"Vermont officials criticize company as dishonest, unwilling to invest in safety"

[ensho]

http://michiganmessenger.com/52811/entergy-faces-another-special-investigation-over-malfunction-at-palisades


Entergy faces another special investigation over malfunction at Palisades


The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has sent a special investigation team to Entergy’s Palisades nuclear power plant to examine the circumstances around the plant’s latest unplanned shutdown.

-snip-

“The issue involved plant workers who were performing maintenance activities on an electrical panel when a small metal piece located inside the breaker panel came into contact with another metal piece and caused an arc,” the NRC said Wednesday. “This resulted in a series of electrical issues that caused the plant to shut down and sent signals to multiple plant systems causing certain safety pumps to start and some safety valves to reposition.”

Officials say the plant has been controlling temperature by venting steam, that contains low levels of tritium, into in the environment.

-snip-

“Entergy and certain of its personnel have acted in at best an untrustworthy manner,“ Sorrell said in July after a months long probe, “however we lack the smoking gun evidence to prove to our satisfaction that this untrustworthy behavior is criminal.”

-snip video-
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now we will see how honest the NRC is

[Selatius]

1. They skimp on safety measures and safety mechanisms because it cuts into profit margins.

I hope Vermont kicks the fuckers out, but given that many power stations in the US are privately run, I wonder how much longer we can go before another Chernobyl or another Three Mile Island or even another Fukushima-level event occurs at an aging American reactor using outdated or inadequate safety standards or even safety standards that are simply ignored.

[Scuba]

4. Blowout valve? Nah, too costly. Cuts into profits. Oh wait, that was BP last year. n/t

[madokie]

8. I say its only a matter of time

and since most of our nuclear power plants are close to large metropolitan areas the chances of many people becoming contaminated are pretty big. What are we going to do when a large section of our country is cordoned off because of unsafe radiation levels? Shit and fall back in it I guess

[glinda]

2. Intentional punishment to bring down Vermont I think.

[rhett o rick]

3. This is terrible reporting. The plant is shut down. What method does the plant have for emergency

cooling? The article implies that no emergency cooling is operating because venting steam is the method being used for cooling. I believe the only time you would "vent steam" to control the temperature of the plant would be in an extreme emergency and you would be venting from the primary system which would be highly contaminated.

Someone help me out if I am off-base.

[kristopher]

6. You don't have enough information to draw those conclusions.

Which is a problem in and of itself. The NRC is notorious for coordinating with the nuclear industry a soothing message for the public instead of releasing hard information on events in a timely manner. IMO they precisely mimic the behavior of Japanese government overseers and the Japanese nuclear industry.

[rhett o rick]

7. The only conclusion I drew was that the reporting was terrible. And it was.

I dont no what happened. But if the report is correct then it is worrisome. If you are venting steam to keep the plant cool, then you obviously dont have an emergency cooling system working. And the only steam that would cool the plant is primary steam which is highly contaminated. I doubt this is the case. My conclusion is that this is an extremely misleading article.

[AndyTiedye]

5. K/R

Venting radioactive steam?! :hide:

Yes, this does sound a lot worse than they're letting on.

I hope we're not having a Fukushima in Vermont!

:nuke: :hide: