Troubles at Perry nuclear power plant in northeast Ohio, on the Lake Erie shore

Documentation:

PERRY NUCLEAR POWER PLANT—NRC INTEGRATED INSPECTION REPORT 05000440/2017004, AND EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS ANNUA INSPECTION REPORT 05000440/2017501 (Feb. 14, 2018; releaseed Feb. 16, 2018);

Perry [50-440], Annual Report Form for Drug and Alcohol Test for 2017, License-Fitness for Duty (FFD) Performance Report, Feb. 12, 2018

[Please note, this document does not save and post in an accessible way; to receive a copy of this document by email, contact Kevin Kamps at Beyond Nuclear: kevin@beyondnuclear.org; 240-462-3216. Apologies for the inconvenience, but NRC's document is not in a readily accessible format.].

Update on February 16, 2018 by admin

Beyond Nuclear and Don't Waste Michigan released the following:

For Immediate Release February 16, 2018 @ 6pm

Worker and Safety Compromises Prevalent at Perry Nuclear Plant

Contact: Michael J. Keegan with Don't Waste Michigan, (734) 770-1441                                                     

Kevin Kamps with Beyond Nuclear (240) 462-3216  

Perry, Ohio - - Friday morning the Ohio (AP) reports: Supporters of an Ohio nuclear plant that's in danger of being shut down are planning to rally this weekend.

Lake County resident Connie Kline former Chair of the Ohio Sierra Club Nuclear Committee, has studied and critiqued the Perry nuclear plant for decades, and she is perplexed by the blind allegiance to FirstEnergy. Kline reports that several Perry documents she reviewed this past week indicate a multitude of worker and safety compromises being rubber stamped by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Including increased radioactive exposure to workers (ML18045A367 attached); high incidence of alcohol and drug abuse by workers (ML18045A202 attached). Posted at: http://www.beyondnuclear.org/nuclear-reactors-whatsnew/2018/2/16/troubles-at-perry-nuclear-power-plant-in-northeast-ohio-on-t.html ; And also NRC approval to operate Perry with known pipe leakage to avoid shutdown (ML18004A122 attached)

"These documents are deeply disturbing indicating workers have been unnecessarily exposed to radiation, that substance abuse by workers is prevalent at Perry, and leaking pipes are allowed by the absentee regulator." stated Connie Kline.

As local school and county leaders organize to rally behind the Perry nuclear power plant because of economic pressures, life long Lake County resident Connie Kline believes the community must not succumb to economic extortion by allowing the derelict operation of a nuclear power plant. "This plant has potential to wreak hundreds of billions of dollars in property damage with life altering health consequences for tens of thousands of people (CRAC-2 www.ccnr.org/crac.html ) Ratepayers of the state of Ohio must not be forced to bail out the Perry boondoggle." stated Kline.

Please see [linked] documents:

Perry Integrated Inspection Report -- Workers Dosed

Perry Approval to Run While Leaking

TMI Alert Press Release - planned closure of Three Mile Island

for immediate release:                                                 Three Mile Island Alert                                  5/30/2017

Contact:  Scott D. Portzline 717-232-8863 and cell 717-421-7574

 

Three Mile Island Alert suspects that the announcement of Three Mile Island's planned closure is actually an attempted "shot across the bow" of PA's Nuclear Caucus.  It is designed to make the General Assembly pass legislation to rescue nuclear power.

Scott Portzline of TMI Alert said, "Exelon has used this same tactic in the last two years to pressure the states of Illinois and New York to artificially restructure the playing field. The result was tens-of-billions of dollars in bailouts for nuclear plants. This nation has already bailed out the nuclear power fleet on several occasions to the tune of a third of a trillion dollars. Nuclear power is not economically feasible and Wall Street knew that 20 years ago."

Portzline said, "Exelon took a very bad risk and should face the consequences. It was like betting that the mythical Washington Generals would beat the Harlem Globetrotters, it just wasn't going to happen. PA has a surplus of electricity and our taxpayers and ratepayers should not be forced to salvage a doomed decision."

