Important NRC public meeting re: problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor, Wed., Feb. 29, 6pm EST -- please call-in or attend!

Anti-nuclear watchdogs have long called for Palisades' shutdown. Here, Don't Waste Michigan board members Michael Keegan of Monroe, Alice Hirt of Holland, and Kevin Kamps of Kalamazoo speak out at Van Buren State Park during the Aug. 2000 Nuclear-Free Great Lakes Action Camp. In the foreground are crosses bearing the names of villages, towns, and cities downwind that would become Dead Zones if Palisades has a catastrophic radioactivity release. In the background, Palisades' cooling tower steam, and Lake Michigan, are visible.The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has announced a very important public meeting regarding recent significant incidents at the problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor in Covert, MI, less than 5 miles south of South Haven, on the Lake Michigan shoreline.

 

Date and time: Wed., Feb. 29, 6-8:30pm Eastern

 

The meeting location is: Beach Haven Event Center, 10420 M-140, South Haven, MI 49090. If you can make it in person, please do; otherwise, please call-in: 1-800-621-9524; Passcode: 7846814.

  

NRC has posted a meeting notice, with links to additional details, including an NRC point of contact. Links to the six technical documents -- the final determination letters, root cause analyses, and inspection reports -- cited in NRC's meeting notice are provided at the bottom of this entry.

 

The most serious recent event was a Sept. 25, 2011 incident of "substantial safety significance" (a so-called NRC "yellow finding") involving the near electrocution of an electrician, causing the loss of electrical power to half of the control room which, through a number of different pathways, came precariously close to a potential Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) in the reactor core. A LOCA of long enough duration can lead to a meltdown.

 

Another recent incident of supposedly "low to moderate safety significance" (a so-called NRC "white finding") involved "the failure of the safety-related service water pump (P-7C) on August 9, 2011, due to intergranular stress corrosion cracking on coupling #6." Palisades only has three safety-significant service water pumps. NRC determined that Palisades had not properly guarded against the risk of "common cause failure" leading to the loss of all three service water pumps at the same time. Worse, Palisades had experienced an almost identical incident two years earlier, yet failed to learn from that mistake. More information on these, and many other incidents at Palisades, is given below.

 

According to NRC, the format for this meeting will be a 30 minute NRC introductory presentation, followed by two hours dedicated to answering questions from the public. NRC has also stated "the public is invited to participate in this meeting by providing comments and asking questions throughout the meeting."

 

NRC attendees will include several NRC officials from its Region III (Midwestern) headquarters office near Chicago, as well as NRC resident inspectors from both Palisades and the D.C. Cook nuclear power plant (30 miles south of Palisades, also on the Lake Michigan shore, in Bridgman, MI). Namely, these include: C. Pederson, Acting Region III Administrator; S. West, Director, RIII Divison of Reactor Projects; J. Giessner, RIII Branch 4 Chief, Div. of Rctr. Proj.; T. Taylor, Senior Resident Inspector, Palisades; J. Ellegood, Sr. Res. Insp., D.C. Cook; and others, as designated.

 

NRC has also mentioned that "external participants" attending will include representatives from Entergy Nuclear Palisades, Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), as well as American Electric Power's D.C. Cook nuclear power plant. Forming a self-contained LLC at Palisades is Entergy's way of sheltering its riches -- above and beyond the Price-Anderson Act -- at corporate headquaters elsewhere, as in New Orleans, in the event of a catastrophic radioactivity release, or an expensive decommissioning -- by declaring bankruptcy and walking away, leaving the mess for the public to deal with.

 

MORE BACKGROUND ON RECENT INCIDENTS AT PALISADES:

 

The Detroit Free Press on Jan. 15 and Feb. 15, and the Kalamazoo Gazette on Feb. 16 and Feb. 19, have printed articles on the recent incidents at Palisades. Due to this litany of near misses and unsolved problems, NRC has lowered Palisades' safety status to among the four worst reactors in the U.S., out of 104 operating. Enhanced inspections will result.

However, it was NRC that -- despite concerted environmental resistance and the "break down phase" status of the plant -- rubberstamped Palisades' 2011 to 2031 license extension in the first place. This more than 40 year old, age-degraded reactor would have been permanently shut down by now, if not for NRC's weakening of safety regulations on reactor pressure vessel embrittlement/pressurized thermal shock risks, and its allowing Entergy to long postpone or even outright cancel major safety repairs and replacement of degraded vital systems, structures, and components, such as the reactor vessel head and the steam generators. NRC has also been complicit in relaxation of fire protections at Palisades, as it has at atomic reactors across the country.

