Vermont Yankee tries, fails, to be comforting

...cracks from natural aging (4.00 / 1)

Lukens said

"Entergy's monitoring program of the steam dryer was keyed to the level of moisture in the steam. He said Entergy's plan was not designed to predict problems, but detect them once they occurred."

To put that in vernacular terms  We detected that horse had left the barn through the door we couldn't have predicted the door was open.
This licensing board review going on in Newfane is bound to yield some more gems as they examine the causation history of outages at Yankee . What broke ,when ,why and how was it repaired?  

---

by: BP @ Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 11:01:57 AM UTC

!!!!! (4.00 / 1)

Entergy's plan was not designed to predict problems, but detect them once they occurred.

This is the most amazing thing I've read, ever, about anything.  

Douglas' campaign lines following this logic:

On the environment:  "we don't care what you do, but once you've destroyed the ecosystem, we're going to come after you and fine you."

On health care:  "we don't care about the quality of your life, but once you're dying, we'll be sure to keep you alive for as long as possible."

On education:  "we don't care how little you learn in public school, 'cause once you're old enough to vote you'll be so scared shitless that you'll vote republican."

On the economy (AKA, the "affordability agenda")":  "we don't care if you have no job or if your job doesn't pay you enough to get by, but once you're in debt and on the verge of homelessness, we'll talk like we give a fuck."

On child abuse:  we don't care what your criminal record is, but once you've rapped an eight year old, we'll arrest you."

"GMD's once proud libertarian-socialist"

---

by: wdh3 @ Fri Jul 25, 2008 at 05:00:24 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Well, (0.00 / 0)

Jim = yankee reactor  

---

by: BP @ Fri Jul 25, 2008 at 11:20:06 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

New Cracks? (4.00 / 2)

It is important to note that these are "new" cracks, yes "new" cracks in this 36-year-old steam dryer.  Following the uprate, Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (ENVY) is attributing these "new" cracks to the "natural aging process".

As a paralegal working with New England Coalition (NEC) at the PSB uprate hearings beginning in 2003, I read prefiled testimony and heard testimony regarding the steam dryer failure at Quad Cities nuclear power plant, which is a BWR like ENVY.  The Quad Cities- Unit 2 nuclear reactor, uprated by 17.8 percent in 2001, had a major steam dryer failure in June 2002.

To quote from VPSB DOCKET 6812 August 19, 2003 Prefiled Surrebuttal Testimony by an expert witness for NEC:

...ENVY Expert Witness Burns (reliability expert) provides an exhibit highlighting the significance of the two events at Quad Cities.  It is an Inside NRC trade publication article from June 30, 2003 that states, "...fatigue relating to the age of the plant may have contributed to the crack." By providing this exhibit, Mr. Burns apparently supports the point I made in my oral testimony, when I stated that plants built when Lawrence Welk was on TV were more likely to experience failures.

Despite all indications that the steam dryer is marginal even at VY's current power level, Entergy has chosen not to improve the system in any major way.

Specifically, in Jay Thayer's Prefiled Rebuttal Testimony, dated July 2, 2003, attachment EN-JKT-10 is entitled Vermont Yankee Power Upgrade Project Description.  Based on this description, VY has no intention of making any improvements to the steam dryer system in response to the second Quad Cities event. In response to the first Quad Cities event, Entergy had committed only to provide a heavier top plate and round over the plate's edges in hopes of avoiding eddy currents.

Thus Entergy's approach to design analysis remains reactive and may well lead to Entergy conducting post-analysis on its own version of steam dryer or other component failure. VY already has cracks in its steam dryer and surrounding area.[emphasis added]

---

by: Maggie Gundersen @ Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 12:11:07 PM UTC

Hamlet suggests ... (0.00 / 0)

... that human knowledge is limited: "There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy "

---

by: auclair @ Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 12:53:20 PM UTC

Who's stressed now? (4.00 / 1)

My favorite line -- "favorite" in the "appalling" sense of the word -- is this:

"Lukens said the steam dryer's new cracks appeared in areas of the dryer that don't receive a lot of stress..."

Um. So if the non-stressed parts of the plant are cracking up, how are the high-stress components doing???

This whole thing should put a whole lot of stress on Gov. Jim. And I bet he continues to stress the Brooke Bennett case above all else. This situation calls for misdirection and demagoguery!

---

by: jvwalt @ Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 12:53:54 PM UTC

more ... (0.00 / 0)

Todays Brattleboro Reformer http://www.reformer.com/ci_997...

-- Nothing is certain, said Joram Hopenfeld during the third day of hearings in Newfane conducted by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.

Analyses conducted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Entergy and its consultants are tainted by an engineer's mindset that there are hard and fast rules that govern the science of nuclear energy, he told the court.

Engineers and scientists can talk all they want about statistics, bounding components, standards instituted by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, cumulative use factors and cumulative use factors adjusted for environmental conditions, said Hopenfeld, a consultant for the New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution, but they lack the imagination to consider -- to paraphrase a popular slogan from the last decade -- things happen.

Comforting ...eh?

---

by: auclair @ Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 13:41:44 PM UTC

Tangentially related... (0.00 / 0)

John McCain, doing his best to lose Seacoast-area votes, calls for the legendary second reactor at Seabrook to finally be built. Nice timing, with all this VY stuff going on.

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pb...

---

by: jvwalt @ Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 15:25:14 PM UTC

!??????????! (0.00 / 0)

"...a result of natural aging in earlier welded areas." Welded areas? Welded as in "original seams of construction" or welded as in "patchwork and previous cracks"? Great. We have a nuclear station that's a Rube Goldberg cartoon. I'm all good.

---

by: annikee @ Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 20:09:31 PM UTC

Please (4.00 / 1)

I doubt it's as sophisticated as a Rube Goldberg cartoon.

Musician, Web Designer, Photographer

---

by: JulieWaters @ Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 20:55:02 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

choke...cough...LMAO! n/t (0.00 / 0)

---

by: annikee @ Fri Jul 25, 2008 at 11:58:15 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Just good fun (4.00 / 1)

There's nothing wrong with a little "craic" in your steam pipe.

-M

---

by: Mike Eldred @ Fri Jul 25, 2008 at 00:34:01 AM UTC