Monday, December 31, 2012

Loss of the Ultimate Heat Sink

Hi, I am Arnie Gundersen from Fairewinds.

This is the second December since the Fukushima Daiichi accident. I thought I would use this video to talk about things that were painfully obvious to Fairewinds viewers back in 2011, that really have not been internalized by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission even since then. So we are going to use this video as a training video for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, so that they can better understand what Fairewinds viewers have known for the last 2 years.

The problems that I want to talk about today are twofold. One is the containment integrity and the other is what happens when you do not cool a nuclear power plant, something that we call the loss of the ultimate heat sink. Well let's get right to it. The first topic is the containment integrity. Tokyo Electric released a report in September of this year, and they gave it to the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency. The report is a more thorough analysis of the explosions at Fukushima Daiichi. And it discusses things that they have learned in 2012 that they did not incorporate in their analysis back in 2011. Well, if you have been watching the Fairewinds site, we knew exactly the problems that Tokyo Electric is now identifying in 2012. 

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Peach Bottom Supplemental Information Needed for Acceptance of Requested Licensing Action

PEACH BOTTOM ATOMIC POWER STATION, UNITS 2 AND 3, SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION NEEDED FOR ACCEPTANCE OF REQUESTED LICENSING ACTION RE: EXTENDED POWER UPRATE (TAC NOS. ME9631 AND ME9632)

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Peach Bottom: NRC Security Baseline Inspection Report

PEACH BOTTOM ATOMIC POWER STATION, UNITS 2 AND 3:  NRC SECURITY BASELINE INSPECTION REPORT 05000277/2012404, 05000278/2012404, AND 07200029/2012401

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Wyden say NWF should be used for dry casks at BWRss

DECEMBER 18, 2012, 7:26 AM

Come January, Another Try on Nuclear Waste

By MATTHEW L. WALD

The incoming chairman of the Senate Energy Committee suggests that the Energy Department should stop billing utilities more in waste disposal fees than the department is actually spending on addressing nuclear wastes. And he wants the department to pay for moving some of the wastes out of spent fuel pools at the nation's highest-risk reactors and into dry casks.

Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, will take over as the committee's chairman when Congress begins its new session next month. In an interview on Monday, he pointed out that the department collects about $750 million a year in waste disposal fees at the rate of one-tenth of a cent per kilowatt-hour generated by the reactors that feed those utilities. Yet the government is spending nearly nothing, he noted.

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Sunday, December 30, 2012

Emergency Preparedness & Response News - Vol 4 Issue 4

Attached is NSIR/DPR's Emergency Preparedness & Response News, Volume 4 Issue 4, a quarterly newsletter that is published by NSIR/DPR to highlight recent and upcoming events of interest to the radiological emergency preparedness community.  Feel free to pass it on to others. Please contact me at 301-415-0705 or carolyn.kahler@nrc.gov with any questions. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Carolyn

Carolyn J. Kahler
Communications and Outreach
Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission

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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

ALERT FILTERED VENT ----ANY OTHER COMMUNITIES GETTING LETTERS IN FROM INDIVIDUALS AND THEIR ELECTED OFFICIALS---TIME IS RUNNING OUT----LET'S MAKE 2013 A SAFER YEAR!

Duxbury Reporter - Duxbury selectmen to send letter to NRC

Letter to papers below

To Filter or Not to Filter That is the Question

Pilgrim, like other GE Mark I reactors in the U.S., is the same design as the failed Fukushima reactors.  Almost forty years ago, the NRC identified a serious design flaw in these reactors - in certain accident scenarios where hydrogen and or steam pressure builds up the containment would fail because the suppression chamber (enclosed area around the reactor core) is too small. Fukushima proved NRC’s earlier prediction correct, Units 1, 2 and 3 exploded and released unfiltered toxic radiation.

A supposed “fix” - a direct torus vent (DTV) to relieve excess pressure - was recommended and put into place at Pilgrim and other reactors, including Fukushima’s.  But three major problems remained. First, the vents were not filtered. Not having to pay for filters saved the industry money, but left the public’s health and property at risk because a release through the vent would be highly radioactive.   The second problem is whether plant operators will open the vent when appropriate to do so  At Fukushima the fear of what an unfiltered release would do to those in the area surrounding the plants resulted in the operators delaying opening the vents, and increased the risk of catastrophic explosions and the widespread uncontrolled release of radioactivity. Finally, and another lesson learned from Fukushima, when the operators finally tried to open the vents, they failed.  The vents did not have a rupture disc - relatively thin sheets of steel that break and allow venting automatically when the pressure reaches a specified level, without the need for human intervention or moving parts.

Following Fukushima, the NRC asked its technical staff to advise the Commission whether to require filters. After months of study, the staff recommended that Pilgrim and all operators of GE Mark I and Mark II reactors in the United States be ordered to install high capacity radiation filters on containment vents.  Such filters are already deployed throughout Europe, and having learned its lesson the hard way, they are soon to be installed in Japan.  Not surprisingly, the nuclear industry is adamantly opposed to spending the money to install filters.  The Commission will begin its deliberation process and is expected to vote in early 2013 whether to accept their staff’s recommendation.

The Commission decision should be a no-brainer. Reactors like Pilgrim are already required to filter the releases that occur daily in the course of normal operation.  There is no satisfactory explanation for the fact that nuclear power plants such as Pilgrim are not required to filter releases in the case of a severe accident when the amount of radiation and threat to workers and the public is by far the greatest. Direct Torus Vent filters are readily available. They have been tested for over 3 decades of use in Sweden, and are in use today throughout Europe.

Whether or not to require filters has a simple answer when you think about it. We are required to filter our car’s tail pipe emissions but Pilgrim is not required to filter its dangerous radioactive emissions in a severe accident. It makes no “sense” but a lot of “cents” to the industry.

How the NRC Commissioners vote early in January depends on whether they listen to industry or you. Consider emailing the Commissioners at NRCExecSec@nrc.gov reminding them that the Commission was formed to protect public health and safety not industry’s pocketbooks.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

TMI Request for Additional Information Regarding Relief Request

THREE MILE ISLAND NUCLEAR STATION, UNIT 1 - REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REGARDING RELIEF REQUEST RR-12-02, RELIEF REQUEST CONCERNING FULL STRUCTURAL WELD OVERLAY OF DISSIMILAR METAL WELDS ON THE LOWER COLD LEG LETDOWN NOZZLE AND SAFE-END (TAC NO. ME9818)

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Susquehanna Exemption from the Biennial Emergency Preparedness Exercise Requirements

SUSQUEHANNA STEAM ELECTRIC STATION, UNITS 1 AND 2 - EXEMPTION FROM THE BIENNIAL EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS EXERCISE REQUIREMENTS OF 10 CFR PART 50, APPENDIX E, SECTION IV.F.2.b (TAC NOS. ME9845 AND ME9846)

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Monday, December 10, 2012

Dark November for PPL's Nuclear Power Plant

Nov. 7, 2012 – Unit 1 at the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station resumed service after completing a turbine blade inspection. PPL, the plant owner, said the inspection found signs of cracking on a small number of turbines. The blades were replaced.

PPL also said it will shut down Unit 2 for a similar inspection in the near future.

Nov. 9, 2012 – Unit 2 at the Berwick area plant was shut down because a computer system controlling the reactor’s water level was not functioning properly.

Nov. 13, 2012 - The NRC issued a report on its third quarter inspection of Units 1 and 2 at the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station.

The report listed two NRC-identified findings and one self-revealing finding of very low safety significance.

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