Sept. 25, 2011 incident of "substantial safety significance" (a so-called NRC "yellow finding") involving the near electrocution of an electrician which caused the loss of electrical power to half of the control room

Within just the first minute after the loss of power, the control room went haywire, with 22 separate events related to the electrical fault occurring across the plant, according to an NRC final safety significance determination document timeline. Just an hour later, enough chaos still reigned that both the pressurizer and one of the steam generators had reached 98% and 97% liquid water levels, respectively, each coming within 9 minutes of "going solid" (completely filling with water). This would have meant the loss of control over pressure, the risk of breaking pipes and tubes, and the potential for a "Loss of Coolant Accident" (LOCA) in the core and consequent meltdown. NRC has stated that if operators had made mistakes in their response to the emergency, there would likely have been no time for recovery. This was a very close call to a very significant accident at Palisades, especially considering the degraded state of its reactor pressure vessel and steam generators. Palisades has the most embrittled reactor pressure vessel (RPV) in the country, at risk of fracturing like a hot glass under cold water if the Emergency Core Cooling System is ever activated -- something that came very close to happening on Sept. 25, 2011. A RPV fracture would also lead to a LOCA. In addition, its second, current set of steam generators are also significantly degraded and in need of yet another replacement. Cascading steam generator tube ruptures could also lead to a LOCA. These significant points about this incident have yet to be reported by the news media.

Also on Jan. 15, the Detroit Free Press provided this helpful synopsis of "Recent problems at Palisades," including five unplanned reactor shutdowns in 2011 alone (note that Entergy Nuclear took over ownership and operations at Palisades in 2007, so all these incidents took place on its watch):

"2008: Palisades fails to assess employees' radiation exposure after they handle tools and their radiation monitors show evidence of exposure, leading to a plant downgrade for much of 2009. Later in 2008, five workers are trapped for 90 minutes inside a high-temperature area because of a hatch malfunction. The extent of worker exposure to radiation in the first incident is not clear. 

2010: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission downgrades the plant one category for nine months after finding that workers failed in 2009 to detect a neutron absorber had degraded in the fuel pool where spent fuel rods are stored.

Oct. 23, 2010: A supervisor walks off the job in the control room without permission, apparently after an argument, which leads to a violation notice.

May 10, 2011: One of three water pumps that cools hot reactor equipment fails because a worker improperly greased it.

Aug. 9, 2011: A pump fails because of cracking and corrosion, a repeat of a previous event in 2009, causing a shutdown.

Sept. 16, 2011: Water leakage in the reactor's cooling system leads to a shutdown.

Sept. 25, 2011: Work on an electrical breaker causes a loss of power and an automatic shutdown.

Dec. 14-15, 2011: Two main feed pumps trip, leading to a shutdown, because of an apparent problem with a valve. The reason is still under investigation.

Jan. 5, 2012: Entergy shuts down the plant for four days to repair a seal on a control rod mechanism.

Jan. 30, 2012: The NRC plans a major inspection to identify and resolve problems at the plant."

Another close call to a major accident at Palisades, which also garnered front page coverage in the Detroit Free Press in March 2006, took place in Oct. 2005. NRC helped cover up the incident for half a year, claiming it was "not a reportable event." Due to a subcontracted technician improperly setting a crane because he was in a rush to leave for vacation, Palisades experienced a two-day "dangle" of a 107 ton, fully loaded high-level radioactive waste transfer cask above its storage pool, packed full of decades worth of high-level radioactive waste. Worse, Palisades workers, due to their impatience and unfamiliarity with the crane, nearly released the emergency brakes on this "Sword of Damocles." The heavy load could have crashed through the floor of the pool, draining the vital cooling water away. A 1997 study commissioned by NRC reported that such a pool drain down could spark a radioactive waste inferno, which, because pools are not located within radiological containment structures, could cause downwind up to 143,000 latent cancer deaths, 2,700 square miles of agricultural land condemned, and more than $500 billion in economic costs due to evacuation. A backgrounder on this 2005 incident, based upon documents released by NRC under FOIA, is posted online.

Along the same lines, an NRC commissioned study referred to as CRAC-2 (Calculation of Reactor Accident Consequences), concealed by NRC until released by U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) in congressional hearings in 1982, revealed that a major reactor accident and radioactivity release at Palisades would cause 1,000 "Peak Early Fatalities," 7,000 "Peak Early Injuries," and 10,000 "Peak Cancer Deaths," as well as $52.6 billion in property damage. The population has grown since, so casualties would now be worse, and when adjusted for inflation, property damage would now top $117 billion.

