Locals Frustrated by Power Plant Licensing Exclusion & The Dilemma of Aging Nuclear Plants

[kristopher]

In case you don't know it, there is a rush on to relicense nuclear power plants in the US long before (often 20 years) their current 40 year operating license expires. This is not for the public's welfare, it is a preemptive move to ensure their continued operation in a world of changing energy choices where the public wants them shut down.

Locals Frustrated by Power Plant Licensing Exclusion
A panel has rejected a request to include Fukushima-related issues in the Seabrook Station relicensing process.
By Kyle Stucker October 21, 2011

A three-judge panel has denied motions from several local environmental organizations to suspend relicensing activities at Seabrook Station while the government investigates the recent nuclear meltdown in Japan.

Neil Sheehan, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's public affairs officer, said in an e-mail earlier this week that the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board panel has rejected the request because the contention is "premature and insufficiently focused" on Seabrook nuclear power plant's renewal application.

"The contention now before us rests on speculation built on speculation. We do not know which, if any, of the Near-Term Task Force recommendations the might ultimately adopt," wrote Sheehan, quoting the panel's findings. "The has stated only that, after further study, it ‘may’ determine that regulatory or procedural changes are warranted. Furthermore, we do not know the implications for the Seabrook of whatever recommendations might be adopted. And interveners provide no guidance.”

The license renewal has been a heated topic lately, as NextEra Energy, operators of Seabrook Station — which is still offline — are seeking to renew the plant's license 20 years through 2050.

Doug Bogen, executive director of the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League...

http://hampton-northhampton.patch.com/articles/locals-frustrated-by-power-plant-licensing-exclusion

The Dilemma of Aging Nuclear Plants
By PATRICIA BRETT
Published: October 19, 2009

PARIS — From the time the world’s first commercial nuclear power plants were switched on in the late 1950s, installed generating capacity rose rapidly over two decades. It leveled off in the 1980s as new building programs were scrapped in the wake of the accident at Three Mile Island, among other factors.

Contractors generally designed plants to last for 40 years — a standard enshrined in the United States in the adoption by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or N.R.C., of a 40-year licensing regime.

A large part of the world’s installed nuclear power capacity is now coming to the end of that designed life span.

Caught between approaching retirement deadlines and public opposition to new plants, industry operators are pushing to extend the life of their plants to 60 or even 80 years — and this despite problems of premature aging of major components that have already obliged many to replace their plants’ steam generators at heavy capital expense...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/business/global/20renuke.html?pagewanted=all

Courtesy of DUer bananas:
The Bathtub Curve
Nuclear power plants follow a bathtub curve, and these plants are starting to run up the far end of the bathtub curve, where the probability of multiple simultaneous component failures resulting in catastrophic failure skyrockets.

http://www.weibull.com/hotwire/issue21/hottopics21.htm

[wakemewhenitsover]

1. K&R n/t

[kristopher]

2. Critics of NRC and nuclear industry question process for issuing license renewals at aging plants.

This is a bit dated (2009), the number of reactors granted extensions is now more than 70.

Critics of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the powerful industry it oversees continue to question its process for issuing license renewals at aging plants.

A single document from 1992 might well shed some light on how that process came to be.

It's worth noting that the NRC's staff has roughly doubled over the last decade, to some 4,000 employees today. Many have been hired to handle a wave of applications from nuclear power plant operators seeking permission to operate for 20 years beyond the 40 years granted by their original licenses.

...So far, 63 of the nation's 104 operating nuclear power facilities have received a license renewal. Virtually none have been turned down since the agency granted the first renewal in 2000.

Critics have long argued that this seemingly acquiescent processing only became possible after the NRC essentially "gutted" its own rules for relicensing at the prodding of the nuclear industry....

More at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/09/nuclear-regulatory-commission-changed-relicensing-rules_n_859692.html

[kristopher]

3. Nuclear Agency Is Criticized as Too Close to Its Industry

Nuclear Agency Is Criticized as Too Close to Its Industry
Zachary P. Stephens/Brattleboro Reformer


A cooling tower at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon, Vt., partly collapsed in 2007.

By TOM ZELLER Jr.
Published: May 7, 2011

In the fall of 2007, workers at the Byron nuclear power plant in Illinois were using a wire brush to clean a badly corroded steel pipe — one in a series that circulate cooling water to essential emergency equipment — when something unexpected happened: the brush poked through.

