Another Hot Shutdown , this one at Duane Arnold Plant

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A hot shutdown at Duane Arnold, missing polonium at Coeur d'Alene, computer problem at Clinton (Not y2k related, yea ok), emergency sirens inoperable at Kewaunee.

http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/DAILY/der.htm

very interesting page indeed.

Just curious....are these everyday occurences? I have only been following the plant status since the rollover.

-- cin (cinlooo@aol.com), January 06, 2000

Answers

Well, let's see: there are 103 nukes commissioned, four or five have tripped off in 6 days - five percent - that's probably a normal, average failure rate, as a weekly percentage.

NOT.

-- ask (NRC@for.stats), January 06, 2000.


Well, hell, let's tell the whole story for Coer d'Alene...

EVENT TEXT +--------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------+ | MISSING 10 MILLICURIE POLONIUM-210 STATIC IONIZER ELIMINATOR CARTRIDGE | | | | On 03/14/99, Advanced Input Devices Company moved to a new location. A box | | containing one polonium-210 static ionizer eliminator cartridge was shipped | | to the new office and the box apparently got lost during the move. The | | caller discovered that the ionizer eliminator was missing since last week | | and that the box ended up in a land fill. The model P-2021 series static | | ionizer eliminator cartridge, made by NDR, Grand Island, NY, contained 10 | | millicuries of polonium-210. The static ionizer eliminator is used to | | remove static from the air at their printing company. The caller has | | already relayed the above information to NRC Region 4 Jeffrey Cruz. |

Sound kind of small potatoes to me.... (apologies to Dan Quail)

-- Hillbilly (Hillbilly@possum.creek), January 06, 2000.


These are pretty normal problems. You can look at the event report history on that site and see that something is always fouling up. If you have any special concerns, you can always call the NRC. Also, I believe the NRC has inspectors resident at each reactor site. I assume they are also available to respond to public questions.

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), January 06, 2000.

They shut down a nuke plant because someone lost a *StaticMaster*???

That *is* what it sounds like they're describing, after all. (BTW, does anyone know if they're still making StaticMasters?)

Anyway, the story -- if that's the premise -- strains credulity. It's like ordering an emergency landing of a 747 because a newspaper was missing from a seat pouch.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), January 06, 2000.


I think we're getting a couple of reports at the URL mixed up. This appears to be the text of the Duane Arnold incident:

"During the performance of Surveillance Test Procedure 3.3.3.2-01, Remote Shutdown System Instrument Calibration, an instrument technician was restoring the wide range (flood-up) reactor vessel level instrument which resulted in a level transient for the 'A' and 'B' reactor vessel narrow range level instruments which share a common reference leg. The level transient resulted in a Reactor SCRAM on reactor vessel low level and a Turbine trip on reactor vessel high level. All rods fully inserted into the core. Upon receipt of the low level (170 inches), Group 2 (RHR sump & Drywell drains, etc.), Group 3 (Reactor Building Isolation), and Group 4 (Primary Containment Isolation Signal for Shutdown Cooling) isolations were completed. However, a Reactor Water Cleanup partial isolation was initiated as well. The Reactor Operator as directed by the Shift Supervisor took the isolation to completion. The cause of this partial isolation is still under investigation at this time."

"Subsequent to the reactor SCRAM, a Reactor Feed Pump and High Pressure Coolant Injection (HPCI) turbine high level trip occurred (HPCI was not running at this time) and the "A" Reactor Recirculation Pump failed to run back to minimum speed. It was further recognized that a Fuel Pool Cooling pump had tripped but the cause of that trip is still under investigation. Reactor Vessel Level as indicated on the GEMAC Level Indicators was downscale. The plant is at a normal level band with pressure and temperature stable.

The high level turbine trip was caused by the Reactor Feed Regulating Valve not going fully closed.

No Safety Relief Valves opened and the offsite electrical grid is stable.

All Emergency Core Cooling Systems and the Emergency Diesel Generators are fully operable if needed.

The NRC Resident Inspector was notified of this event by the licensee

Looks like all relevant safety features functioned as required but I'm no expert on reading these reports. Robert, are you still out there? Comments?

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), January 06, 2000.



Arnie....check this site, plant status report.

http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/DAILY/psr.htm

-- cin (cinlooo@aol.com), January 06, 2000.


You order an emergency landing for a 747 because some crank delivers a slightly plausible "bomb on board" warning. You have to, because there are several hundred lives at stake (and more on the ground).

You evacuate a building when the fire alarm goes off. Same reason. Yes, it's probably another false alarm, but do you want to risk being trapped if it isn't?

Nuke plants are built to trip the moment things go, or appear to have gone, slightly out of control. It's called failing safe. It's not uncommon. There is potential for a bigger disaster than the first two examples, so the safeguards are tighter. Any serious Y2K issues there, and most of them would have shut down by 1 a.m. on 1/1/2000.

-- Nigel (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), January 06, 2000.


Nigel -- do you know what a StaticMaster is?

It's a brush, with a strip of polonium, used in a darkroom to wipe dust off of a negative before printing it.

Whatever else it may be, it's certainly not tantamount to a bomb!

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), January 06, 2000.


Just to be sure there is no confusion about the Coeur d'Alene item, it is listed under a heading of "Other Nuclear Material". The other entries have a heading of "Power Reactor". We do not have any nukes here in Coeur d'Alene, just plenty of snow which is what we use to make electricity in this area. Hydro, ya know.

-- Bob Benson (appysys@earthlink.net), January 06, 2000.

Link.

There are several incidents reported on the daily list. The one of most interest is toward the bottom.

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), January 06, 2000.



I am so sick of hearing"not y2k related". Not saying that this or everything is y2k related, but my gosh!! Some of it is I believe. Why won't they just go ahead and admit that some glitches are y2k?

-- Teresa (ima@believer.com), January 06, 2000.

"vWhy won't they just go ahead and admit that some glitches are y2k?"
Why should anyone do that? They have to fix whatever it was anyway. As long as these things are fixed, who cares? And if not, the reasons don't much matter.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), January 06, 2000.

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