NRC inspection report reveals more problems at Davis-Besse in aftermath of cracked containment

A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspection report dated Jan. 31, 2012, reveals numerous problems at FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Corpoation's (FENOC) problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor near Toledo, Ohio on the Lake Erie shoreline. Incredibly, despite its infamy for having to replace its reactor vessel head twice in one decade, FENOC still resisted inspecting its third, newest lid for potential defects, until NRC forced it to. No defects were found, but had there been any, FENOC would have not known prior to installation. (FENOC had previously installed a new lid at its Beaver Valley nuclear power plant suspected of being potentially defective.)

In addition, despite the controversy over its recently revealed concrete containment building cracks, FENOC nearly installed corroded and brittle rebar into its patch on the shield building after the vessel head swap. NRC inspectors prevented FENOC from cementing the bad rebar in place.

A number of other problems came to light in the inspection report, including: significant deterioration of the intake/discharge canal into Lake Erie, essential for reactor cooling during routine operations but especially during accident conditions; an un-licensed operator manipulating control rods in the operating reactor core; and a worker who damaged safety-significant equipment by climbing up it, rather than using a ladder, to inspect an elevated valve.

Beyond Nuclear op-ed in run up to NRC public meeting at Palisades

The Kalamazoo Gazette in southwest Michigan has published a "Viewpoint" op-ed by Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps, written in response to a Gazette editorial applauding a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissionannouncement of enhanced inspections in the aftermath of a major safety downgrade at Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor on the Lake Michigan shoreline. Kevin warned that NRC's repeated weakenings of its safety regulations over the course of decades, and its rubberstamp of a 20 year license extension at the dangerously deteriorated 40+ year old reactor, is the only reason Palisades is still operating.

NRC will hold a public meeting near Palisades on Wed., Feb. 29 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. EST to discuss a litany of recent serious incidents at the reactor. Beyond Nuclear urges concerned citizens to attend the meeting in person, or by calling into the toll-free phone number.

Danger Zone: Aging Nuclear Reactors

Al Jazeera's weekly program "People & Power" has produced an excellent exposé on the more than 70 risky rubberstamps the Nuclear Regulatory has granted: 20 year license extensions at "break down phase," age-degraded atomic reactors across the U.S. Here is the introduction:

Following Japan's nuclear disaster last year there are fears the US may be heading for a nuclear catastrophe of its own

In March 2011, a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

As tens of thousands of people were evacuated from nearby towns and villages, the world waited anxiously to see whether the radioactive fallout would spread across the country, or even be carried overseas.

Unsurprisingly, in the wake of this incident, the nuclear operations of other countries have come under considerable scrutiny.

One such country is the US where more than 100 similar reactors - some of them in earthquake zones or close to major cities - are now reaching the end of their working lives.

Their owners want to keep them running, but others - from environmentalists to mainstream politicians - are deeply concerned.

In this investigation for People & Power, Joe Rubin and Serene Fang of the Center for Investigative Reporting examine whether important safety considerations are being taken into account as the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) considers extending the licences of these plants.

The agency has recently come under fire for glossing over the potential dangers of ageing reactors, for becoming too cosy with the industry and for political infighting among the agency's senior executives, which critics in the US Senate and elsewhere say seriously hampers its ability to ensure safety.

The investigation focuses on the Pacific Gas & Electric nuclear facility at Diablo Canyon and two others, which are at Indian Point in New York and Fort Calhoun in Nebraska.

These three sites represent the dangers posed to nuclear power plant safety by earthquakes, terrorism and flooding.

Rubin and Fang discover that the NRC's oversight track record is far from perfect, and that unless urgent action is taken the US could be heading for a nuclear catastrophe of its own.

Important NRC public meeting re: problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor, Wed., Feb. 29, 6pm EST -- please call-in or attend!

Anti-nuclear watchdogs have long called for Palisades' shutdown. Here, Don't Waste Michigan board members Michael Keegan of Monroe, Alice Hirt of Holland, and Kevin Kamps of Kalamazoo speak out at Van Buren State Park during the Aug. 2000 Nuclear-Free Great Lakes Action Camp. In the foreground are crosses bearing the names of villages, towns, and cities downwind that would become Dead Zones if Palisades has a catastrophic radioactivity release. In the background, Palisades' cooling tower steam, and Lake Michigan, are visible.The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has announced a very important public meeting regarding recent significant incidents at the problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor in Covert, MI, less than 5 miles south of South Haven, on the Lake Michigan shoreline.

 

Date and time: Wed., Feb. 29, 6-8:30pm Eastern

 

The meeting location is: Beach Haven Event Center, 10420 M-140, South Haven, MI 49090. If you can make it in person, please do; otherwise, please call-in: 1-800-621-9524; Passcode: 7846814.