The resulting leak caused a 12-day shutdown of the two reactors for repairs.

The plant’s owner, the Exelon Corporation, had long known that corrosion was thinning most of these pipes. But rather than fix them, it repeatedly lowered the minimum thickness it deemed safe. By the time the pipe broke, Exelon had declared that pipe walls just three-hundredths of an inch thick — less than one-tenth the original minimum thickness — would be good enough.

Though no radioactive material was released, safety experts say that if enough pipes had ruptured during a reactor accident, the result could easily have been a nuclear catastrophe at a plant just 100 miles west of Chicago.

Exelon’s risky decisions occurred under the noses of on-site inspectors from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission....

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/business/energy-environment/08nrc.html?_r=1




Corroded pipe at the Byron plant in Illinois, a hundred miles from Chicago.

[kristopher]

4. More cracks found at Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station

More cracks were found in architectural design components on the concrete "shield building" at the Davis- Besse Nuclear power station.

Jennifer Young, spokeswoman with First Energy, said hairline cracks were found in 15 out of the 16 design components of the building.

..."The shield building remains safe with lots of margins for safety," Young said stressing the walls of the shield building are not affected by the new cracks.

These new cracks were found while testing and concrete sampling was occurring because of a 30-foot hairline crack that was found in October in the shield building when the company was installing a new reactor head.

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/carroll-twp/news/2011/nov/01/more-cracks-found-davis-besse-nuclear-power-station

[kristopher]

9. Orwellian phrase of the day: Now that it's cracked it's a "shield building" not "containment",

Shallow Dome Containments For Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR)



http://www.psctendon.com/nuclear/containmentdesign.html

Additional hairline cracks were discovered at the shield building of the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Ohio, reactor owner FirstEnergy said Monday. But both the company and a nuclear regulatory agency official said there is no immediate safety concern....
http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/ElectricPower/3766136

And don't you love this? They make it sound like it is decorative. Note the in the graphic above what "architectural design elements" "protrude" beyond the main walls.

More cracks were found in architectural design components on the concrete "shield building" at the Davis- Besse Nuclear power station.

Jennifer Young, spokeswoman with First Energy, said hairline cracks were found in 15 out of the 16 design components of the building.

The architectural elements protrude 18 inches beyond the main wills of the 2 1/2 foot thick reinforced concrete...

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/carroll-twp/news/2011/nov/01/more-cracks-found-davis-besse-nuclear-power-station


And just in case you are in doubt about the source:

There Are No Cracks in Davis-Besse’s Containment
Posted by Moderator on October 24, 2011

The NRC was informed by FirstEnergy on October 10 that it had identified what looked like a crack in the concrete shield building of the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Oak Harbor, Ohio. The plant had been shut down and workers were starting to cut a hole in the side of the building in order to move and replace the reactor head when they found the crack. The shield building is made of about three feet of concrete reinforced with two to three-inch steel rods.

It’s important to emphasize that the shield building at Davis-Besse is not the reactor containment vessel. That vessel is made of one-inch thick welded steel and sits inside of the shield building separated by about four and a half feet of hollow space. The shield building’s primary function is to protect the containment building against external hazards. The steel vessel is designed to keep the radiation inside the reactor from reaching the environment.

ETA: The link has an apostrophe and won't post here properly. You can cut and paste these two parts in the address bar:
http://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov/2011/10/24
/there-are-no-cracks-in-davis-besse's-containment/

[txlibdem]

5. It's a good thing the oil industry isn't corrupt as well...

Why, if it was then we'd see news reports of cocaine and sex parties between the regulators and the lobbyists that were supposed to be policing the oil industry. Good thing that'll never happen.

:dunce:

But we don't want to focus on any industry but the evil, evil NOOK-YOO-LUR industry cause they're bad, bad, bad.

Please don't look up the published statistics on the number of deaths per year and total for all these energy industries. I wouldn't want your house of cards to come crashing down...

[madokie]

6. Best I remember we did hear about all that :-)

The Evil NOOK-YOO-LUR IS BAD, BAD, BAD.
the most honest thing you've typed yet concerning them. Props to you for being honest even when you thought you were just being sarcastic. :hi:

[txlibdem]

7. You got me!

:grouphug:

[madokie]

8. back at 'ya

:grouphug: