On May 27th, the NRC sent a letter to Pilgrim stating that they were dissatisfied with Pilgrim's preparation and performance. They would likely be subject to increased inspection.
http://manometcurrent.com/nrc-finds-fault-with-pilgrim-stations-winter-storm-shut-down/
Stock here: how about a $100M fine for putting Boston at risk?
Pilgrim was very close to being forced to directly vent
radioactive steam into the environment / neighborhood. They used every last
line of defense they had, including dumping radioactive steam into the old BWR
Torus aka Surge Tank.
Even then the heat in the surge tank got so high, they
had to use an emergency heat exchanger to cool the surge tank. Fortunately it
worked. If that last piece of equipment had failed it would have been a serious
accident with radiation exposure to the public.
Pilgrim had the same types of
equipment problems in the last 2 years, and FAILED to fix them, and the NRC
failed on adequate follow up.
Instead of shutting down these most dangerous type of plant the
BWR reactor, similar to Fukushima which is still dumping radiation into the
Pacific Ocean, instead, they attack solar and wind.
------------------------
An excellent analysis, must have taken at least 16 manhours of work---complete with schematic drawings and annotations.
Regarding
Pilgrim NPP, they resumed providing electricity to the grid yesterday, Feb 7th.
This
is an analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists of the sequence of events
at Pilgrim two weeks ago.
http://www.capecodbaywatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/20150203-pg-ucs-backgrounder-loop-plus.pdf
Everything
apparently didn't go as smoothly as the folks at Pilgrim would like us to
believe.
Credit
to the folks of Cape Cod Bay Watch.
Freaking nice report! They had multiple failures of critical
emergency equipment, and they kept on reacting from one emergency to the next
until they were dumping radioactive steam into the "torus" the big
round dump tank at the bottom…the last resort before venting to atmosphere.
An old BWR with a history of the same type of
problems….sheesh, that was freaking close. I mean who the heck needs Boston or
the East Coast anyway…..only nuclear can save the planet!
stock ouch
No venting, no release, just a lot of hand ringing and conjecture, bottom line nothing happened except the power cables failed and they had no way to put their power on the grid. No violations, no injuries nothing at all of note, just more fear mongering about an accident which did not occur....
ReplyDeleteIncorrect Nukemann, it was a close call. they lost control of the reactor steam venting valve, and failure of the diesel driven compressor that would allow them to close that valve once a safe reactor pressure was reached. So if there had been more residual heat in the reactor (say by losing both power feeds at the same time) and that valve stayed open, then the torus may not have been able to handle the heat rejection and a radioactive steam release would be needed to prevent an overall system blowup.
Deletehmmm...and you wonder, why did almost no one else in the area lose power? Because the problem was in Pilgrim own switchyard with lousy insulators that the NRC posted guideline as known problems when on the ocean.
Piss poor showing.
I see that you are still following "yes Vermont Yankee" how sad is that?
Blogs I follow
Atomic Insights Blog
BraveNewClimate.com
Clean Energy Insight - Moving Energy Forward
Energy from Thorium
Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes
NEI Nuclear Notes
Nuclear Dialogues
Nuke Power Talk
Pro Nuclear Democrats
The Nuclear Green Revolution
The Null Session
This Week in Nuclear
TPN : The Atomic Show
Yes Vermont Yankee