Category Archives: Safety

The Korean nuclear mafia: power companies, vendors, and testers


Document-forging Doosan
was just the tip of the Korean nuclear corruption iceberg.

It’s different stateside, right?

San Onofre 2 and 3

Oh, wait:

U.S. NRC is refusing to supply Congress with safety documents

related to the closing of San Onofre.
But Plant Vogtle is much safer, right?
Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning told us so.
Of course, he also told us Kemper Coal would come in on budget, and now

SO is writing off $611 million after taxes
.
But
that bad concrete pour, the misplaced reactor vessel, the leaking tritium
;
those are all flukes, right?
Meanwhile, solar panels don’t leak tritium, and if you misplace one,
you only lose money, not risk lives.

By Choe Sang-Hun in NY Times yesterday,

Scandal in South Korea Over Nuclear Revelations
,


Korean nuclear reactor

Weeks of revelations about the close ties between South Korea’s
nuclear power companies, their suppliers and testing companies have
led the prime minister to liken the industry to a mafia.

The scandal started after an anonymous tip in April prompted an
official investigation. Prosecutors have indicted some officials at
a testing company on charges of faking safety tests on parts for the
plants. Some officials at the state-financed company that designs
nuclear power plants were also indicted on charges of taking bribes
from testing company officials in return for accepting those
substandard parts.

Worse yet, Continue reading

Potential defects shipped to Farley reactors and four others

No worries about this reactor coolant system defect; Westinghouse says so,
and didn’t even list Vogtle or Diablo Canyon, where Southern Company
and PG&E said they were going to install these shields.
Nevermind a reactor operator warned us back in January.
Westinghouse did list “Beaver Valley Unit 2, Callaway, D.C. Cook Unit 1, Farley
Units 1 and 2, and Wolf Creek”.

NRC Event Notification Report for July 29, 2013

Event Number 49217
:

POTENTIAL EXISTENCE OF DEFECTS IN SHIELD PASSIVE THERMAL SHUTDOWN
SEAL SYSTEM



“The defect being reported concerns an identified inconsistency
between the intended design functionality of the SHIELD passive
thermal shutdown seal (SDS) and that observed during post-service
testing.

“The purpose of the SDS is to reduce current reactor coolant system
inventory losses to very small leakage rates for a plant that
results in the loss of all reactor coolant pump (RCP) seal cooling.
The SDS is a Continue reading

Callaway nuke down since Friday near Kansas City, MO

Where there was black smoke in the turbine building there was fire
that shut down a nuclear plant Friday.
It’s still down today, with no estimate on uptime.
This is after Callaway was shut down most of April and May due to
an electrical fault that “injured or affected” four people.
It’s only been up most of 4 months out of the past 6.
Not so reliable, this baseload nuclear, is it?


Callaway down 2 out of 6 months

Margaret Gillerman wrote for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch 27 July 2013,

Callaway nuclear plant shut down after a small fire
,



FULTON, MO. • Callaway County’s nuclear plant has been shut down
since shortly before midnight Friday when a small fire broke out in
the turbine building, authorities said.

No one was injured.

“No personnel were hurt, and no radioactivity was
released” above normal operating limits, Barry Cox, senior
director of nuclear operations at Callaway, said Saturday. Cox said
the fire was in Continue reading

Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline letters to Lowndes County

No letters from Lowndes County back to Sabal Trail were included in
the open records response of last week, so should we conclude
the county has not authorized surveys on any of its properties?


The request to Lowndes County was for correspondence with Sabal Trail Transmission LLC about the proposed
natural gas pipeline from Anniston, Alabama to Orlando, Florida,
and the response included
survey authorization forms for a list of
parcels owned by Lowndes County, plus assorted descriptions and
maps with very little detail.
Sabal Trail still didn’t have a contract with Florida Power and Light,

yet expected:

“Field survey work is scheduled to begin in September 2013.”

