Indian Point explanation

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This is apparently from the NY Times, but I got it via an environmental e-mail service (Garden State Environet). It's the first explanation of this I've actually understood. Interesting to note that:

"The incident became serious when a circuit breaker popped open . . . it cast doubt on some safety analyses done by Con Edison, which predict that a circuit breaker is likely to pop open just once in 1.4 million years."

- Judy

CON ED TELLS WHAT CLOSED NUCLEAR PLANT

Date: 990915

From: http://www.nytimes.com/

By Matthew L. Wald, September 15, 1999

King Of Prussia, Pa. -- After the Indian Point 2 nuclear power plant unexpectedly shut down two weeks ago, managers focused on maintenance work that they wanted to do and did not pay sufficient attention to an electrical malfunction that eventually led to a low-level emergency, the Consolidated Edison Company said on Tuesday.

The Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission took the unusual step of sending a special inspection team to the plant, in Buchanan, N.Y., about 35 miles north of Manhattan on the east bank of the Hudson River, to figure out what went wrong.

And today, at a two-hour meeting requested by the utility at the commission's regional headquarters here, Con Edison apologized profusely for the Aug. 31 incident, which it said was caused by a management failure.

"We operated in the red region of risk, which is something we avoid at all costs," said John Groth, the company's chief nuclear officer. "We're very embarrassed to be here today," he said.

A Con Edison report, given to the N.R.C. staff today, said that when the plant shut down and the electrical problems occurred, there was about a one-in-500 chance of additional failures that would result in damage to the nuclear core. The report said that the risk was 100 to 200 times larger immediately after the shutdown than when the plant was running.

When the reactor shut down and its electricity was no longer supplying the control room, three emergency diesel generators started up to do that job. The incident became serious when a circuit breaker popped open so that an emergency generator was no longer connected to the batteries and the control room instruments.

At that point, three-quarters of the control room alarms were supplied solely by batteries, which were steadily draining; seven hours later, the batteries died, leading to the low-level emergency.

That level, called "notification of an unusual event," is the first of four levels of emergency for a nuclear plant; the fourth level has been reached only once in the United States, in the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, but first-level emergencies are rare as well.

The Indian Point plant is still shut and Con Ed has not said when it expects to reopen it. But the Union of Concerned Scientists, a safety group, plans to file a petition with the commission on Wednesday requesting that the plant be kept closed until a variety of problems are solved, especially with circuit breakers. The company paid a $110,000 fine a year ago for several infractions, including failing to analyze and prevent repeated failures in circuit breakers needed for safety.

David Lochbaum, the nuclear engineer with the group, characterized the Aug. 31 incident as a "near miss." There was no release of radiation or damage to the plant beyond damage to some batteries, but Lochbaum said it cast doubt on some safety analyses done by Con Edison, which predict that a circuit breaker is likely to pop open just once in 1.4 million years.

Hubert J. Miller, the commission's regional administrator here, said that the breaker problem in August was different from Con Ed's previous breaker problems but that the utility still had to improve its management. He said he was waiting for his inspection team to finish its visit, now scheduled for next Monday.

Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company

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-- Anonymous, September 16, 1999

Answers

"We operated in the red region of risk, which is something we avoid at all costs," said John Groth, the company's chief nuclear officer.

Er... um... uh... if it's something you avoid at all costs, Mr. Groth, how exactly did it happen, then?

Actually, what you really means is, it's something you try to avoid at whatever cost you hope will be reasonable (that is, cheap) enough at least to keep outsiders from finding out when things have gone wrong.

(And they wonder why we don't believe them.)

-- Anonymous, September 16, 1999


I noted that too, Lane, and am just shaking my head. What a bunch of smoke these management guys put out. And notice that they have been cited for circuit breaker problems previously, and paid a hefty fine. Also, they sat there and let the backup battery bank just go dead over a 7 hour period. Who thinks this sort of thing won't happen during a possible grid loss leading to a shutdown next year? Does anything get their attention? The bigger concern for me is that I don't think this is just a problem with ConEd. I'm betting that there are a lot of shoddy operations going on in the nukes, all over the country, with perhaps FactFinder's facility excepted, of course. But also, FactFinder, I think you have a bunch of doofus amateurs running some of the plants in your industry. These managers need to get off the golf courses and out of the late afternoon "watering holes" (which I have some personal knowledge about) and start paying attention to their jobs. They're not in the Navy anymore, but seem to have some difficulty adjusting to that reality.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 1999

an electrical malfunction that eventually led to a low-level emergency, the Consolidated Edison Company said on Tuesday.

Uhm, excuse me but when was the last time they sent a special investigative team to find out what went wrong for a "low level emergency"? This stuff stinks and badly.

Sorry, but I have relatives in NYC and these guys are playing lotto with their lives.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 1999


Thanks for the news Judith. Whether OT or not this isn't "nuke bashing", but a real issue(certainly the argument can be made that this in the context of a discussion of an incident involving risks decision making by a utility, which would be applicable to y2k). I find myself in rare agreement with the points made here by all of you, this event doesn't sound good at all. With the details provided so far, I see the breaker problems as a smaller issue than the management of operating conditions issue. I still can't figure out what exactly happened from a technical viewpoint and how serious this event was (i.e., how close they came to escalating to more serious classifications or an actual accident), but hopefully more will come out soon. ---- Press release from the NRC:

I-99-82 September 17, 1999 NOTE TO EDITORS:

NRC RESCHEDULES MEETING ON INDIAN POINT 2 INSPECTION; NOW SET FOR SEPTEMBER 23

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rescheduled a meeting to discuss the results of a review performed by a team of NRC inspectors at the Indian Point 2 nuclear plant in Buchanan, N.Y.

The Augmented Inspection Team exit meeting now will be held on September 23 at 7:00 p.m. in the Visitor's Center Auditorium at the site, at Broadway and Bleakley Avenue. It is open to the public for observation. -----

-- Anonymous, September 19, 1999


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