  

NRC has posted a meeting notice, with links to additional details, including an NRC point of contact. Links to the six technical documents -- the final determination letters, root cause analyses, and inspection reports -- cited in NRC's meeting notice are provided at the bottom of this entry.

 

The most serious recent event was a Sept. 25, 2011 incident of "substantial safety significance" (a so-called NRC "yellow finding") involving the near electrocution of an electrician, causing the loss of electrical power to half of the control room which, through a number of different pathways, came precariously close to a potential Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) in the reactor core. A LOCA of long enough duration can lead to a meltdown.

 

Another recent incident of supposedly "low to moderate safety significance" (a so-called NRC "white finding") involved "the failure of the safety-related service water pump (P-7C) on August 9, 2011, due to intergranular stress corrosion cracking on coupling #6." Palisades only has three safety-significant service water pumps. NRC determined that Palisades had not properly guarded against the risk of "common cause failure" leading to the loss of all three service water pumps at the same time. Worse, Palisades had experienced an almost identical incident two years earlier, yet failed to learn from that mistake. More information on these, and many other incidents at Palisades, is given below.

 

According to NRC, the format for this meeting will be a 30 minute NRC introductory presentation, followed by two hours dedicated to answering questions from the public. NRC has also stated "the public is invited to participate in this meeting by providing comments and asking questions throughout the meeting."

 

NRC attendees will include several NRC officials from its Region III (Midwestern) headquarters office near Chicago, as well as NRC resident inspectors from both Palisades and the D.C. Cook nuclear power plant (30 miles south of Palisades, also on the Lake Michigan shore, in Bridgman, MI). Namely, these include: C. Pederson, Acting Region III Administrator; S. West, Director, RIII Divison of Reactor Projects; J. Giessner, RIII Branch 4 Chief, Div. of Rctr. Proj.; T. Taylor, Senior Resident Inspector, Palisades; J. Ellegood, Sr. Res. Insp., D.C. Cook; and others, as designated.

 

NRC has also mentioned that "external participants" attending will include representatives from Entergy Nuclear Palisades, Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), as well as American Electric Power's D.C. Cook nuclear power plant. Forming a self-contained LLC at Palisades is Entergy's way of sheltering its riches -- above and beyond the Price-Anderson Act -- at corporate headquaters elsewhere, as in New Orleans, in the event of a catastrophic radioactivity release, or an expensive decommissioning -- by declaring bankruptcy and walking away, leaving the mess for the public to deal with.

 

MORE BACKGROUND ON RECENT INCIDENTS AT PALISADES:

 

The Detroit Free Press on Jan. 15 and Feb. 15, and the Kalamazoo Gazette on Feb. 16 and Feb. 19, have printed articles on the recent incidents at Palisades. Due to this litany of near misses and unsolved problems, NRC has lowered Palisades' safety status to among the four worst reactors in the U.S., out of 104 operating. Enhanced inspections will result.

However, it was NRC that -- despite concerted environmental resistance and the "break down phase" status of the plant -- rubberstamped Palisades' 2011 to 2031 license extension in the first place. This more than 40 year old, age-degraded reactor would have been permanently shut down by now, if not for NRC's weakening of safety regulations on reactor pressure vessel embrittlement/pressurized thermal shock risks, and its allowing Entergy to long postpone or even outright cancel major safety repairs and replacement of degraded vital systems, structures, and components, such as the reactor vessel head and the steam generators. NRC has also been complicit in relaxation of fire protections at Palisades, as it has at atomic reactors across the country.

Sept. 25, 2011 incident of "substantial safety significance" (a so-called NRC "yellow finding") involving the near electrocution of an electrician which caused the loss of electrical power to half of the control room

Within just the first minute after the loss of power, the control room went haywire, with 22 separate events related to the electrical fault occurring across the plant, according to an NRC final safety significance determination document timeline. Just an hour later, enough chaos still reigned that both the pressurizer and one of the steam generators had reached 98% and 97% liquid water levels, respectively, each coming within 9 minutes of "going solid" (completely filling with water). This would have meant the loss of control over pressure, the risk of breaking pipes and tubes, and the potential for a "Loss of Coolant Accident" (LOCA) in the core and consequent meltdown. NRC has stated that if operators had made mistakes in their response to the emergency, there would likely have been no time for recovery. This was a very close call to a very significant accident at Palisades, especially considering the degraded state of its reactor pressure vessel and steam generators. Palisades has the most embrittled reactor pressure vessel (RPV) in the country, at risk of fracturing like a hot glass under cold water if the Emergency Core Cooling System is ever activated -- something that came very close to happening on Sept. 25, 2011. A RPV fracture would also lead to a LOCA. In addition, its second, current set of steam generators are also significantly degraded and in need of yet another replacement. Cascading steam generator tube ruptures could also lead to a LOCA. These significant points about this incident have yet to be reported by the news media.