It looks like Sabal Trail sent letters about a bunch of parcels and then more about another one later.
First they sent
an introduction 19 June 2013 listing
parcels 0146A-074-A, 0171 178, 0172 119, 0204 001,
including a map.
This appears to be the same map

we’ve seen before posted by various news media
:


[Map: 36" Greenfield Pipeline Approx. 465 Miles]

Map: 36" Greenfield Pipeline Approx. 465 Miles

Then they sent

a letter 22 June 2013
with

a survey authorization form

for the same parcels.
Then they sent separate letters 25 June 2013 for parcels
0146A-074-A,
0171 178,
and
0172 119, 0204 001.

Also on 25 June 2013

Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter informed us
:

Lowndes County does not benefit from this proposal and has no
responsibility for the approval other than that of a property owner
potentially impacted by the proposed route as any other property owner
in Lowndes County would be.

Apparently Sabal Trail thought of another one, because a few weeks later
they sent

a cover letter 15 July 2013

for Parcels 0098 003, 0098 004 with
a slightly more detailed map,
followed a few days later by
a survey authorization form 19 July 2013.


[Map of Options A and B]

Map of Options A and B

Scans of all these letters are

on the LAKE website
.

-jsq

Nuke supervisor arrested for falsifying safety records at Indian Point

A single person risked 50 million lives at Indian Point,
24 miles north of New York City.
And it’s Entergy again, the company that couldn’t keep the power on
during the Super Bowl, that

can’t keep Pilgrim 1 running in
a Massachusetts snowstorm, or summer heat, or the spring, either
,
that

still has Arkansas Nuclear 1 down since a fatal accident in March
.
Meanwhile, how many fatal solar accidents have you heard of?

Lucas W Hixson wrote for Enformable Nuclear News,

Indian Point supervisor arrested for deliberately falsifying critical safety records
,



Entergy announced on Tuesday that a former supervisor, who worked at
the Indian Point nuclear power plant north of New York City for
twenty-nine years, had been arrested for deliberately falsifying
critical safety records and lying to federal regulators last year.
The utility said that Daniel Wilson, age 57, who was in charge of
ensuring compliance in critical safety areas, falsified tests and
records related to the quality of fuel in back-up tanks for the
emergency diesel generators installed at the nuclear power plant
which are necessary to prevent core damage in the event of a loss of
power. Federal charges have been brought against the former employee
by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, who was released on bail and could be
sentenced up to 7 years in prison.

The

story says

co-workers caught him (good for them): Continue reading

Ginna nuke down near Rochester, NY

We still don’t know what tripped the control rods on Constellation Energy’s
Ginna nuclear reactor on the shores of Lake Ontario near Rochester, NY on Wednesday; the nuke remains down.


Ginna nuke down since 25 July 2013

Staff reports for Democrat and Chronicle.com yesterday,

No estimate on when Ginna nuclear plant will be back online
,

The Ginna nuclear power plant in Wayne County remained shut down
Friday afternoon, 48 hours after it went off line unexpectedly due
to a generator problem.

No estimate was available of when the plant would go back into
service, said Maria Hudson, spokeswoman for Constellation Energy
Nuclear Group, the plant’s Baltimore-based owner.

“We’re continuing with our repairs,” she said.



The 581-megawatt plant on the Lake Ontario shoreline, the largest in
the Rochester area, ceased producing electricity Wednesday afternoon
when Continue reading

Ellen Golden for DFCS @ LCC 2013-07-22

“I was not aware DFAC has a board of directors,”
said Ellen S. Golden, local attorney, sole candidate for

Ellen S. Golden raising her hand

the local Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) board,
at the

Monday 22 July 2013 Lowndes County Commission Work Session
; they vote tonight.
Nor was I.
Maybe the county should tell us who they are.
Anyway, Ellen Golden is willing to serve, and we have video of what she said,
plus a little detail about her relevant experience.


County Manager Joe Pritchard

6.

