Cleveland News: Leak forces Perry Nuclear Power Plant to cut operations in half

Saturday, January 15, 2000 By SUSAN JAFFE PLAIN DEALER REPORTER

NORTH PERRY - Leaking radioactive fuel has forced operators of the Perry nuclear power plant to cut power almost in half through the weekend while they hunt for the source of the leak. The problem does not affect the safe operation of the plant or the health and safety of workers and the public, said Todd Schneider, a spokesman for FirstEnergy Corp., which owns the plant. Link to story: http://www.cleveland.com/news/pdnews/metro/3c15per.ssf

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 15, 2000

Answers

Appears to be a valve problem of some sort. NRC daily event site reported it as a Cold Shutdown, power down to 0 on 1/13.

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

-- (pigs@do.fly), January 15, 2000.

here's the link to the above story:

http://www.cleveland.com/news/pdnews/metro/3c15per.ssf

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 15, 2000.

Valve problem.....not imbedded chip or y2k problem, no, never.

-- Forrest Covington (theforrest@mindspring.com), January 15, 2000.

Need to read the "EVENT DATE" on those NRC reports, folks.

The shutdown on the NRC site has nothing to do with the 50 reduction and leak.

The shutdown was back on March 25, 1999. The event report on 1/13 was the plant updating their investigation of the cause.

And what about this sentence in the Plain Dealer article?

"It is the eleventh fuel leak since the plant began operating in 1987."

Yeah, I'm sure they were all Y2k-caused leaks :-)

-- John H Krempasky (johnk@dmv.com), January 15, 2000.

Krempasky, you don't seem to believe Y2K is any issue at all. Why are you spending so much time here? Are you just trying to prevent gullible people from spending their money on preparations? It's a bit late for that.

-- Dave (dannco@hotmail.com), January 15, 2000.

John, you're a queer eel.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), January 15, 2000.

My dear Rev. Krempasky,

Once more you shout out at the demons of "reason and prudence". How did we ever manage to muck our collective way through life with out your soloumly pronounced wisdom.

Say sir! I do believe that you are a TROLL! And not a particularly intelligent one at that. Now crawl back under the bridge young man. Time for your nap.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shakey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- Shakey (in_a_bunker@forty.feet), January 15, 2000.

Rev. Queer Eel -- Sounds like a good handle to me.

-- Troll Stomper (DoomersUnited@TB2000.Net), January 16, 2000.

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

------------------------ Leak forces Perry to cut operations

Saturday, January 15, 2000

By SUSAN JAFFE PLAIN DEALER REPORTER

NORTH PERRY - Leaking radioactive fuel has forced operators of the Perry nuclear power plant to cut power almost in half through the weekend while they hunt for the source of the leak.

The problem does not affect the safe operation of the plant or the health and safety of workers and the public, said Todd Schneider, a spokesman for FirstEnergy Corp., which owns the plant.

Schneider said the leak was discovered Dec. 29 after operators noticed that radiation inside the reactor was slightly higher than usual.

It is the eleventh fuel leak since the plant began operating in 1987.

Schneider said filters inside the plant remove radioactive material before it can escape into the atmosphere.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission allows some amount of radiation to leak from the plant's 47,872 fuel rods. The latest leak measures less than 1 percent of the limit, said Tom Kozak, a branch chief at the NRC's midwest office.

"There is some radioactive material released from the site," Kozak said. "But there has not been any increase due to the leak, and what is released is well within the limits established by the NRC."

After similar leaks were detected a year ago, FirstEnergy found that the 13-foot-long rods had been damaged by tiny particles of debris circulating in the water around the fuel. The fuel heats water into steam, which turns the plant's turbine to create electricity.

The metallic particles, about the size of grains of salt, bombard the fuel rods continuously as the water rushes past at about 290,000 gallons a minute.

"It doesn't take much," said Christine Lipa, the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's senior resident inspector at Perry. "A small piece of metal can get stuck in the wrong place and cause these minor fuel leaks."

She said the company doesn't know where the particles come from.

"It's troubling that minuscule particles can have such a far-reaching effect and that the fuel is so sensitive," said Connie Kline, a Willoughby Hills director of Concerned Citizens Network, a nuclear watchdog group.

The company's inability to solve the recurring problem shows it has "a pretty abysmal learning curve," she said.

The Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington, D.C. nuclear safety advocacy group, petitioned the NRC last year to shut Perry until fuel leaks were plugged.

The NRC decided that the Perry plant did not have to shut down then, because it was planning to close for scheduled maintenance.

e-mail: sjaffe@plaind.com Phone: 1-800-275-5253

)2000 THE PLAIN DEALER. ------------------------

-- harl (harlanquin@aol.hell), January 16, 2000.

Seems to be some understandable confusion in this thread. The Plant Status Report for 1/14/2000 lists Perry 1 at 65% because, quote, "REDUCED REACTOR POWER TO LOCALIZE A SMALL FUEL DEFECT." The day before, 1/13/2000, has the power listed at 100%.

Now, the Daily Events Report for 1/14/2000 has an event #36588 on it for Perry 1, but this is indeed an update to an original event noted on 3/25/1999 (according to this).

Yes, this has to do with a valve problem. (Simplistically) If you remove a flange from the IFTS (Inclined Fuel Transfer System) while up and running, and if the IFTS flap valve fails, then the upper containment pool may lose more volume than allowed by regulations, thereby causing an unsafe condition. One that requires you to have a Loss of Coolant accident before any of this comes into play, btw.

Unfortunately, the event text only reproduces a portion of the fax from the plant, and the news article is sufficiently dumbed down to make it impossible to determine if they really are talking about the same event. Adding to that, the fact I can't find an event from 3/25/ 1999 (or 3/26, or 3/24, but the plant was in coastdown to refuel at the time) isn't helping.

IMHO: I've a feeling these are two different issues, as the news article states it was discovered Dec. 29th, and the Event Report states it was reported 10 minutes after they determined it was reportable. Problem here is that Status and Event reports aren't maintained current over the weekend. I'll see if I can sort through this mess again on Tuesday, after the holiday, when they start updating the web page again. (Bloody GE reactors need a better containment for reactor debris.)

-- harl (harlanquin@aol.hell), January 16, 2000.

Nuts. If a sysops feels like fixing a close tag in there, thanks. Both links work, second link is at "1/13/1999."

-- harl (harlanquin@aol.hell), January 16, 2000.

Nope, no new events on Perry. But it is back up at 100%. h

-- harl (harlanquin@aol.hell), January 19, 2000.