Monday, June 27, 2016

Junk Dead-Ender FitzPatrick: Ticking Time Bombs

Update:

This is a picture I took of Vermont Yankee when it was operating. I got the high reactor building in front of us...the shorter long green building behind the reactor building is the turbine building. On the roof of the turbine building on the right, is a small plume of reactor steam and other water vapor. The pipe this steam plume came out of is where the turbine oil leak came from.









This is a BWR. The reactor water...the steam...comes directly in contact with the turbine lube oil. It is basically a large tank of lube with a positive displacement bearing pump. The oil pump takes a suction from the tank, pumps it to the bearing, then returns it to the tank. Basically low pressure steam is used to create a barrier from the turbine steam between the condenser, oil, generator and the outside air. This left over steam is sucked out by by a fan, goes through a cooler, then discharge to outside through a pipe on top of the turbine building. The steam contains hydrogen from the generator, the reactor produces a lot of hydrogen and reactor coolant other radioactivity...this is vented atop the turbine building. Most the equipment is in the basement of the turbine building. The elevation the oil has to flow  to get on the roof is 50 to 100 feet. A lot of pressure has to push this oil to the roof

So water vapor, hydrogen and small amounts to radioactivity gets vented out the pipe atop the turbine building. It is not monitored for radiation.  I had issues if we had a meltdown, this would be a uncontrolled release of radiative. The plume of vapor seen above the turbine during normal operation comes from the components I described.
"Entergy Corporation, which operates the plant, found the source of the oil on the roof of a turbine building, said Neil Sheehan, a public affairs officer for the NRC. The oil was coming from the vent for the hydrogen seal system.
"It appears about 20 to 30 gallons that leaked were then drained through the plant’s discharge drain system to the lake," said NRC public affairs officer Neil Sheehan. "The company has placed oil-absorbent pads on the turbine building roof and has also stopped all circulating water pumps to eliminate any further discharges"
 

Are there more issues like this in front of us with dead-ender and budget starved plants in the future?

It is extraordinary dangerous to depend on a protective trip (recirc pump) with oil cooling instead of tripping the plant and recirc pump on the approaching limits. This plant was spinning wildly out of control.

What does the above mean: "Breaker 710340 tripped and power was lost to L-gears L13, L23, L33, and L43"? Is it another bad breaker.

***Sounds like they discovered a oil sheen on the lake and traced it back to a huge lube oil spill in the turbine building. These guys use many thousands of gallons of oil in the turbine building. It must have been a huge oil spill in the turbine building. One wonders if they destroyed the bearings in the turbine? It is a huge fire risk here???  
Power ReactorEvent Number: 52045
Facility: FITZPATRICK
Region: 1 State: NY
Unit: [1] [ ] [ ]
RX Type: [1] GE-4
NRC Notified By: DUSTIN SCURLOCK
HQ OPS Officer: VINCE KLCO
Notification Date: 06/26/2016
Notification Time: 23:08 [ET]
Event Date: 06/26/2016
Event Time: 21:15 [EDT]
Last Update Date: 06/27/2016
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(2)(xi) - OFFSITE NOTIFICATION
Person (Organization):
GLENN DENTEL (R1DO)

UnitSCRAM CodeRX CRITInitial PWRInitial RX ModeCurrent PWRCurrent RX Mode
1NN0Cold Shutdown0Cold Shutdown
Event Text
OFFSITE NOTIFICATION DUE TO AN OIL SPILL

"The United States Coast Guard reported an oil sheen in the vicinity of the station's circulating water system effluent. Investigation by station personnel has not determined the source. The circulating water pumps were secured to mitigate the potential source. The United States Coast Guard response Center, and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation have been notified."

The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

Notified DOE, EPA, USDA, HHS, FEMA.

* * * UPDATE ON 06/27/2016 AT 02:52 FROM DUSTIN SCURLOCK TO DAN LIVERMORE * * *

"The source of the oil sheen has been identified. The source, main turbine lubricating oil, has been stopped and cleanup efforts are underway."

Notified DOE, EPA, USDA, HHS, and FEMA.

