investors?

The mom and pops investors don't own utility stocks anymore. Eighty to the high ninety percent of all electric utility stocks are owned by institutional investors. That is a great vulnerability to all of us.

You think the heartless institutional investor have too much sway over the outlines of our electricity system?

If the average utility dividends begins to spike, that would be my warning signal. When ever increasing utility resources are being diverted into dividends...

Junk Plant Fermi: Loss of Air Compressors and SRVs.

This is a known big problem from my day. Training isn't adequate for how complicated it is with losing the air compressors. A lot of non safety components bites the operators in the ass during a loss of air compressors. It has a tremendous possibility of destructively consuming employee resources. We always wondered why the air compressors weren't safety grade and powered from the safety buses? We always figured the diesel generator weren't big enough.

Good plants don't get into the situation of losing all  their air compressors. Losing all air compressors is a indication the plant organization and NRC are terribly dysfunctional. They collectively are preforming inadequate maintenance and updating their obsolete equipment.  \

This is another example where the industry sees a problem and won't clear it from being a problem with creating a diversion to the operators.

OPERATING EXPERIENCE REGARDING COMPLICATIONS FROM A LOSS OF
INSTRUMENT AIR

Personally, the NRC response is just inconsequentially paper whipping the problem. Decades ago they should have ordered this problem to be fixed.

It looks like the NRC is picking up a increase of frequency with the lost of all air compressors and complicated scrams. You can can be sure if there is a increase of LOOPs, there will be a increase of loss of all air compressors.

A Poor Maintenance Fiasco at Fermi

This is an example with how bullet proof durable the SRVs need to be. You might see a barely visible flaw in the SRVs like lift accuracy problem and leakage under the low duty of normal plant operations...but it could cause big problems in a big accident with a stuck open valve or won't operate valve. It is a particularly big risk in a plant with few SRVS of four or so valves.

Safety Relief Valve Challenges (January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015)

On September 13, 2015, a reactor scram occurred from full power due to a loss of Turbine Building Closed Cooling Water (TBCCW). The loss of TBCCW tripped all Station Air Compressors, which caused Instrument Air header pressure to degrade and resulted in the manual closure of the Main Steam Isolation Valves (MSIVs). During the response to this event, all Safety Relief Valves (SRVs) were cycled. The SRVs did not open due to exceeding lift pressure, but were manually operated to control pressure. There were 303 total SRV cycles. The number of cycles for each SRV are given below. For each SRV, the cycles occurred between approximately 2300 hours on September 13, 2015 and approximately 1400 hours on September 15, 2015, and are based upon data from the Sequence of Events Recorder (SOER).

 SRV B2104F013A cycled 1 time

 SRV B2104F013B cycled 44 times

 SRV B2104F013C cycled 32 times

 SRV B2104F013D cycled 46 times

 SRV B2104F013E cycled 10 times

 SRV B2104F013F cycled 32 times

 SRV B2104F013G cycled 5 times

 SRV B2104F013H cycled 17 times

 SRV B2104F013J cycled 14 times

 SRV B2104F013K cycled 29 times

 SRV B2104F013L cycled 4 times

 SRV B2104F013M cycled 29 times

 SRV B2104F013N cycled 11 times

 SRV B2104F013P cycled 17 times

 SRV B2104F013R cycled 12 times

No other SRV challenges occurred during 2015.

Junk Plant IP: Corporate Concierge Regulations and Oversight

To me this looks like the malicious gaming of evaluations by NRC employees. It going on everywhere. The more complicated and hyper technical the evaluation, the more easy it is to game the result. The calculations of risk perspectives itself is so complicated and hyper technical, most NRC employees can't explain it. This is fertile ground for fraud and corruption. The more they talk to you, the further they take you down tbe rat hole of explainable complexity. Say moderate violation where they come number to punish a utility, it riddled with secret hyper technical assumption. I always said to become a nuclear professional, it is almost like learning a completely new language. They is very precious few outsider who understands the obsolete language. This is how congress allows them to remain utterly without accountability. Violation becomes nothing but papper whipping and nobody ever has the incentive to change their behavior. Nobody ever goes to jail over this. This all derives from tremendous pressures from their senior managers and congress to gain power and campaign contribution. It is causing the compromise of their integrity and it is severely damaging their souls and careers.