Also on Jan. 15, the Detroit Free Press provided this helpful synopsis of "Recent problems at Palisades," including five unplanned reactor shutdowns in 2011 alone (note that Entergy Nuclear took over ownership and operations at Palisades in 2007, so all these incidents took place on its watch):

"2008: Palisades fails to assess employees' radiation exposure after they handle tools and their radiation monitors show evidence of exposure, leading to a plant downgrade for much of 2009. Later in 2008, five workers are trapped for 90 minutes inside a high-temperature area because of a hatch malfunction. The extent of worker exposure to radiation in the first incident is not clear. 

2010: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission downgrades the plant one category for nine months after finding that workers failed in 2009 to detect a neutron absorber had degraded in the fuel pool where spent fuel rods are stored.

Oct. 23, 2010: A supervisor walks off the job in the control room without permission, apparently after an argument, which leads to a violation notice.

May 10, 2011: One of three water pumps that cools hot reactor equipment fails because a worker improperly greased it.

Aug. 9, 2011: A pump fails because of cracking and corrosion, a repeat of a previous event in 2009, causing a shutdown.

Sept. 16, 2011: Water leakage in the reactor's cooling system leads to a shutdown.

Sept. 25, 2011: Work on an electrical breaker causes a loss of power and an automatic shutdown.

Dec. 14-15, 2011: Two main feed pumps trip, leading to a shutdown, because of an apparent problem with a valve. The reason is still under investigation.

Jan. 5, 2012: Entergy shuts down the plant for four days to repair a seal on a control rod mechanism.

Jan. 30, 2012: The NRC plans a major inspection to identify and resolve problems at the plant."

Another close call to a major accident at Palisades, which also garnered front page coverage in the Detroit Free Press in March 2006, took place in Oct. 2005. NRC helped cover up the incident for half a year, claiming it was "not a reportable event." Due to a subcontracted technician improperly setting a crane because he was in a rush to leave for vacation, Palisades experienced a two-day "dangle" of a 107 ton, fully loaded high-level radioactive waste transfer cask above its storage pool, packed full of decades worth of high-level radioactive waste. Worse, Palisades workers, due to their impatience and unfamiliarity with the crane, nearly released the emergency brakes on this "Sword of Damocles." The heavy load could have crashed through the floor of the pool, draining the vital cooling water away. A 1997 study commissioned by NRC reported that such a pool drain down could spark a radioactive waste inferno, which, because pools are not located within radiological containment structures, could cause downwind up to 143,000 latent cancer deaths, 2,700 square miles of agricultural land condemned, and more than $500 billion in economic costs due to evacuation. A backgrounder on this 2005 incident, based upon documents released by NRC under FOIA, is posted online.

Along the same lines, an NRC commissioned study referred to as CRAC-2 (Calculation of Reactor Accident Consequences), concealed by NRC until released by U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) in congressional hearings in 1982, revealed that a major reactor accident and radioactivity release at Palisades would cause 1,000 "Peak Early Fatalities," 7,000 "Peak Early Injuries," and 10,000 "Peak Cancer Deaths," as well as $52.6 billion in property damage. The population has grown since, so casualties would now be worse, and when adjusted for inflation, property damage would now top $117 billion.

LINKS TO NRC TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS LISTED IN ITS MEETING NOTICE:

Final determination letter dated Feb. 14, 2012

P-7C coupling failure root cause re: 8 9 2011 accident

Plant trip during D-11-2 maintenance root cause re: 9 25 2011 accident

Preliminary yellow finding inspection report, dated 11 29 2011, re: 9 25 2011 accident

Preliminary white finding inspection report, dated 11 29 2011, re: 8 9 2011 accident

Auxiliary feedwater pump final white determination letter dated 1 3 2012, re: 5 10 2011 accident

Update on February 25, 2012 by admin

The Kalamazoo Gazette in southwest Michigan has run an op-ed by Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps in the run up to the NRC meeting, warning against falling for NRC claims of "enhanced inspections" at Palisades being sufficient, given the agency's decades-running safety regulation weakening, and rubberstamp of the 20 year license extension -- the only reasons the age-degraded reactor is still operating.

Arnie Gundersen at the Japan National Press Club

Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen (pictured at left) of Fairewinds Associates in Vermont, who has become regarded as a regular, trusted expert on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Catrastrophe and other nuclear power matters by such national media outlets as CNN, just presented at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo. Over 80 journalists were present. Arnie presented on various aspects of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, including the ongoing risks associated with GE Mark I BWR atomic reactors. A video recording of Arnie's presentation and the question and answer session is viewable online at Fairewinds' website.