LINKS TO NRC TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS LISTED IN ITS MEETING NOTICE:

Final determination letter dated Feb. 14, 2012

P-7C coupling failure root cause re: 8 9 2011 accident

Plant trip during D-11-2 maintenance root cause re: 9 25 2011 accident

Preliminary yellow finding inspection report, dated 11 29 2011, re: 9 25 2011 accident

Preliminary white finding inspection report, dated 11 29 2011, re: 8 9 2011 accident

Auxiliary feedwater pump final white determination letter dated 1 3 2012, re: 5 10 2011 accident

Update on February 25, 2012 by admin

The Kalamazoo Gazette in southwest Michigan has run an op-ed by Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps in the run up to the NRC meeting, warning against falling for NRC claims of "enhanced inspections" at Palisades being sufficient, given the agency's decades-running safety regulation weakening, and rubberstamp of the 20 year license extension -- the only reasons the age-degraded reactor is still operating.

Arnie Gundersen at the Japan National Press Club

Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen (pictured at left) of Fairewinds Associates in Vermont, who has become regarded as a regular, trusted expert on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Catrastrophe and other nuclear power matters by such national media outlets as CNN, just presented at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo. Over 80 journalists were present. Arnie presented on various aspects of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, including the ongoing risks associated with GE Mark I BWR atomic reactors. A video recording of Arnie's presentation and the question and answer session is viewable online at Fairewinds' website.

Congressman Kucinich outs the truth at Davis-Besse

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH, pictured at left) has watchdogged the dangerous Davis-Besse atomic reactor not for years, but for decades. Most recently, he has played the essential role of pressuring both FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) and even the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to admit the truth about what is going on with Davis-Besse's cracked containment. With the backing of NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko, Rep. Kucinich succeeded in winning a public meeting near Davis-Besse on Jan. 5th, where FENOC was forced to admit the cracking was not just in "decorative" elements of the concrete shield building, as it had deceptively held to for months, but rather was structural in nature.

On Feb. 8th, Rep. Kucinich revealed the full significance of cracking in the "outer rebar mat": NRC had concluded by Jan. 5th, if not weeks earlier, that the outer layer of steel reinforcement in Davis-Besse's concrete shield building has lost its functional effectiveness. Outrageously, at least up until Dec. 29, 2011, NRC continued to parrot FENOC's claims that the cracking impacted only "decorative" elements. And at the Jan. 5th "standing room only" public meeting attended by 300 people, including dozens of reporters, NRC failed to communicate to the public the full significance of cracking in the outer rebar mat. In fact, NRC still has not done so.

On Feb. 21st, Rep. Kucinich asked "The question for residents of Ohio is given FirstEnergy’s historical lack of credibility on issues at Davis-Besse, will anyone believe them?" He was referring to a "root cause analysis" by FENOC due by Feb. 28th about the cracking. Rep. Kucinich pointed out:

"FirstEnergy has hired highly-paid consultants to prepare its root cause report. If those consultants conclude that the cracking has occurred as a result of a slow, continuous deterioration of the concrete over the more-than-thirty-five years since it was originally poured, that would be bad for Davis-Besse and its current application to extend its operating license for an additional 20 years beyond its expiration in 2017. If those consultants conclude that the cracking occurred right after the initial drying of the poured concrete in the mid-1970’s and has not worsened since then, that would be good for Davis-Besse." Kucinich hints that the latter version of causation will likely be the finding reported by FENOC's highly-paid consultants.

Beyond Nuclear has co-led an environmental coalition challenging Davis-Besse's 20 year license extension. In fact, on Jan. 10th the coalition filed a cracked containment contention in the NRC's Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board proceeding, and has defended it ever since. If the cracking did occur right when Davis-Besse was built and hasn't worsened since, one has to wonder why it took FENOC 35 years to discover the cracking?!

On Feb. 16th, Kucinich gave FirstEnergy a "Corporation Fact Check Rating" of "Pants-on-Fire" regarding its dirty coal burners.  FENOC is also in hot water regarding nuclear fuel at its Beaver Valley nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, which could dangerously overheat in an accident; due to failure to properly inspect safety-significant structures, Beaver Valley may also have installed a defective Babcock and Wilcox-Canada replacement reactor vessel head in the aftermath of the 2002 Davis-Besse Hole-In-the-Head Fiasco. FENOC's Perry atomic reactor northeast of Cleveland is amongst the five worst in the U.S., according to NRC safety rankings. This is due to NRC findings having to do with recurring "weaknesses in the area of human performance," including an April 2011 incident in which workers risked radioactive overexposures due to poor planning and systemic mistakes.