I don't know, look at Fukushima, even with three devastating meltdowns and tremendous financial pain, it is just not enough to change the hearts and souls of the Japanese nuclear regulators. They just quickly swing back to their old habits. It is a flaw in western democracy itself. It is just a huge mismatch of resources between safety side and the profit centered side. It is in all of our hearts, between doing good and being selfish, between feeling good and doing work. Everyone is all wrapped up in feeling better than accepting the joy of being/feeling normal. It is too easy to compromise our souls in search of artificially feeling better.  Feeling better is a derision from life itself. Right, look at our massive illegal and legal drug problem, addiction and the worst booze abuse.  

I don't think we can advance as a society without easily controlling the atom. It is metiphore of all highly complex systems and high consequence/high value endeavors. We got amazing high tech stuff in the corners of societies all over the world, but we are stuck in this planetary development stage. We are so much bigger than this. I think all the strife we see in USA is a result of being struck in this planetary development stage. How many decades have we been struck and how many heads just turned away? What would the hand of god look like if he had to unstuck us? I don't think it will be bliss. Aren't you sad for god or the cosmos? Aren't you sad for the position mankind has place him in?

Honestly, it's as if we have no appreciation for the value life itself. Most of us can't imagine life as miraculous, most of us all live life in dire poverty of every kinds, and every breath of life is a terrible burden? Even the so called wealthy among us. We are never satisfied with just being. You know god is crying for us upstairs. Who disconnected us from life?

Nuclear Power is really a brain management game.                  

Indian Point To Get New Exam From NRC 

Posted on: May 5, 2016.

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Roger ConnorNews Anchor
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will conduct a new analysis of Indian Point’s safety upgrades.
Indian Point Nuclear Power Facility
NEW YORK – Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman on Wednesday applauded a decision by Commissioners of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to require NRC staff to conduct a re-analysis of the impacts caused by severe accidents at the Indian Point nuclear power facility and potential upgrades needed to protect the public against such accidents.

NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman 

“I am heartened that the NRC Commissioners agreed with my office that Entergy and NRC staff have systematically undercounted the costs and impacts associated with severe reactor accidents at the Indian Point plant,” Attorney General Schneiderman said. “The Commissioners’ decision requires the NRC staff to do what should have been done years ago: provide an accurate account of cost-effective upgrades at this aging nuclear plant that can prevent or minimize severe accidents. While some might prefer to treat severe accidents as impossibilities, the millions of people who live and work near Indian Point deserve nothing less than a full and fair assessment of the plant upgrades needed to protect them against such accidents.”
In today’s unanimous decision, the Commission reversed an earlier administrative ruling, and found that NRC staff’s analysis of severe accident minimization at the Indian Point facility violates the National Environmental Policy Act. The decision directs NRC staff to redo its analysis, and consider additional severe accident minimization at Indian Point. NRC staff had relied on data from other sites, including sites surrounded by farmland, instead of site-specific data for Indian Point. The ultimate source of the data used by NRC staff could not be found – but the agency went on using the data without substantiation.
In its decision, the Commission explained that “[w]hile typically we decline to second-guess the Board on its fact-specific conclusions, here the decision contains obvious material factual errors and could be misleading, warranting clarification.” The Commission found that New York State’s evidence and legal arguments were persuasive and had the potential to materially affect the analysis of severe accident minimization measures and their cost-effectiveness for Indian Point. 

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo 

Governor Andrew Cuomo: “Today’s decision by the NRC Commissioners to reverse an earlier administrative ruling, and to require a reexamination of the impacts caused by severe accidents at Indian Point and potential upgrades reaffirms our long-standing position that the aging nuclear power plant needs to be retired. Clearly, this facility poses too great a risk to the millions of people who live and work nearby. We will work closely with NRC staff and continue to monitor Indian Point’s daily operations to ensure that a proper analysis is done regarding any unacceptable dangers to ensure that the public is protected at all times.” 

Wednesday’s decision by the NRC Commissioners represents a significant event in the history of the Indian Point site.
The Attorney General’s office has worked to improve Indian Point’s accident preparedness, and ensure the protection of public health and the environment of the surrounding region. After Entergy submitted an application to the NRC to renew the operating licenses for an additional 20 years, the Attorney General’s Office submitted Contention 12, which argued that Entergy’s environmental report failed to accurately model the cleanup and decontamination costs for a severe accident in the area surrounding Indian Point, which includes the New York City Metropolitan Area.
In 2010, NRC released its final supplemental environmental impact statement for Indian Point – a document that continued to fail to properly analyze and disclose to the public severe accident risk and mitigation. In response, the Attorney General’s Office submitted expert testimony, reports, legal briefs, and over 100 exhibits demonstrating the inadequate analysis of severe accidents and severe underestimation of the costs of a severe accident at Indian Point. Entergy and NRC Staff challenged the State every step of the way, repeatedly lodging challenges to the Attorney General’s arguments. 