Three Mile Island Alert believes that PA Legislators should pave the way for upstart wind and solar power equipment manufacturers. Pennsylvania could in effect create 20 times more jobs than are lost to nuclear plant closures. Nuclear power releases thousands of tons of chemicals into PA waterways and the mining and processing of nuclear fuel take a heavy toll on carbon releases to the atmosphere. Alternative power does not represent a terrorist target like nuclear reactors do.

Three Mile Island Unit #2 provided electricity for less than 90 days, yet a federal court ordered ratepayers to continue to pay for the destroyed power plant as if it were benefiting the area. TMI Alert believes that Pennsylvanians have already endured too many financial hardships from nuclear power.

 

-30-

Update on May 30, 2017 by admin

AP has reported on this story.

Millstone first US reactor to exam at-risk Creusot component but avoids conclusive testing

Dominion Energy’s Millstone Unit 2 in Waterford, CT became the first and still only of seventeen U.S. reactors with at-risk Creusot Forge components to voluntarily inspect its reactor pressurizer manufactured at France’s controversial Creusot Forge.  An Utrasonic Test (UT) enhanced visual examination found no signs of defects or cracking on the 11-year old replacement part.  The Creusot Forge, owned by AREVA, is under investigation for the manufacture and global marketing of reactor components weakened by excess carbon contamination and falsifying quality assurance documentation.  Beyond Nuclear has been pushing US operators and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) through an emergency enforcement petition to do the enhanced visual inspections and more important material testing to determine the carbon content in the steel of the Creusot components.   Dominion is not planning to do any material testing that would provide a quantitative measure of the carbon content which can weaken the component and potentially fail during operation.

Media attention and public concern in part generated by the Beyond Nuclear petition prompted the State of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) to request that Dominion hire an independent contractor to conduct an Ultrasonic Test (UT) to conduct an enhanced visual inspection for cracking and defects on the reactor component. The UT results, announced April 11, 2017, found no evidence of cracking or a defect in the stainless-steel component. However, Beyond Nuclear and it co-petitioners are arguing that the UT exam would not have provided any data on the controversial root cause, excess carbon contamination or “carbon macrosegregation,” that can only be detected by material testing samples of the components’ elemental chemistry.  The presence of excessive carbon in steel once under the harsh operational environment of a nuclear power plant leaves it vulnerable to rapid tearing and cracking of the large forged reactor vessels, reactor vessel replacement heads, steam generators and pressurizers resulting in a potentially catastrophic loss of coolant accident.

Newly surfaced documents authored in 2005 and 2006 by France’s nuclear safety agency (ASN) publicly released by a French news agency reveal that the French nuclear industry, EdF and AREVA, knew that the Creusot Forge had  serious manufacturing discrepancies coupled with loss of control of quality assurance and proceeded with the manufacturing and global marketing of suspected at-risk components anyways. The director of ASN was "blown away" by the negligence he witnessed during his personal inspection of the forge.  Millstone 2 received and installed its replacement reactor pressurizer from Creusot in 2006. 

A January 2017 ASN-led multinational inspection report as described by its head of nuclear equipment, Remy Catteau, found that the AREVA-Creusot Forge was “Ill-equipped” to manufacture nuclear-grade components for the industry. In a Reuter news service interview, Catteau explained that the Creusot Forge’s limited technology had resulted in manufacturing errors (carbon macrosegregation) and "One of the ways to resolve problems was to hide things, and that was the wrong way."

U.S. reactors at risk: French regulator says Creusot Forge “ill-equipped” to make nuke components where safety-related "errors are made"

Following an international inspection tour of France’s Areva-Creusot Forge led by the country’s top reactor safety agency (ASN), the head of the agency’s nuclear equipment division declared, “The tools at its disposal are not adequate to manufacture such huge components. In such a situation, errors are made." Seventeen U.S. reactors are known to have received and installed Creusot components including reactor pressure vessels, replacement pressure vessel heads, steam generators and pressurizers. All of these components make up critical safety systems for the reactor pressure-coolant boundary.  The Creusot Forge failed to adequately document that its manufacturing process was in control of the introduction of carbon anomalies which left unchecked will weaken the finished components to cracking, embrittlement and rapid tearing under operational conditions. The “carbon macro-segregation” defect is identified in the Creusot-manufactured reactor pressure vessel installed at the Flamanville Unit 3 nuclear construction project in France.