Power ReactorEvent Number: 52042
Facility: FITZPATRICK
Region: 1 State: NY
Unit: [1] [ ] [ ]
RX Type: [1] GE-4
NRC Notified By: MARK HAWES
HQ OPS Officer: VINCE KLCO
Notification Date: 06/24/2016
Notification Time: 16:06 [ET]
Event Date: 06/24/2016
Event Time: 12:15 [EDT]
Last Update Date: 06/24/2016
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B) - RPS ACTUATION - CRITICAL
50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A) - VALID SPECIF SYS ACTUATION
Person (Organization):
GLENN DENTEL (R1DO)

UnitSCRAM CodeRX CRITInitial PWRInitial RX ModeCurrent PWRCurrent RX Mode
1M/RY100Power Operation0Hot Shutdown
Event Text
MANUAL REACTOR SCRAM DUE TO REACTOR RECIRCULATION PUMPS DEGRADATION

"At 1215 [EDT] on 6/24/2016, James A. FitzPatrick (JAF) was at 100% power when Breaker 710340 tripped and power was lost to L-gears L13, L23, L33, and L43. These provide non-vital power to Reactor Building Ventilation (RBV), portions of Reactor Building Closed Loop Cooling (RBCLC), and 'A' Recirculation pump lube oil systems. Off-site AC power remains available to vital systems and Emergency Diesel Generators (EDG) are available.

"Due to the loss of RBV, Secondary Containment differential pressure increased. At 1215 [EDT], Secondary Containment differential pressure exceeded the Technical Specifications (TS) Surveillance Requirement SR-3.6.4.1.1 of greater than or equal to 0.25 inches of vacuum water gauge. The Standby Gas Treatment (SBGT) system was manually initiated and Secondary Containment differential pressure was restored by 1219 [EDT].

"The 'A' Recirculation pump tripped at 1215 [EDT] and reactor power decreased to approximately 50%. 'B' Recirculation pump temperature began to rise due to the degraded RBCLC system. At 1236 [EDT], a manual scram was initiated. Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) water level shrink during the scram resulted in a successful Group 2 isolation. All control rods have been inserted. The RPV water level is being maintained with the Feedwater System and pressure is being maintained by main steam line bypass valves. A cooldown is in progress and JAF will proceed to cold shutdown (Mode 4). Due to complete loss of RBCLC system, the Spent Fuel Pool (SFP) cooling capability is degraded but the Decay Heat Removal system remains available. SFP temperature is slowly rising and it is being monitored. The time [duration] to 200 degrees is approximately 117 hours.

"The initiation of reactor protection systems (RPS) due to the manual scram at critical power is reportable per 10 CFR 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B) and 10 CFR 50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A). The general containment Group 2 isolations are reportable per 10 CFR 50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A). In addition, the temporary differential pressure change in Secondary Containment is reportable per 10 CFR 50.72(b)(3)(v)(C), as an event that could have prevented fulfillment of a safety function."

The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector and the State of New York.

Junk Plant River Bend: Sending a message to the NRC.

Out there in the ether of current time, I knew the NRC had a continuing interest in River Bend's junk and obsolete simulator and the serious issues with junk master-pact safety breakers. I chose a opportune time and issue to call the senior resident inspectors. I wanted to let my buddy NRC inspectors to know I was staying abreast of currents issues and had a particular issue with the NRC inspector not finding a large issue with not professionalism with licenced operators. They being poorly trained and continuing to bungle dealing with plant trips and  conservatively following the regs and their procedures. I idea the licenced troops are too intimidated to get the NRC to help them fix their organization.  

Personally I think the trouble here is Entergy's management is too ideologically doctrinaire...management is a tyrant and you must follow our orders without thinking. The high corporate financial pinheads without any nuclear training are running or destroying the plant. The troops or employees have a passive/aggressive organization disorder. Basically as a protest, the troops are bureaucratically sabotaging the management the plant. Say if management orders or request a operator to do something, he knows the request will lead to trouble for the plant, he will carry out the request without providing his valuable input and he might actually throw sand in the gears. The inspector told me Entergy had recently replaced senior management. It seems like the passive/ aggressive strategy has worked for the troops. I think there still is a huge gap of mistrust between the senior management and the troops. The idea that management can pick and chose the facts to support an agenda to boost senior management bonuses without qualms about using intimidation. 

The industry recently has talked about severe financial pressures threatening the operation of fifteen to twenty plants. The nuclear industry has never before faced this kind of pressure. Is that how this plays out, this severe pressure increasingly disconnects integrity and truthfulness from between senior management and the troops.