In November 2013, the Board’s resolved Contention 12 in favor of NRC Staff and Entergy. Almost immediately, Attorney General Schneiderman filed to a motion to reopen the record and for reconsideration of the contention, which the Board denied. The State appealed the Board’s decision on Contention 12 to the NRC Commissioners, and briefing on the appeal was completed in 2014. Today’s decision is in response to the appeal by Attorney General Schneiderman.
The Indian Point facilities are located 24 miles north of New York City, 35 miles from Times Square, and 38 miles from Wall Street. The facilities are 6 miles from one of the reservoirs that make up the New York City drinking water system. According to Entergy, approximately 19 million people will live within 50 miles of Indian Point by 2035. Indian Point has the highest surrounding population of any US reactor; Indian Point has more than twice the surrounding population as the next nuclear plant site.
The initial 40-year license terms expired in September 2013 for Indian Point unit 2 and December 2015 for Indian Point unit 3. 

This matter is being handled for the Environmental Protection Bureau by Assistant Attorneys General John Sipos, Kathryn DeLuca, and Laura Heslin, with the assistance of Environmental Scientist Jodi Feld. The Environmental Protection Bureau is led by Lemuel M. Srolovic and is part of the Division of Social Justice, which is led by Executive Deputy Attorney General for Social Justice Alvin Bragg.

Junk Plant Salem and Hope: More Baffling Bolt Problems

What this indicates to me is all irradiated bolt/panel analysis and their computer models are grossly inaccurate.

March 2016: Dems and Repubs: Drastic Decline in Favorability with Nuclear Power During Last Year

They should send the worst case bolts to a  independent national lab with metallurgist scientist PhDs and compare the damage to the bolts to the metallurgy irradiation models. The study should be independent of the industry...on the NRC's dime. Who pays for the sturdy means who control the study.

NY DPS and the state have issue with the baffle panels. They should be all ripped out with support structures and replaced.   I talked to the NY DPS. None of these plants should be allowed to restart without complete documentations, inspection reports and complete analysis of all components. The effected plants should show their root cause analysis.

What is startling apparent is the almost total secrecy surrounding required real time documentation such as licence event reports (LER) and a change in licencing condition such as a 10 CFR 50:59.  Across the board, their has been terribly skimpy inspection reporting on these degradations.

As in Europe, all effected plants should be shutdown until fully inspected, replace all parts and all documentation released. The core components should be re-proven safe.

The nature of the game is a half ass fix and the politians aren't hard keyed into keeping these plant safe and reliable on all political sides. 

Damaged bolts inside N.J. nuclear reactor core prompt new inspections, repairs 

LOWER ALLOWAYS CREEK TWP. — "Degradation" to about 2 percent of the bolts that secure a metal liner inside the core of the Salem 1 nuclear reactor has caused its operator to extend the plant's current shutdown for additional inspections and repairs, a utility official said. 

Salem 1 was taken off line on April 15 for what was expected to be a routine refueling outage. It was during a visual inspection of the reactor core that issues with a number of bolts were discovered. 

"Like all inspections, this inspection was conducted to identify potential issues early so they do not impact our ability to operate the plant safely," said Joe Delmar, a spokesman for the plant's operator, PSEG Nuclear on Wednesday. "Safety is our number one priority and this issue has no impact to public health and safety." 

What's being termed "degradation" was found on 18 of the 832 baffle bolts inside the reactor core, Delmar said. The utility didn't elaborate. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Spokesman Neil Sheehan said the "degradation" found on the bolts was cracking. 

Some of the bolt heads had actually broken off and a number of the bolt heads have been recovered from the reactor core, but an exact number was not available, he said Wednesday. 

"There was no imminent danger of these bolts failing," he added. 

According to Sheehan the condition was not a risk to plant operations because there were "no instances where the bolts were missing." 

NRC resident inspectors along with specialist inspectors and metallurgical experts from the federal agency are monitoring the situation, Sheehan said. 

The bolts are called "baffle bolts" because they hold metal plates called baffles in place inside the reactor core. These plates form a liner which keeps the uranium fuel assemblies in place during the reactor's operation and helps direct water flow through the reactor. 