The ASN announcement came only days after Beyond Nuclear appeared before the U.S. counterpart, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) Petition Review Board calling for emergency enforcement action at the U.S. reactors that have installed at-risk components manufactured at the Creusot Forge. The Creusot Forge, now owned by Areva, is under international investigation for manufacturing substandard safety-related components and then covering up their mistakes by falsifying quality assurance documentation. The NRC maintains that the safety of U.S. reactors or the reliability of their installed Creusot components are not in question.  However, Beyond Nuclear and co-petitioners are pressing for U.S. reactors with at-risk components to be shut down for inspection and material testing of the carbon anomaly in the installed components.  Alternatively, the petitioners have requested that the inspections and testing be required at the reactors’ next regularly scheduled outage.  The Virginia-based Dominion Energy has scheduled the requested inspection and material testing of the Creusot-manufactured pressurized installed in the Millstone Unit 2 reactor in Waterford, CT during the upcoming Spring 2017 refueling outage.  Beyond Nuclear continues to pursue the NRC to require independent inspections and material testing of Creusot components in the 16 other at-risk units.

Beyond Nuclear testifies on at-risk Creusot Forge components in US reactors, NRC backs off statement on parts for Beaver Valley Unit 2

The crisis in confidence for qualified safety margins in US reactors continues at 17 US reactors that have installed reactor pressure vessels, steam generators and pressurizers of questionable quality that were manufactured at France’s Creusot Forge now owned by AREVA. On March 8, 2017, Paul Gunter with the Beyond Nuclear Reactor Oversight Project provided his testimony before a Petition Review Board of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission in follow-up to its January 24, 2017 petition requesting emergency enforcement action at these U.S. reactors. The petition jointly filed by safe energy advocates asks that the NRC suspend operations at US reactors identified with reactor pressure vessel, steam generators and pressurizers manufactured by the AREVA-Creusot Forge in France until those parts can be inspected and material tested for "carbon anomalies" that can weaken the components to the point of failure and a nuclear accident. French nuclear regulators required the shutdown of their reactor fleet for inspections and testing as French courts continue to review allegations of Creusot counterfeit quality control documentation.

Drawing from a Greenpeace France report, Gunter elaborated on the manufacturing process that can introduce minute but significant carbon contamination into the steel ingots which if not subjected to strenuous quality control and quality assurance can change the material quality of steel and incorporate the weakness into the component. Beyond Nuclear further introduced a February 15, 2017 news article from the Pennsylvania publication TimesOnline where US NRC Region 1 Public Affairs Officer Neil Sheehan "confirmed" FirstEnergy Nuclear Corporation's Beaver Valley Unit 2, an apparent 18th reactor, to also have at-risk Creusot components. Mr. Sheehan stated for the record that FirstEnergy was delaying the installation of the Creusot replacement parts amidst the international controversy. The Petitioner's concern focused on AREVA's apparent failure to identify and track the Creusot components at Beaver Valley Unit 2 and failure to report  to the NRC as they had been requested.  Following the Petition Review Board hearing, Mr. Sheehan contacted Beyond Nuclear and the TimesOnline publication to say that he had been mistaken and that there really are no Creusot components in Beaver Valley Unit 2.  What Mr. Sheehan had originally "confirmed" for the TimesOnline was in fact misinformed hearsay. Exasperating. There is already enough international intrigue surrounding the forged components with forged quality assurance documentation. Now we have  an example of the NRC’s unsubstantiated remarks to the press. It does nothing to build confidence that neither the agency nor the industry are accurately capturing a factual record for critical safety margins that remain in operating nuclear power stations.

Beyond Nuclear continues its investigation into the AREVA-Creusot Forge controversy and impacts US reactors.