NUCLEAR POWER PLANT GOES OFFLINE THIS A.M.

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I heard on the radio coming into work this morning that the Yankee nuclear power plant has gone off line this a.m. because of some problems related to the supply of water to the plant. Sorry, this is all I can recall. If someone can confirm.

-- THOMAS SAUL (THOMAS.SAUL@YALE.EDU), January 28, 2000

Answers

Couldn't they bomb the intakes? he,he ho,ho...... You had to see the movie !

-- kevin (innxxs@yahoo.com), January 28, 2000.

I am not doubting the seriousness or validity of your post Thomas. Just had to throw that in...... :-)

-- kevin (innxxs@yahoo.com), January 28, 2000.

Oh, Kevin, that was just too funny. The image from the movie popped into my mind immediately. Taz

-- Taz (Tassi123@aol.com), January 28, 2000.

Yankee? Which one is that? What location?

One of Turkey Point's reactors went off-line earlier this week. Can you be more specific?

-- JoseMiami (caris@prodigy.net), January 28, 2000.


I got this from the GICC forum:

The safety-critical feedwater system at the Millstone 2 nuclear reactor in Waterford, Connecticut has malfunctioned today. David Lochbaum of Union of Concerned Scientists has stated: "The worst US nuclear power plant accident occurred at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. An equipment problem interrupted the plant's feedwater flow"..."Y2K can start any US nuclear power plant down the Three Mile Island pathway. The feedwater system at every nuclear power plant in the United States is Y2K vulnerable. Many of these systems use embedded chips and/or digital controls. All of these systems require the electrical grid to be available. Y2K can directly disable the feedwater system or it can indirectly disable the system by knocking out the electrical grid." Further, the NRC has itself reported today that 23 of 45 emergency sires are disabled due to ice storms (a loss of their off-site response capability). http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/DAILY/der.htm

View the Millstone 2 NRC page at: http://www.nrc.gov/AEOD/pib/reactors/336/336toc.html

WATERFORD, Conn. (AP) Northeast Utilities on Thursday shut down the Millstone 2 nuclear power plant after a malfunction in the system that supplies water to generate electricity.

Spokesman Joe Pillittere said workers monitoring the feedwater system which funnels nonradioactive water to the steam engines that create electricity shut down the plant manually at about 2:30 p.m.

The workers noticed a change in the pressure or temperature in the system, he said. There was enough of a discrepancy that the plant would have automatically shut down if the workers had not pulled the plug.

Pillittere said there was no danger of a meltdown or leak and the reactor remained at normal operating pressure and temperature.

Pillittere said officials would review the incident to determine the cause of the malfunction. He could not say when the plant would be brought back online, but said safety is the top priority.

''We've raised our standards to a higher level and we want to do things right,'' he said.

All three Millstone reactors were shut down in 1996 due to safety concerns. In the past year, Millstone 2 and 3 gained federal approval to restart. Millstone 1 is being decommissioned.

Article at: http://www.boston.com/dailynews/027/region/NU_shuts_down_Millstone_2_a fte:.shtml

posted by Antoine Neron (metis@2000now.org), January 27, 2000

-- scared of nucs!! (Yikes@aol.com), January 28, 2000.



snip....''We've raised our standards to a higher level and we want to do things right,'' he said. end snip... What a Comforting thought? Hey Y2K Pro,Cherri,John Crap~anski... Chime in any time k?

-- kevin (innxxs@yahoo.com), January 28, 2000.

Here's a daily report of shutdowns, valve problems, leaks, etc in nuclear facilities:

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

Interesting stuff.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), January 28, 2000.


Kevin: that's obfusco-speak for "we went manual for rollover, and we're still running manual".

-- Sluggo (sluggo@your.head), January 28, 2000.

I will repost this from another thread Millstone:

This looks EXACTLY like the reason for the shutdown of Hatch One yesterday. Please go to the link. I personally called to talk to people at the facility there, and was given info on the cause. Please, someone, answer my questions at the end. And by my count, that should make 12, plus two more on 12/31!!

Hatch Nuclear

And this:

This is getting to be a little too much for me.

It's obvious that we are experiencing greater than normal rate of failure. So I called the Hatch plant directly, and after being tranfered around many times, finally spoke to Steve Tipps.

He informed me that the problem, initially identified as a feed water pump problem, was actually a problem with a"control switch for a valve in the feedwater system"

It was a worn spring control switch. Purely mechanical. Due to it's failure, the feedwater system failed in a closed position.

So feed water levels went down. There will be an update to the "red phone" report which evidentally feeds the NRC site noted above.

He insists there were no embedded systems involved with this failure.

My questions for anyone who knows about these things:

Is this a load of crap I've been told, or is this truly non-system related??? Could this type of problem really be misdiagnosed as a slowing down of the feedwater pump???

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), January 28, 2000.


This is a question for Krempasky. He's still here too: there's a post form in midway down one of yesterday's threads. I presume his silence is significant until he posts otherwise. As I recall, he has three days left! His original prediction of 9 shutdowns this month, was followed by a declaration that he would QUIT THE BOARD (hope he doesn't) as of February 1 or so, with a total doomer post - in the even there were more. I figure there's about 13-14 now. Three days to go.

>"<

-- Squirrel Hunter (nuts@upina.cellrelaytower), January 28, 2000.



Probably not a "line of crap."