There are 28 baffle plates more than 13 feet tall and 1.125 inches thick that form the liner. The 832 stainless steel bolts that hold the plates in place are 2 inches long and the bolt heads measure more than half an inch in diameter, according to Delmar.
Because of issues with baffle bolts at other nuclear plants, PSEG workers focused special attention on them during this reactor inspection, Delmar said. 

Ultrasonic testing of baffle bolts at Salem 1 had been scheduled for 2019 as one of the conditions of having its operating license extended for 20 years. 

"Based on the visual inspections, we made the decision to conduct ultrasonic testing of the bolts now to determine the full extent of condition and to make appropriate repairs," Delmar said. 

Any damaged bolts are expected to be replaced with one made of stronger metals.
Salem 1 is one of three reactors operated by PSEG Nuclear at its Artificial Island generating complex in Lower Alloways Creek Township along the Delaware River. Along with Salem 1 are the Salem 2 and Hope Creek reactors. 

Delmar said this is the first time baffle bolt issues have been identified at either Salem 1 or 2, Delmar said. Salem 2 is scheduled for ultrasonic testing of its baffle bolts in 2020, but that could now change. 

Refueling outages at nuclear power plants are generally scheduled every 18 months and last about a month. 

During that time workers replace about one third of a reactor's fuel. They also perform inspections — like the one which uncovered the bolt issue — and maintenance work that generally can't be completed while the plant is in operation. 

Delmar said said there was no estimate when Salem 1 inspections and repairs would be complete and it could return to service. 

Permit for new reactor OK'd by feds 

"Salem Unit 1 plays a significant role in providing clean energy," said Delmar. "This issue is fixable and our employees have rallied together to execute repairs. It is their commitment and dedication that will ensure Salem Unit 1's continued safe operation for many years to come." 

The bolt issue is not unique to the Salem 1 reactor built by Westinghouse, Sheehan said. At New York's Indian Point 2 reactor, inspections found 227 of its 832 baffle bolts degraded and in need of replacement. 

This is not the first time that bolts have been an issue for Island plants. In 2014 the Salem 2 reactor was shut down for three months after sheared-off bolt heads were found in the bottom of key reactor coolant pumps. 

Wednesday morning Salem 1's neighboring reactors, Salem 2 and Hope Creek, remain operating at full power. 

The bolt issue isn't expected to impact Hope Creek because that reactor is of a different design from Salem 1 and 2, Delmar said. 

The three plants comprise the second-largest commercial nuclear generating complex in the U.S. 

Last week PSEG Nuclear was granted an Early Site Permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency which oversees the operation of the nation's nuclear power plants.

That permit, which is good for 20 years, is the first of many approvals the utility needs to build a new nuclear reactor at its Artificial Island site, but PSEG Nuclear currently has no plans to build a new plant.

Supergirl's Greatest Speech: A Plea To The Better Angels Of Our Nature

update(come on angles instead angels...I can't spell worth shit.)

The Audacity Of Hope, Supergirl’s Season One Finality, Better Angels

Mike Mulligan: I need your Hope? 

Abraham Lincoln:"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

Supergirl: "What happened"? Supergirl's Sister: "You saved the world and I saved you".

Supergirl: People of National City, this is Supergirl, and… I hope you can hear me. We have been attacked, mothers and fathers, friends and neighbors, children, everyone, suddenly stopped by a force of evil as great as this world has ever known. Your attacker has sought to take your free will, your individuality, your spirit, everything that makes you who you are. When facing an attack like this, it’s easy to feel hopeless. We retreat, we lose our strength, lose ourselves. I know. I lost everything when I was young. When I first landed on this planet, I was sad and alone, but I found out that there is so much love in this world, out there for the taking. And you, the people of National City, you helped me. You let me be who I’m meant to be. You gave me back to myself. You made me stronger than I ever thought possible. And I love you for that. Now, in each and every one of you, there is a light, a spirit, that cannot be snuffed out, that won’t give up. I need your help again. I need you to hope. Hope that you will remember that you can all be heroes. Hope that when faced with an enemy determined to destroy your spirit, you will fight back and thrive. Hope that those who once may have shunned you will in a moment of crisis come to your aid. Hope that you will see again the faces of those you love, and perhaps even those you lost." 

 Cat: Kira, for the last two years you have done nothing but arrange my travel perfectly and manage my schedule flawlessly, and you have become the best assistant I have ever had. And that is why I have to give you up.
Kara: What am I… What do you want me to do?
Cat: Well, I want you to find me a new assistant, for starters. Then I want you to take a few days and think about what you want, and then think about what you might have to offer, and then we’ll talk.
Kara: Really? Anything I want?
Cat: Well, within reason. And the money won’t be much different, or any different, but this is a step up for you, Kira. This is your “end of Working Girl” moment. And if you take advantage of it, I really believe that you can change the world.
Kara: Ms. Grant? The end of Working Girl always makes me cry.
Cat: Me too… If you work hard, there might be a window in your future—Kara.

Ohio Electric Grid: "No Fault Capitalism" and "Corporate Concierge Regulations"

This just shows you the political power of AEP and FirstEnergy...how massively influential the electric industry is with our political system. We got the power and influence to spin grid deregulation and re-regulation to our advantage anyway we want. You got to know this is a failed Ohio Governor Kasich operation and his political cronies. See what happens when you let the extreme tea bagger Republicans republicans run the show. They secretly and behind the scenes screw the little guy.

You think Kasich is the sweet image the media portrays of him. Has his presidential candidacy, running the roads outside Ohio, caused this huge failure. Did Obama put him down?     

POWER Magazene: FERC, Ohio, and Andre Porter

05/01/2016 | Kennedy Maize

Could this be a connect-the-dots situation? On April 27, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Andre Porter, chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, is stepping down, taking a job with an unnamed regional electric transmission organization. Electricity Daily speculated that the job might be with the PJM Interconnection.

 

Andre Porter 

On April 27, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission blocked a plan, backed by Porter’s PUCO, to effectively subsidize coal and nuclear plants of Columbus-based AEP Ohio, and First Energy of Akron, the state’s two large investor-owned utilities, which have been unable to compete in the PJM wholesale market. I wrote a blog at the time of the PUCO action at the end of March, calling the move “no-fault capitalism” and suggesting that FERC was likely to look askance at the deal.

Porter at the time said, “These orders today are as much about the future modernized grid as they are about the challenges today,” a laughable statement. FERC apparently saw it in much the same terms. My colleague Tom Overton wrote in POWER, “The ruling represents the second major blow this month against state efforts to support generating plants that have been unable to compete in interstate power markets,” citing the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Hughes v. Talen Energy Marketing, killing a plan by Maryland regulators to subsidize generators bidding into the PJM capacity market.

Porter ducked out of PUCO meeting room after the vote and has not, as best I can tell, spoken to reporters. He skedaddled from the PUCO just a month after the controversial, and likely doomed from the start, decision. The Plain Dealer, reporting his departure for an “out of state” RTO, called Porter “the wunderkind administrator of Gov. John Kasich’s administration.” Kasich appointed him to the PUCO in 2011 and, in 2013, named Porter to head the Ohio Department of Commerce. In 2015, he moved Porter back to the PUCO as chairman, with a term expiring in 2020. Electricity Daily noted that Porter is “the third PUC chairman in the last three years in Gov. John Kasich’s administration.”

A number of stakeholders, including the Electric Power Supply Association, representing non-utility generators, immediately asked FERC to overturn the Ohio ruling. The federal agency responded in bureaucratic warp speed, issuing its order 30-days later.

FERC’s action rescinded waivers the federal agency had given AEP and First Energy allowing them to buy power from their affiliated generation units. The new ruling requires the companies to come back to FERC to make the case for why their proposal doesn’t harm consumers to the benefit of the utilities’ shareholders. In FERC-speak, they must demonstrate why the rates that result are “just and reasonable.” They are not on the face of it.

AEP CEO Nick Akins responded quickly, and dismissively, to the FERC order. Speaking to investment analysts the day after FERC pulled the plug on the Ohio deal, Akins said he was “not interested in participating in a drawn-out FERC review process” and blasted the “unfortunate intrusion by FERC into Ohio’s ability to define its own long-term electricity supply and protect customers and the state economy from electricity price spikes and market volatility.”

AEP has indicated it may sell off its generation, which must operate at arms’ length from the parent to participate in federally-regulated wholesale markets under the deregulated wholesale market. AEP indicated it might also look to state legislation to reverse the legislation from the 1990s that deregulated Ohio electric markets.

FirstEnergy, financially weaker than the larger AEP system, likely would join AEP in an effort to re-regulate the Ohio market legislatively, according to UBS electric utility analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith. SNL Energy quoted him, “Bottom line, ultimate FERC rejection is not the end of the line as re-regulation would presumably remove FERC review entirely, with an exit from wholesale market oversight altogether.”

First Energy’s long-troubled 900-MW Davis-Besse nuclear plant is one the generating units unable to profit in the PJM wholesale market. The 1970s plant last December got a 20-year Nuclear Regulatory Commission license extension to 2037. 

Indian Point: Its Core Components Highly Irradiated Differential Of Expansion, Stupid

***“Unfortunately the internals of most Western PWRS and WWERs were constructed with two of the most the swelling–prone steels that are commercially available.”

between 304SS plates and 316SS bolts

There are at least three things going on here.

1) The startling lack of knowledge with the attributes of core components being highly irradiated and under stress: high temperature and bolt stress (tensile). Under high prolonged radiation, core components change their dimensional measurement such as in swell, creep, void formation and ductility, amount others.


2) The baffle plates swell and creates a beyond design tensile stress on the bolt shank and head. This is the area where the IASCC cracking occurs. The swelling of the baffle tries to pull out the bolt leading to dangerous tensile stress. It is much like the damage of frozen pipe (the tremendous forces).

3) The differential expansion…swelling…between the between 304SS plates and 316SS bolts. This can de-torque the bolt and later create beyond design tensile stress on the bolt.

Selectively replacing bolts can create a dangerous condition within deferential expansion between the new bolt and old baffle beyond the bolt design tensile stress at plant end of life. In other words, bolt tensile stress could be much more severe for an “old baffle plate and a replacement new bolt” than an “old bolt and old baffle plate” both at end of plant life.  

The reason the industry chose 316ss for bolt is the high tensile stress this alloy can withstand. The reason why 304ss was used for the baffle plate is because this was much more inexpensive. We wouldn’t have the cracks in the bolts if the baffle plate was made from the same alloy as the bolt.

This is why Entergy wants to keep information about the bolt problem close to the vest before startup. They are hoping to restart the plant before the inspection comes out. This way they won’t have to replace the baffle plates.

I wouldn’t at all allow the plant to restart without all new baffle plates and all new bolts. I’d have identical stainless alloy for both the bolt and the baffle plate.

The NRC and Entergy should release all inspections reports on this event and Entergy should release all their investigative reports concerning the baffle-reformer before allowed to start-up.

***“Unfortunately the internals of most Western PWRS and WWERs were constructed with two of the most the swelling–prone steels that are commercially available.”

 between 304SS plates and 316SS bolts

Response of PWR Baffle-Former Bolt Loading to Swelling,Irradiation Creep and Bolt Replacement as Revealed Using Finite Element Modeling

Conference: 12th International Conference on Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Power Systems - Water Reactors, At Snowbird UT

Abstract 

Baffle-former bolts in pressurized water reactors (PWRs) tend to degrade with aging, partially due to radiation-induced hardening and also due to the often complex stress history of the bolt in response to time-dependent and spatial gradients in temperature and neutron flux-spectra that can alter the stress distribution of the bolts. The time-integrated stresses must play some role in bolt cracking, however, and therefore it is of interest to study the time dependence of bolt stresses even for idealized cases. These stresses have been quantified in the present analysis using newly developed material constitutive equations for swelling and creep at light-water reactor (LWR)-relevant temperatures and dose rates. ABAQUS finite element calculations demonstrate that irradiation creep in the absence of void swelling tends to relax bolt tension before 10 dpa. Subsequent differential swelling leads to an increase in bolt tension, but only to stresses below the yield strength and usually below the initial bolt loading. Various assumed bolt replacement scenarios are considered. 

Conclusions

An FEA and constitutive equation approach quantified bolt stresses in a PWR baffle-former assembly. Spatial variation in temperature and dose affect the calculated stresses. Maximum stress occurs at the corner of the bolt head and bolt shank and is at the same location for occurrence of IASCC. Irradiation creep relaxes bolt shank stresses, whereas irradiation-induced swelling promotes bolt loading. Differential swelling rates between 304SS plates and 316 SS bolts cause increase in bolt tension. The bolt remains in tension throughout life and reaches a minimum at 10 y of irradiation. Calculations of bolt replacement options indicate that end-of-life stress is greater for bolt replacement when compared to no bolt replacement.

Response of PWR Baffle-Former Bolt Loading to Swelling, Irradiation Creep and Bolt Replacement as Revealed Using Finite Element Modeling (PDF Download Available). Available from:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258883539_Response_of_PWR_Baffle-Former_Bolt_Loading_to_Swelling_Irradiation_Creep_and_Bolt_Replacement_as_Revealed_Using_Finite_Element_Modeling [accessed May 1, 2016].

