You can't engineer out the human element...

[kristopher]

This is a good example of the way day to day mundane decisions are made - and how they will always be made.

Palisades nuclear power plant did not follow proper safety protocol before shutdown, report shows
Published: Wednesday, November 30, 2011, 2:40 PM Updated: Thursday, December 01, 2011, 10:24 AM
By Fritz Klug | The Kalamazoo Gazette


COVERT TOWNSHIP — The week-long shutdown of Palisades nuclear power plant in September was caused by workers and supervisors not following proper safety procedures, according to preliminary findings released this morning by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The preliminary report shows that the “Palisades organization did not establish safety policies amongst the management team and employees, which reinforced that nuclear safety was an overriding priority.”

...The Sept. 25 incident that led to the 7-day shutdown occurred when a worker was performing maintenance activities on an electrical panel. A small metal piece located inside the breaker panel came into contact with another metal piece, which resulted in a series of electrical issues.

...A narrative in the report describes what happened leading up to the shutdown.

On Sept. 25, the acting maintenance manager questioned if the scheduled work should continue without a front-line supervisor. There was a two-hour gap in schedules between the different supervisor shifts, so the managers decided to go ahead with the work.

A pre-job briefing was not conducted...

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/11/report_shows_palisades_nuclear.html

[givemebackmycountry]

1. You know, I'm being serious.

It's only a matter of time before they kill a whole bunch of us.

Some massive food recall that comes way too late.
Some handjob fucks up at a nuclear power plant and triggers a disaster in a major metropolitan area.
A train derails, carrying some deadly chemical or nerve agent and the winds happen to blow the right way.

I know how to solve these potential major issues.

D-E-R-E-G-U-L-A-T-I-O-N!

Say it again!

D-E-R-E-G-U-L-A-T-I-O-N!

:sarcasm:

Fucking assholes.

[AtheistCrusader]

2. Fair point.

No matter how you engineer it, nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.

[kristopher]

3. NRC Chair worried about nuclear operator complacency

Well Mr. Chairman, if you did you job with a primary eye towards a regulator's obligation to the public rather than to the bottom line of the industry, there would be far less to worry about.

Nuclear Power In 2012: Challenge Of Complacency
By Margaret Ryan
Published: December 2, 2011

US nuclear plant operations, while still very good, are trending in the wrong direction, says Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory
Jaczko, and complacency from years of safe operations, combined with overload from backlogged and new safety requirements, could mean trouble ahead in 2012.

Speaking to nuclear CEOs at their annual Institute of Nuclear Power Operations meeting in November, Jaczko fingered what he fears are declining performance trends.

"While many plants have performed very well this year, there are a number of nuclear power plants that have experienced significant safety challenges," he said. While public attention has focused on Japan's Fukushima Daiichi, a handful of US plants have been cited for declining performance or forced into long outages.

...He said NRC had performed 19 special inspections into specific safety issues during 2011 – more "than at any point in recent memory" – and had four plants on watch lists for repeated safety missteps. Jaczko warned, "We should all be on guard to the possibility that they could be indicative of broader issues for the industry."

http://energy.aol.com/2011/12/02/nuclear-power-in-2012-challenge-of-complacency/

[bananas]

4. An interesting rumor about Fukushima...

"About three weeks ago a GE Sales rep came by work, this one while not a Nuke sales rep still a rep that works for GE which is the company that designed those units. The unofficial rumor going around them is that one of the spent fuel pools had all of the fuel rods melt down! So the depleted Uranium is now melting down through the fuel ponds."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=2412395&mesg_id=2414608

[kristopher]

5. I haven't heard about that and I'd want more confirmation before repeating it, but

Given things like the story that follows, I wouldn't be surprised.

Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 1: TEPCO and NHK's Obfuscation on Corium in the Concrete

In the first post on the subject, I translated what NHK reported:
東京電力福島第一原子力発電所の事故で、メルトダウンが起きた1号機の燃料は、鋼鉄の原子炉の底を突き破って相当の量が格納容器に落下し、容器の底のコンクリートを溶かして最大で65センチ浸食していると推定されることが、東京電力の解析結果から分かりました。
"It has been discovered by TEPCO's analysis that the significant amount of Reactor 1's melted fuel pierced through the steel Reactor Pressure Vessel and dropped onto the Containment Vessel, then melted the concrete at the bottom of the CV. It is estimated that the melted fuel may have eaten into the concrete to maximum 65 centimeters deep."

Maximum 65 centimeters deep from the bottom of the concrete floor, right? Well no. It's 65 centimeters from the bottom of the deep groove on the concrete floor.

And neither NHK nor TEPCO would bother to tell you how deep the groove is.

At least, NHK Kabun (NHK's last remaining conscience, as far as I'm concerned) tweeted and gave the link to its blog post, where NHK's analysis of the concrete-eating corium is shown with the screenshots from the program:



...
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/11/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-reactor-1-tepco.html