Beyond Nuclear quoted on Palisades' radioactive risks

Anti-nuke watchdogs have long called for Palisades' shutdown. Here, Don't Waste Michigan board members Michael Keegan, Alice Hirt, and Kevin Kamps speak out at the Aug. 2000 Nuclear-Free Great Lakes Action Camp. Palisades' steam, and Lake Michigan, are visible in the background.In the past five days, Rosemary Parker at the Kalamazoo Gazette has quoted Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps in two articles focused on the radioactive risks of the Palisades atomic reactor on the Lake Michigan shoreline. On. Feb. 19th, in an article entitled "Is Southwest Michigan ready for nuclear emergency?", she reported:

'...But nuclear watchdog groups point to the hundreds of hours of additional oversight required by the NRC, the plant's aging equipment, the many glitches at the plant in recent months. The group Beyond Nuclear immediately responded to the change of Palisade's regulatory status with calls to "close it down before it melts down."

...Kevin Kamps, whose title is "radioactive waste watchdog" for the antinuclear group Beyond Nuclear, envisions a more unnerving worst-case scenario, akin to the disastrous 1986 explosion at  Chernobyl in Ukraine, where radioactive contamination was released into the atmosphere and traveled for miles.

In his view, disaster at Palisades could put the city of Chicago's drinking water supply at risk, wipe out Southwest Michigan's fruit belt orchards, destroy the area's tourism industry for years and make ghost towns out of thriving lakeshore communities.'

Parker also quoted Kevin's response to recent high-risk accidents at Palisades in a Feb. 16th article.

NRC recently downgraded Palisades' safety status after a series of accidents in 2011. The agency plans stepped up inspections till the end of this year. However, NRC's rubberstamp of Palisades' 20 year license extension -- despite intense environmental resistance -- is the only reason the 41 year old reactor is still operating at all.

Kevin was born and raised in Kalamazoo. His anti-nuclear power activism began at Palisades in 1992.

Update on February 21, 2012 by admin

Tina Lam at the Detroit Free Press also reported on NRC's safety downgrade at Palisades, mentioning: "Beyond Nuclear, an anti-nuclear group, said Palisades is risky to those who get drinking water from Lake Michigan, and it should be shut down."

Nuclear fuel at 11 Westinghouse PWRs at risk of dangerously overheating

As reported by Reuters, the NRC has issued a media release admitting that 11 pressurized water reactors (PWRs) using Westinghouse nuclear fuel are at risk of "thermal conductivity degradation" -- that is, they could dangerously overheat during an accident. The 11 PWRs are located at the following nuclear power plants: FirstEnergy's Beaver Valley in Pennsylvania, Exelon's Byron in Illinois, Duke Energy's Catawba in South Carolina and McGuire in North Carolina, American Electric Power's Cook in Michigan, and Dominion's Kewaunee in Wisconsin.

The NRC release stated:  "The NRC alerted the industry to this problem in 2009, and Westinghouse needs to do more to account for thermal conductivity degradation in its fuel performance codes," said Eric Leeds, director of the NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. "We need assurances from a few nuclear power plants licensees to maintain assurance that they can continue to operate safely with sufficient margin." Despite already having given industry three years to respond, NRC is still giving them another month to do so now.

However, NRC's current limit of 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit for nuclear fuel cladding has been challenged by 10CFR2.206 emergency enforcement petitions filed by concerned citizens. They pointed to data from Germany that showed that ziroconium in fuel rod cladding is dangerously unstable at a significantly lower temperature

Along these lines, the NRC mentioned cryptically at the end of its release: "An additional 23 plants that use Westinghouse performance models also received information copies of the RFI [Request for Proposal], to ensure that they are aware of their obligations to address this error."

In early 2006, Toshiba of Japan acquired Westinghouse. In the early to mid-1970s, Toshiba was the reactor supplier and architect for Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3, the atomic reactor that suffered the worst explosion during the catastrophe; its reactor building now resembles a pile of twisted ruins.

Update on February 24, 2012 by admin

Nuclear researcher Lucas Hixson has analyzed NRC's action and commented upon it.