TVA cooling system shutdown.

[Marlin]

This sounds like something that may have been a very short LCO but is getting more press than normal because of Japan. Though an electrical short in a safety system following a valve failure in a safety system does not sound good. Any thoughts or input from our operations types?

The Tennessee Valley Authority, which has touted the safety of its nuclear reactors amid a continuing crisis in Japan, suffered a cooling system shutdown for 40 minutes Thursday after electricity shorted out at a Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant reactor.

The incident came two days after the plant 100 miles south of Nashville was cited by federal authorities with a "red" level violation for a cooling system valve that failed at its Unit 1 reactor.


http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110517/NEWS11/305170049/TVA-s-Browns-Ferry-Nuclear-Plant-reactor-s-cooling-system-stalls?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

[Pman52]

I read that article on nucpros.com.

They have definitely sensationalized the topic.  When I first read it, they stated they lost cooling for over 80 minutes but that figure was a mistake and it was later changed to 40 minutes.

I think the media is trying to find correlation between the violation through the NRC and this incident.

[nukengr]

I think one of the comments to that article says it best.

" Reactor water temps rising from 112* to 122* in an idled reactor that normally operates at 300* is like reporting that the sun came up today and reactor temps rose. "

They found somethign that didn't work the way it was supposed to (apparently procedure related) during a functional test. Not something that you like to happen but it does happen. That's why we do PM and testing and have defense in depth.

[spentfuel]

Lets see if this works 

Here is what was reported to the NRC

Power Reactor Event Number: 46847
Facility: BROWNS FERRY
Region: 2 State: AL
Unit: [ ] [ ] [3]
RX Type: [1] GE-4,[2] GE-4,[3] GE-4
NRC Notified By: RICKY GIVENS
HQ OPS Officer: JOHN KNOKE  Notification Date: 05/13/2011
Notification Time: 01:53 [ET]
Event Date: 05/12/2011
Event Time: 18:25 [CDT]
Last Update Date: 05/13/2011 
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(3)(v)(B) - POT RHR INOP
Person (Organization):
EUGENE GUTHRIE (R2DO)


Unit SCRAM Code RX CRIT Initial PWR Initial RX Mode Current PWR Current RX Mode
3 N N 0 Cold Shutdown 0 Cold Shutdown

Event Text

LOSS OF SHUTDOWN COOLING

"At 1825 CDT on 05/12/2011, with Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 3 in Mode 4, Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant PCIS [Primary Containment Isolation System] relay maintenance activities for a Group 1 PCIS relay inadvertently interrupted the neutral for a Group 2 PCIS relay and a Group 2 PCIS isolation occurred resulting in a loss of Shutdown Cooling. Relays were reset and Shutdown Cooling was restored at 1905 CDT. Moderator temperature prior to the event was 112.5 degrees F and the highest moderator temperature recorded during the loss of Shutdown Cooling was 122 degrees F.

"This condition is reportable under 10CFR50.72(b)(3)(v) - Any event or condition that at the time of discovery could have prevented the fulfillment of the safety function of structures or systems that are needed to: B.) Remove residual heat.

"This is also reportable as a 60 day written report IAW 10CFR 50.73(a)(2)(v).

"The NRC Resident Inspector has been notified of this event.

"This event was entered into the licensee's Corrective Action Program as SR# 368205".

When I read this my first thought was oh-no not after a degraded cornerstone finding classified as RED.  I think there will be lots of outage work available at the ferry soon.

Honestly I hope it works out for the folks there but does not sound promising to me

sf

[Fermi2]

Been there, done that. Lots of opportunity to loss SDC at a BWR especially with the amount of common neutrals and daisy chains in the relay schemes.

[Marlin]

More woes for Browns Ferry.


A TVA Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant reactor has fallen lower in regulators' trust than any other reactor in the nation at this time.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110531/NEWS11/305310028/Regulators-rate-Browns-Ferry-nuclear-reactor-least-trustworthy?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FR

[RDTroja]

More woes for Browns Ferry.