***“Unfortunately the internals of most Western PWRS and WWERs were constructed with two of the most the swelling–prone steels that are commercially available.” 

Broke Junk Plant Clinton

What a difficult job the NRC has in front of them? They want to subsidize the nukes on the backs of the natural gas guys.

I consider nuclear plants like this, who are on the chopping block, they are materially, financially and employee psychologically impaired. The risk is similar to if a plant had 50% of their emergency diesel generators secretly and unknowingly inop for the rest of the life of the plant. 

Legislators trying to save Clinton plant

Fri, 04/29/2016 - 7:00am

Photo by: The News-Gazette

Exelon's Clinton nuclear plant in Clinton Wednesday March 19, 2014.

CLINTON — With Exelon's Clinton nuclear power plant again in jeopardy of closing, state legislators and local officials are renewing their effort to pass legislation to save the plant that is DeWItt County's largest employer. 

State Rep. Bill Mitchell, R-Forsyth, and Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, met with DeWitt County citizens Thursday morning to urge them to get behind Mitchell's HB 6521, even though no one is sure that legislation is in its final form. 

"It could be, but do I think it will be? Probably not," admitted Mitchell, following a packed meeting at the DeWitt County Courthouse. "Negotiations are going on daily on this thing." 

The Clinton plant continues to lose money, Exelon spokesman Brett Nauman said Thursday, and without a change in state law, it will have to be closed.
"Our position is that we need urgent action by the Legislature in order to keep the plant running long-term, and if we don't get that decision, we're going to have to consider making the very hard economic choice of retiring the plant before its license expires," Nauman said. 

He said the plant about 35 miles west of Champaign has hemorrhaged $453 million over the last six years, primarily because its costs to operate are greater than other power plants in the Midcontinent Independent System Operators region, which includes a lot of low-cost wind, coal-fired and natural-gas plants, Nauman said.

"It's just the financial losses," he said. "We've lost a lot of money over the last six years."

Closing the plant, which began operation 29 years ago this week, "would be a shame because it is a high-performing plant. It could operate for another 30 or 50 years," Nauman said.

He said the low cost of natural gas "is not going away anytime soon, and then it becomes as a state, what is it we want to do to keep nuclear plants operating? Do we see the value in the nuclear plants?" 

One part of their value, as defined in Mitchell's bill, is their minuscule carbon emissions and how that would help Illinois meet proposed federal clean-air rules. 

HB 6561 would define nuclear power as low-carbon, renewable energy, similar to wind and solar energy. 

Nauman said Exelon wants legislation that would allow for "a small rate increase that would allow the nuclear plants to get further on down the road and not lose as much money, to get to the point where the government's carbon reduction rules start kicking in."...

AEP, FirstEnergy: FERC Throws Ohio Into “Unprecedented Transformation.”

Nuke plants involved: Beaver Valley, Davis Besse and Perry...

FirstEnergy down about 10% on the ruling. 

It is Davis Besse that is in the bull's-eye?

By Dan Gearino The Columbus Dispatch  •  Thursday April 28, 2016 8:16 AM 

Federal regulators dealt a blow to Ohio utility profit guarantees on Wednesday, saying the plans cannot go into effect until after a review of whether federal rules are being violated. 

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asserted its authority in a pair of orders, finding that the plans are not valid unless American Electric Power and FirstEnergy apply for, and receive, approval from the agency. 

The orders were in response to complaints filed by competing companies that have argued that the AEP and FirstEnergy plans are illegal subsidies that intrude upon the interstate market for electricity. The Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel and others have raised similar issues. 

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved the eight-year profit guarantees late last month, allowing Columbus-based AEP and Akron-based FirstEnergy to receive benefits for selected power plants that might otherwise close.
Until Wednesday, it was not known whether the federal commission would intercede. 

A key issue in the federal complaint is whether AEP and FirstEnergy customers are “captive,” in that they have no choice but to cover costs related to the plans. The PUCO and the Ohio companies said customers are not captive because they continue be able to choose an alternative provider in the state’s open market. 

The federal commission disagreed, stating that “AEP Ohio retail ratepayers are nonetheless captive in that they have no choice as to payment of the non-bypassable generation-related charges” embedded in the profit guarantees. Opponents of the plans say that wording shows that the Ohio companies are facing a highly skeptical audience in the federal commission, as opposed to the more friendly panel in Ohio. 