Generally, the nuclear power industry has been pretty isolated from Y2K related problems since most of their equipment was ordered, bought and installed prior to 1976 (The date of placement of the last nuclear plant order)

While "embedded controls" may have been part of equipment bought to replace original equipment (things are continually wearing out in any power plant and require replacement with new and improved stuff,) the nuclear industry has been singularly resistant to such changes because of their "safety related" consciousness. Unless a new piece of equipment is "qualified" for the service by no less than 4 people, it is unlikely to be considered as any sort of "like in kind" replacement. It's easier for the specifying engineer to simply try to replace an instrument, control or equipment with something that is a "near clone" to the original. (All of these words with "quotations" are those I have heard in my now long departed "nuclear days.")

My own experience along these lines involved "Fisher" butterfly valves made by the Fisher Controls Company. Fisher stopped making the valves shortly after the order for Seabrook was completed leaving the power plant with no option but to replace a poor and self destructing valve design with another manufacturers valves. Rather than go through a bidding process and qualify another manufacturer's valves, suffer the long order and lead time, manufacturing delays, etc., etc., the plant managers elected to "rebuild" the valves in "like in kind" manner using commercially available rebuilding materials (nuclear qualified, of course)

I had the job of rebuilding which I of course did as best I could.

I actually paid more for the rebuilding of the old valves than a whole new set of valves would have cost from a manufacturer. But, the plant couldn't suffer the delay waiting for new, however. Cest la vie!

An "up and coming" industry revolves around "recycling" used Section III (Nuclear) components which even though "used" are still "qualified" for service in a nuclear installation. A friend currently works for ABB and their specialty is in "dismantling and recapture" of power plant components. A major portion of their work is in researching, finding, and "saving" the original documentation that was part of the decommissioned nuclear plant "records."

Anyway, hope this has informed. It's not all a crock of sh** from the nuclear people. Generally, the rank & file people are pretty reliable and honest. It's only those who have a "monetary axe to grind" that you have to look out for.

Read Berman's book "Who owns the Sun" if you really want to get your "core pressure" up.

Best regards, an ex-nuclear engineer

-- Joe (KEITH@neesnet.com), January 28, 2000.


See discussion related to automatic vs manual shutdown/trip/scrams of nuclear plants from 1-25-00 post: http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002Pc6

-- slza (slzattas@erols.com), January 28, 2000.

Why Does the Word " Redundancy " not come up..........? Surely there are standby pumps,back-up control systems to cover normal process hic-cups such as this........... Sniff-Sniff what's that i smell? Again the request goes out.......There is plenty of room left on this thread Cherri,John, Y2K Propolactic......Worldy words of wisdom please.....?

-- kevin (innxxs@yahoo.com), January 28, 2000.

hey, excuse me if i'm wrong, but nuke plants are supposed to be fail safe, as in if something breaks/ malfunctions, it will be in a safe manner, as in that valve would let water through at max, not limiut the flow.

-- Lock'n'Load (blacktalon@islanderis.net), January 28, 2000.

Some dimwitted doomer provided a link to show how the Nuke plants are in such terrible shape due to those scary y2k embedded chips.... This event I found listed on the report is down right *scary*

Almost as bad as finding 12 badly eroded sprinkler heads.....

|Power Reactor |Event Number: 36629 | +--------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------+ +--------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------+ | FACILITY: CRYSTAL RIVER REGION: 2 |NOTIFICATION DATE: 01/27/2000| | UNIT: [3] [] [] STATE: FL |NOTIFICATION TIME: 11:35[EST]| | RXTYPE: [3] B&W-L-LP |EVENT DATE: 01/27/2000| +------------------------------------------------+EVENT TIME: 09:00[EST]| | NRC NOTIFIED BY: BANDHAVER |LAST UPDATE DATE: 01/27/2000| | HQ OPS OFFICER: CHAUNCEY GOULD +-----------------------------+ +------------------------------------------------+PERSON ORGANIZATION | |EMERGENCY CLASS: N/A |CAUDLE JULIAN R2 | |10 CFR SECTION: | | |APRE 50.72(b)(2)(vi) OFFSITE NOTIFICATION | | | | | | | | | | | +-----+----------+-------+--------+-----------------+--------+-------- ---------+ |UNIT |SCRAM CODE|RX CRIT|INIT PWR| INIT RX MODE |CURR PWR| CURR RX MODE | +-----+----------+-------+--------+-----------------+--------+-------- ---------+ |3 N Y 100 Power Operation |100 Power Operation | | | | | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------+ EVENT TEXT +--------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------+ | OFFSITE NOTIFICATION TO FLORIDA FISH AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION COMMISSION | | | | A GREEN SEA TURTLE(AN ENDANGERED SPECIES) WAS FOUND IN THE INTAKE. THE | | TURTLE WILL BE HELD FOR A DAY TO ENSURE ITS HEALTH AND THEN RELEASED IN | | ACCORDANCE WITH THE FISH AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION COMMISSION DIRECTIONS. | | | | THE NRC RESIDENT INSPECTOR WILL BE NOTIFIED.

-- Glen (big_dog@yahoo.com), January 28, 2000.



Heh Glen, you don't even know me, nor what I think. "Dimwitted Doomer?" Where in my post did I mention embedded chips or even Y2K? You took the bait and went to the site, I feel more sorry for the turtle than I do you. Bardou

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), January 28, 2000.

Lock'n'Load,

excuse me if i'm wrong, but nuke plants are supposed to be fail safe, as in if something breaks/ malfunctions, it will be in a safe manner, as in that valve would let water through at max, not limiut the flow.

Don't you know the saying: To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), January 28, 2000.


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