Appointment – Department of Family & Children’s Services Board


County Manager Joe Pritchard said
Commissioners had before them a letter from
Virginia Boswell
recommending a replacement for the expiring position of
Mr. [Loud Click!] Farrell(?).
He said the recomendee is Ellen Golden.


He didn’t say, but Continue reading

SPLOST VII county list @ LCC 2013-07-22



Not quite most of the money for roads, streets, and bridges
(none of them named to the public), plus everything from animals to public safety,
in the county’s SPLOST VII list.
But don’t be alarmed: it contains no new library and no new auditorium,
and the Chairman referred to it as a “back to basics” list.
It also contains nothing about Internet access; more on that in a separate post.
You can be told about this list tomorrow night or at a forthcoming joint county-cities
public telling: no town hall meetings have yet been scheduled.
These videos and slides are from

this morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session
.

5.
Special Presentation & Consideration — Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax VII

There was something new in what Joe Pritchard said:



Commissioners each had an opportunity for independent review and evaluation.

That’s better than the county tradition of the staff write down the list
and Commissioners rubber-stamp it.
However, where are

those town hall meetings Commissioner Joyce Evans promised
?
She reminded me afterwards that she had said “hopefully”.
Mayor Gayle told me afterwards the problem was they were too close
to the deadline for turning in the lists for the election.
He indicated that was because the county was late.
Remember Valdosta already presented its list

9 July 2013
.
Rumor has it the delay was in some Commissioners insisting on actually
having input.
That’s a good thing, but if the county planned ahead, there still
would have been time for the rest of us to provide input before
the lists were finalized.

The slides presented say they’re also available on the county’s website,
but I don’t see them there, so I’m posting stills from the LAKE video here.

Continue reading

Anti-nuke activist Taro Yamomato wins Japanese Diet seat

An actor turned anti-nuke activist after Fukushima just won
a seat in Japan’s upper house in the national government.



Japan Times, 22 July 2013 (Tokyo time is 13 hours ahead of Georgia time),

Actor Yamamoto, ex-wrestler Inoki win
,

Actor and anti-nuclear activist Taro Yamamoto and ex-wrestling star
Antonio Inoki both won seats in Sunday’s Upper House contest, early
returns showed.

Yamamoto, 38, who ran as an independent in the Tokyo constituency,
appeared set to enter the upper chamber after failing to win a seat
in the Lower House election in December.

He became widely known for his anti-nuclear power activities
following the March 2011 Fukushima meltdowns. He has also campaigned
against Japan’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade
liberalization negotiations, while calling for improved social
security.

Blogger

In the Eyes of an Étranger

reports Toro Yamamoto said about his election win:

“I will do a banzai to celebrate the occasion when I really
end up helping the victims of the nuclear disaster. A thorny path lies
ahead of me. Vested nuclear interests will no doubt try to sabotage
my efforts. My only friend in my endeavor are the voters who entrusted
their sacred votes.”

WSJ notes

five seats for Tokyo were contested
Continue reading

Pilgrim nuke down because of cold, heat, leak: when does it ever run?

Down in

January, February
, April,

May
, running low March and June,
and now likely to go down because of summer heat,
under what conditions does Entergy’s Pilgrim nuke near Boston, MA like to run?
Entergy also couldn’t keep the power on during the Super Bowl
and

still has Arkansas Nuclear 1 down since a fatal accident in March
.
To be fair,

many nukes can’t handle heat
.
Remind me,

why are we building more of them
?


Pilgrim 1 NRC Power Reactor Status Jan-July 2013

Christine Legere wrote for Cape Cod Times 18 July 2013,

Seawater temps too high for Pilgrim cooling
,

PLYMOUTH — The ongoing heat wave could force Pilgrim Nuclear
Power Station to shut down, as soaring temperatures continue to warm
the Cape Cod Bay waters that the plant relies on to cool key safety
systems.

Pilgrim’s license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires Continue reading