A TVA Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant reactor has fallen lower in regulators' trust than any other reactor in the nation at this time.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110531/NEWS11/305310028/Regulators-rate-Browns-Ferry-nuclear-reactor-least-trustworthy?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FR

From the story:

'The continuing crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan resulted when electricity shut down and backups didn't work. The reactors in trouble there are General Electric boiling water reactors like those at Browns Ferry.

Comparatively few reactors are of this design. Among them is Three Mile Island, near Middleton, Pa., where a partial meltdown in 1979 led to sweeping changes to enhance safety and emergency response in the nuclear industry.'

I am sure the folks at Three Mile Island will be surprised to find out they have a BWR... although they do have a lot of activity in their steam side. Actually, I once witnessed an NRC Inspector congratulate the RPM at TMI for turning their PWR into a BWR after traversing the turbine building and having to dodge the Contaminated Areas. Until I read the linked article, I was not aware that they had actually achieved that... I though the NRC Inspector was just getting in a dig against the RPM. Who knew?

[Marlin]

If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.

Mark Twain     

From the story:

'The continuing crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan resulted when electricity shut down and backups didn't work. The reactors in trouble there are General Electric boiling water reactors like those at Browns Ferry.

Comparatively few reactors are of this design. Among them is Three Mile Island, near Middleton, Pa., where a partial meltdown in 1979 led to sweeping changes to enhance safety and emergency response in the nuclear industry.'

I am sure the folks at Three Mile Island will be surprised to find out they have a BWR... although they do have a lot of activity in their steam side. Actually, I once witnessed an NRC Inspector congratulate the RPM at TMI for turning their PWR into a BWR after traversing the turbine building and having to dodge the Contaminated Areas. Until I read the linked article, I was not aware that they had actually achieved that... I though the NRC Inspector was just getting in a dig against the RPM. Who knew?

[Cycoticpenguin]

Im not seeing the big picture here. the "least trusted reactor plant" sounds a lot like being the "poorest billionaire". What are some repercussions for this?

[Higgs]

Im not seeing the big picture here. the "least trusted reactor plant" sounds a lot like being the "poorest billionaire". What are some repercussions for this?

Extra help.

When Palo Verde was column 4, life was not fun. There was around 2 dozen NRC inspectors on site and they brought in a couple of new VPs to make changes. A lot of people didn't survive the wide swinging axe.

[Marlin]

Im not seeing the big picture here. the "least trusted reactor plant" sounds a lot like being the "poorest billionaire". What are some repercussions for this?

  The public being stakeholders in the operation of a plant are influenced by the media for right or wrong. Stakeholders are the affected local population who in many areas hold a better opinion of nuclear than the public in general as the plants tend to be large contributors to the public coffers and employers in generally rural areas. Negative press can and has altered that opinion. Nuclear utilities are much better than they use to be about keeping the public informed but flawed and slanted press can be tough to counter.  

[rumrunner]

Here in the 10 mile EPZ for BFN the population is supportive of the plant.  Sure, we have the usual suspects who live in foil-lined basements and hear helicopters at night, but they are a distinct minority.  TVAs biggest problem lately has been bungling their treatment of the local press in deference to the national media.  The Athens News-Courier is the local paper and they were left out of the big media event back in March.  As you can expect, this didn't go over well and even though TVA invited the paper for their own tour a few weeks later, the damage was done.  Now every article the Courier publishes about BFN has an air of snottiness about it.  As they say, don't start a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.

This isn't the first time BFN has been on the NRC sierra list.  We endured an entire office building full of NRC inspectors for several years in the 80s and 90s.  Very much an Animal House 'thank you sir, may I have another' time.  I still prefer that to INPO swooping in to 'help'.  Of course, now they'll come loaded for bear too. 

I think the problems that are now manifesting themselves are rooted in the "whatever it takes to stay on-line" attitude previous management fostered for many years.  Those who work at BFN know what I am talking about.  I'm just glad I retired from TVA in 2008.