My objective on the discussion between the senior resident and me was to"take a read" on the "resident" and send a message higher NRC management. I had the opportunity to pick a sensitive time frame to speak to the NRC resident and enhance my message. Many NRC residents have spoken of the independent republican teabagger territory of the south. The local people and captured news media don't keep keep nipping at the heals of NRC and at a particular deep south nuclear plant like they do in the liberal northeast. There just isn't much broader interest in nuclear safety in the independent deep south, the breakaway territories of Republicanland. I had a list of talking points on paper. 

Basically, the licenced operators collectively aren't trained properly  and aren't qualified to be running the plant. The NRC is afraid to put this information in NRC documents. I wanted the senior resident to comment on the disclosed Entergy root cause analysis below. He was too cagey to speak at all about it.     
May 12, 2016

SUBJECT: RIVER BEND STATION – NRC SPECIAL INSPECTION REPORT 05000458/201600

 "Additionally, the team observed that during the root cause evaluation the licensee determined that the operating crew that was on-shift at the time of the event had multiple issues with communication, weakness in teamwork, and haste prior to the loss of SDC event."

Page 19
This was that horrendous not disclosed inspection circulating in the NRC's ether when I first called the River Bend Senior NRC's resident inspector. The NRC bills themselves as a sampling regulator. The plant system is just too big to inspect everything. The NRC also is a symbolic reporter of record. They only pick a few symbolic issues to violate out of many. In other words, they only pick a few symbolic violations to represent to the public out of many violations. Say they go looking at a problem and find 10 violations. They just pick a few symbolic violations out of the ten to disclosed to the public. The outsiders never see all the violation. The NRC is happy if the licencees documents and fixes the undisclosed violation  in  the dark "smoked filled rooms" of the not publicly disclosed secret document system. 

So on the big picture with simulator issues nationwide, they are saying to the other licencees to secretly fix your simulator fidelity before we come in to find violations. 

If the NRC was a legitimated US regulator, they would order to all licencees, we suspect simulator fidelity issues nationwide and order them to identify all simulator fidelity issues like at River Bend in their simulators, report to us on any mismatch and then fix it. This is a giant regulatory failure at River Bend and it is in all of the plants. We need to see the magnitude of all nuclear plant simulator violation nationwide on one NRC document, to ascertain why the NRC can't do their jobs.             

I feel the NRC thinks the plant is overloaded with past violations...the licencees is overwhelmed answering and fixing NRC identified violations. So the solution to this problem is for the agency to not issue anymore violations(No findings were identified during this inspection.). These guys need a prolonged mandated shutdown to reorganize the plant. 

Basically the same rendition of the agency is a toothless organization.    
May 25, 2016
EA-15-043 
SUBJECT: RIVER BEND STATION – NRC SUPPLEMENTAL INSPECTION REPORT 05000458/2016010
The NRC determined that misalignment of the simulator configuration to the design basis of River Send Station led to negative operator training, which complicated the operators’ response to a reactor scram on December 25, 2014. The NRC concluded that your staff identified appropriate corrective actions to address the root cause, contributing cause, and extent of cause of the simulator configuration misalignment. During the on-site portion of the inspection, NRC inspectors determined that your staff’s extent of condition evaluation was too limited in scope. The simulator testing activities used were not effective in identifying differences between the simulator and River Bend Station operating characteristics of components and systems that resulted in negative operator training. In response, your staff conducted an additional extent of condition evaluation, which was provided to the inspectors on March 29, 2016, after completion of the on-site portion of the inspection. The inspectors performed an in-office review of the information and, due to concerns regarding the adequacy of the sample selection, determined that the extent of condition evaluation was inadequate. Based on these determinations, the NRC concluded that the inspection objective involving the extent of condition was not met.
The NRC has determined that completed or planned corrective actions were insufficient to address this performance issue. Specifically, the extent of condition review was insufficient. Therefore, the White finding will remain open and continue to receive consideration as an Action Matrix input until inspectors verify that all inspection objectives have been met. You should notify the NRC of your readiness for a re-inspection when corrective actions have been completed.
No findings were identified during this inspection.
I am trying to give you my setup to the call to the River Bend residents. What is spinning in the ether of time. I make the call on the morning of May 11. The phone rings for a prolong period of time. He must have call waiting capabilities. I think he is busy. Then he answers me in a hushed voice. I tell him who I am. He knows me by my name. He says in a low voice, "I am in a important meeting. "Can I call you back Mike". I am chagrined with him answering the phone. I call these residents all the time. I often go to voice mail, leave a recording. I often get a call back by these busy government officials. I often just call them back and eventually they answer the phone. I would say about 90% of the time they will answer a cold call on the fly and will talk for awhile.