AEP spokeswoman Melissa McHenry said, “The decision is a disappointing and unfortunate intrusion by FERC into Ohio’s ability to protect its retail customers from market volatility and plan for the state’s generation needs.”
Meanwhile, opponents of the profit guarantees praised the actions. 

“Today, federal regulators stood up for customers and defended fair markets and competition, sending a clear signal to any utility trying to bail out their uneconomic power plants through political prowess,” said John Finnigan, lead counsel for climate and energy for the Environmental Defense Fund. 

Bruce Weston, the Ohio consumers’ counsel, said the federal commission “today provided Ohioans the benefits of competitive markets and lower rates that they did not receive in the state plans." 

He said the decision will help lower electricity bills that would have been inflated by the profit plans. At the same time, AEP, FirstEnergy and the PUCO have said the plans will lead to a net savings for consumers. That is one of many areas of disagreement. 

AEP will have additional comments about the orders today when its top executive, Nick Akins, holds a conference call with analysts to discuss first-quarter financial results.

***Frustrated AEP CEO: Ohio should reverse energy deregulation or we'll sell our plants; 'no interest' in prolonged debate with FERC 

AEP CEO Nick Akins spoke this week at the company's shareholders meeting in Columbus.Tom Knox 

 “I think AEP has reached the point where it’s time to get this resolved once and for all,” he said Thursday morning.Last month the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved plans by AEP and FirstEnergy Corp. to have customers subsidize some of their Ohio power plants. The utilities said the "power purchase agreements" would save customers money in the long term and would keep the plants open and operating in Ohio under their control. 

Late Wednesday, though, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission threw a major wrench in AEP's plans by requiring the electric utilities to prove the plans won’t force all Ohio ratepayers to subsidize their plants, even those who have opted for other suppliers in Ohio's electric choice program. 

"While it is true that Ohio ratepayers will continue to have a statutory right to choose one retail supplier over another, we conclude, based on the record, that ... Ohio retail ratepayers are nonetheless captive in that they have no choice as to payment of the non-bypassable generation-related charges incurred under the affiliate PPA,” FERC said in its ruling. “These non-bypassable charges present the ‘potential for the inappropriate transfer of benefits from (captive) customers to the shareholders of the franchised public utility.’" 

AEP responded strongly: It's not going to play along.On an earnings call Thursday morning, Akins said the company has “no interest in getting involved in a protracted FERC jurisdictional debate.” Instead, it will pursue a two-pronged approach:

1. AEP will begin trying to sell all its Ohio plants. The $16.5 billion utility always said this was an option if the PPAs weren't approved, and it is already looking to sell power plants in the state that weren’t included in the proposals.

1. AEP will push for re-regulation in the Ohio legislature, including the repeal of Senate Bill 221, the 2008 bill that refined the state’s deregulation of the energy market. This was often a rumored response to an AEP loss with the PUCO. Akins said legislators would have to move "very aggressively."

AEP could still challenge the FERC ruling and ultimately prevail but that’s the third and most unlikely option.“I think that’s probably a longer hurdle at this point,” Akins said. 

A stock analyst asked Akins if the company has talked to legislators about reversing deregulation.“I’m not going to address that,” he said. “They’re fully aware what the issues are. It’s not a huge stretch for them to ask the question, ‘We’ll, why don’t you just re-regulate?’” 

Akins also said it might be simpler for ownership of the plants, now operated by an affiliate, to transfer back to AEP instead of pursuing full re-regulation. A transfer would need legislative and FERC review, but Akins said there is precedent for FERC approving such transfers.AEP services 5 million customers in 11 states, most of them regulated. Utilities prefer regulation because of guaranteed returns, and AEP has zeroed in on improving and increasing its regulated transmission and distribution business – the infrastructure that helps get power to customers – while shedding its power plants in states like Ohio that have competitive marketplaces. 

At AEP’s annual shareholders event this week, before FERC’s intervention, Akins said AEP is undergoing an “unprecedented transformation.” 

An analyst asked if AEP would work with other utilities to lobby the Statehouse. FirstEnergy's CEO has previously advocated for re-regulation. Akins said his company's interests align with others. Akron-based FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) said it is evaluating its options, including seeking a FERC rehearing or letting FERC review it.“It’s always been our position that the PPA will satisfy the FERC’s guidelines for an affiliate contract that benefits customers,” spokesman Doug Colafella said in an email.