On May 12 I get a e-mail message from the region IV Head public affairs officers. Mr. Dricks once worked in NE. Me and him go back a long ways. When you a get a e-mail or call from a Mr Dricks, it signifies the NRC has put you in Siberia. I generially hate all NRC public affairs officers. I feel their intent is to stiff arm you. They are information disruptors. They make the conversation as painful as possible so you won't call them back. They generially have no current information in their heads. I always ask myself, are these guys that stupid or are they professional actors tasked to look stupid? I just get from these guys, they never whole heartily act for my interest. I always get from these guys they act like corporate public relations hucksters. There primary ends is to always protect the agency and industry, not be truthful US governmental communicators. It doesn't have to be like this. Half of his problem is he lives in Texas now.   




Saturday, June 25, 2016

Junk Plant Hatch and NRC: Ping Ponging between the 2 and 3 Stage SRVs

You know what see here, the object failure of the NRC and Hatch engineering problem analysis and anticipating component degradation since 2010. Their engineering sucks. Don't forget the southern company is hugely influential  It really scares me the experimentation going on here. The inability of the NRC to control SRV durability and reliability. I am sure this is not limited to the SRV valves.

This LER comes from the outage comes before this May's 2016 most recent outage. So the 2 stage is leak prone and has issues of not passing the lift point accuracy test.


On May 7, 2014, at approximately 0837, Unit 1 was at 99.9 percent rated thermal power (RTP) when the "as-found" testing results of the 2-stage main steam safety relief valves (SRVs) were received which indicated that five of eleven SRVs had experienced setpoint drift during the previous operating cycle which resulted in their failing to meet the Technical Specification (TS) opening setpoints of 1150 psig +1- 3 percent as required by TS surveillance requirement 3.4.3.1.
That is about a 50% test failure rate. Check out these guys with lift setpoint drift test failures of about 50% since 2010 and multiple shutdowns over the leaking 3 stage. The basic 2 stage and 3 stage valve designs are defective. For some reason, they can't dump these target rock valves and jump into a better and newer design.

In 2014 the cause of the setpoint drift is corrosion induced bonding.   

The root cause of the SRV setpoint drift is attributed to corrosion-induced bonding between the pilot disc and seating surfaces. This conclusion is based on previous root cause analyses and the repetitive nature of this condition at Hatch and within the BWR industry. The 2-stage SRVs with platinum coated pilot seats were removed from Unit 1 during the 2014 refueling outage and replaced with 3-stage SRVs with a modified pilot. 3-stage SRVs typically do not exhibit set point drift, additionally the modified pilot reduces instances of vibration induced spurious openings and leak-by.

A 3-stage SRV with a similar modified pilot was installed on Unit 2 during the 2013 outage. Current plans are to replace the remaining ten valves at Unit 2 with the same modified pilot valves during the next outage in 2015.

PREVIOUS SIMILAR EVENTS:

LEA 1-2012·004, identified multiple SRV setpoint drift for 8 of the 11 SRVs. Corrective actions included replacement of the 2-stage SRVs with 2-stage SRVs whose pilot discs had undergone a platinum surface treatment which was considered at that time to be the long term fix for this corrosion bonding issue.

LEA 2-2011-002, identified multiple SRV setpoint drift for 8 of the 11 SRVs. Corrective actions included replacement of the 2-stage SRVs with 3-stage SRVs during the Unit 2 Spring 2011 refueling outage which was considered at that time to be the long term fix for this corrosion bonding issue. Subsequent to that outage the 3-stage SRVs exhibited signs of unacceptable leakage which resulted in two separate outages that involved changing out four SRVs during the first outage and the remaining seven SRVs during the subsequent outage in May 2012. The 3-stage SRVs were
replaced with 2-stage SAVs containing pilot discs that had undergone the platinum surface treatment.

LEA 1-201 0·001, identified multiple SRV setpoint drift for 5 of the 11 SRVs. Corrective actions included refurbishment of the pilot valves and included the replacement of the pilot discs with discs made from Stellite 21 material. Additionally, the insulation surrounding each SRV was upgraded to improve resistance to corrosion induced bonding. These were the same actions that were taken following similar failures reported in LEA 2-2009- 001, since improved results had been seen to some degree in the industry for at least one operating cycle when these actions were implemented.

Friday, June 24, 2016

Drought: How Much Drier Will It Get In Our Area?


This is not good for the beginning of summer.
USGS Current Water Data for the Nation
We’ve had a lot of spectacularly beautiful days recently. Today is one of those days?
Drought Monitor

Mid-Atlantic and Northeast
Dry conditions prevailed over much of the region, though well-placed showers (1-2 inches) in southwestern Pennsylvanian and environs led to the removal of Moderate Drought (D1) and a reduction of Abnormal Dryness (D0) across the central Appalachians. In contrast, D0 and D1 were increased from New York into New England due to declining streamflows (locally below the 10th percentile) and a lack of rain over the past 90 days (less than half of normal). In fact, many of the Northeast’s D1 areas are now running rainfall deficits in excess of 6 inches over the past 6 months.





Part 21 Notification of Junk Breaker and Electric Control Devices

Basically, this comes out of the River Bend and other plant concerns with large breaker reliability. Look at the  notification with the *.

I think this is unprecedented?





Curtiss-Wright Nuclear Division
Interim Report Regarding a Nonconformance on Struthers-Dunn Relay Part No. B255XCXPFHSC125V Supplied to PSEG
06/08/2016
ABB Inc.
Notification of Deviation Related to K-Line Circuit Breaker Secondary Trip Latch
06/03/2016
Xcel Energy Prairie Island
Initial Notification of a Failure to Comply Related to ABB Circuit Breaker Type K-600S EO
06/03/2016



06/02/2016
Ametek Solidstate Controls
Notification of Potential Defect with Ametek Inverter Manufactured with Signal Transformer R-10607 (Updated)
06/02/2016
Ametek Solidstate Controls
Notification of Potential Defect with Ametek Inverter Manufactured with Signal Transformer R-10607
06/02/2016
AZZ/Nuclear Logistics Inc.
Potentially Unqualified Component in Certain Allen Bradley Model 700RTC Timing Relays
05/26/2016
AZZ/Nuclear Logistics Inc.
Potential Reportable Condition Related to Eaton Freedom Series Contactor
05/19/2016
Nutherm International, Inc.
Potential Defect Found in a Moore Industries SCT Series Signal Converter
05/17/2016
United Controls International
Thomas & Betts Power Solutions/Cyberex Printed Circuit Boards and Mersen (formerly Ferraz Shawmut) Fuses
05/16/2016










AZZ/Nuclear Logistics Inc.
Masterpact NT and NW Style Circuit Breakers Failed to Electrically Close Following an Anti-Pump Condition (Updated)
05/13/2016
AZZ/Nuclear Logistics Inc.
Masterpact NT and NW Style Circuit Breakers Failed to Electrically Close Following an Anti-Pump Condition
05/12/2016
Electroswitch
Part 21 Notification on Various Electroswitch Products Sold as Safety Class 1E
05/10/2016





Rotork Controls, Inc.
Part 21 Notification Concerning V12 [Part No N69-921] and K5 [N69-838 & N69·926] Safety Related Micro Switches
05/04/2016
National Technical Systems
Updated Potential Part 21 on Siemens 401-158 Safety Clip used on Type 3AF Circuit Breakers
04/29/2016


04/26/2016

























Prairie Island Units 1 and 2
Interim Report of a Deviation or Failure to Comply Related to a Load Sequencer Undervoltage Relay
04/14/2016





AZZ / Nuclear Logistics
Potentially Unqualified Component in Certain Allen Bradley Model 700RTC Timing Relays (Update)
04/08/2016
Louisiana Energy Services
Final Report for Potential 10 CFR 21 Notification
04/06/2016



03/22/2016
United Controls International
Part 21 Notification for Mersen (formerly Ferraz Shawmut) OT15 Fuses
03/22/2016
United Controls International
Follow Up to Resistive Short Identified on Thomas & Betts Power Solutions/Cyberex Sense & Transfer Module
03/22/2016





Rotork Controls, Inc.
Interim Report Related to a Basic Micro Switch Which Did Not Change State
03/18/2016
National Technical Systems
Potential Part 21 on Siemens 401-158 Safety Clip used on Type 3AF Circuit Breakers