A contract supervisor at the Fort Calhoun nuclear generating station owned by the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) failed a random fitness for duty test on Tuesday.  The employee’s access to the plant has been revoked.

The Fort Calhoun nuclear generating station has been shut down since April 2011 due to repeated problems and regulatory findings.  In August 2012, the licensee contracted a deal with Exelon Nuclear Partners to manage the operations of the plant and allow OPPD to retain ownership.

Source: NRC Event Notifications

The post Supervisor at Fort Calhoun fails fitness for duty test appeared first on Enformable.

The residents from Hippo district have demanded that Tokyo Electric Power Co., pay them an additional 70 million yen ($690,000) in damages stemming from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

Source: JiJi Press

The post Fukushima compensation scheme accused of denying hundreds of claims appeared first on Enformable.

On Sunday, tens of thousands of Taiwanese marched through the capital city, chanting slogans urging the government to cease the construction of the nuclear power project.  Organizers said over 30,000 people took part in the demonstration.

For over thirty years nuclear power has polarized life in Taiwan, but today many people in Taiwan are so concerned about the safety of a nuclear power plant under construction near the capital, Taipei, that the government is being forced to hold a referendum on nuclear power by the end of the year.  Taiwan, like Japan, has been called unsuited for nuclear power plants as active seismic faults are known to run across the island.  In 2011, a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council evaluated the seismic hazard to nuclear reactors around the world and placed all of Taiwan’s nuclear reactors in the highest risk group along with some of Japan’s reactors.

Even though the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou is promoting nuclear power, the latest polls conducted show that some 70% of the surveyed responders oppose the completion of the construction of the Lungmen nuclear power plant in Taiwan, which would be the fourth nuclear facility.  The construction work began in 1999, but has grown to be one of the most expensive and divisive projects in national history.

Source: NHK

Source: Straits Times

The post 30,000 protestors demonstrate against nuclear power in Taiwan appeared first on Enformable.

Michael Buhrman, the infamous former licensed senior nuclear reactor operator turned fugitive who is believed to have fled the country to evade capture by authorities, was convicted last month of aggravated vehicular hijacking and vehicular hijacking and sentenced to 40 years in prison.  It took the DuPage County jury less than an hour to reach a guilty felony verdict.

“Nearly one year ago, Michael Buhrman pointed a loaded weapon at an innocent woman’s head and stole her car just for the thrill of it,” State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said after the verdict.

Late on the night of May 9th, 2012, Buhrman, then a supervisor at the Dresden nuclear power plant in Morris, Illinois, donned a very lifelike mask and approached his innocent victim as she sat in her parked car during a break in a Kohl’s parking lot in Woodridge, Illinois.  He ambushed her and pointed a loaded semi-automatic .45-caliber handgun at the victim’s head, cocked back the hammer on the gun, and ordered the young woman out of the 2000 Pontiac Grand Am before taking off in the car.  “I looked down at his hands and he had a gun,” Carrie Bradley said, describing the carjacking. “He told me to give him my keys and walk away.”

The crime was captured by a video camera at Kohls and was witnessed by at least one bystander who notified authorities and followed Buhrman from the scene of the crime until he was stopped and arrested by police a short distance from the scene.  When arrested, the then-employee of Exelon was still armed and still wearing the mask.  He would later tell investigators he had only been “thrill-seeking.”

Within a few days of being charged, the Navy veteran was freed on $20,000 cash bail despite the warnings from prosecutors that he was a flight risk.  In July, Judge Kathryn Creswell place Buhrman on home confinement equipped with a GPS monitor after his former girlfriend notified authorities that Buhrman had been plotting to escape prosecution by running to Chile before the trial and had boasted of accumulating more than $100,000 in gold.  He soon disappeared on September 28^thof 2012, the GPS ankle monitor issued an alert that it had been tampered with but by the time police arrived Burhman was gone and they found the GPS device cut off, so his trial continued absentia.  It would later be revealed that three days prior to his disappearance he withdrew $14,000 which had been deposited into his checking account from a foreign source.

During the trial, Melissa Gates, Buhrman’s former wife, testified that her ex-husband was controlling, abusive, and detailed how Buhrman used steroids as a part of his bodybuilding regimen.  Gates said she now lives in fear thinking about what could happen if Buhrman comes back to get their 6-year-old son. “I don’t know what he would do with me,” she said.

Woodridge police Detective Jody Porras testified that Buhrman, had attempted to recruit at least one other reactor operator to join him in committing more ambitious criminal plans than stealing a car.  Apparently, multiple times in the year and a half leading up to the carjacking, Buhrman had conversations with another Navy veteran plant operator about planning to commit bank robberies and armored car heists.  Buhrman asked if he had ever seen “The Town” and mentioned that it would be cool to do something like that if he could put together a team.  Prosecutors say that Buhrman has not been seen since his September disappearing act and another long-time friend of his has also dropped from sight around the same time.

Assistant State’s Attorney Demetri Demopoulos asked for a maximum sentence of 45 years, calling Buhrman “a dangerous and evil man who cares nothing for society and the laws the rest of us live by.”  “He’s a coward,” Demopoulos added in court. “When he faces something unpleasant, he takes off.”

Prosecutor David Friedland repeatedly pointed to an empty chair which is generally reserved for defendants during the closing arguments.  “There is your defendant, ladies and gentleman, right there,” Friedland told jurors. “He knows what he did, and he’s not willing to be here to take responsibility for his actions.”

Judge Kathryn Creswell said she has “absolutely no doubt” Buhrman fled to avoid prosecution. “Once the defendant is caught,” Creswell said, “a lengthy sentence is required to protect the public.”

These serious events cast a dark shadow of doubt on process Exelon uses to screen persons of high responsibility which may have an adverse effect on the health and safety of the public.  Each reactor operator is given a battery of psychological tests and screened by a psychologist prior to enrollment in supervisory programs.  There are also multiple continuing behavior programs, on-going screenings, and tests which maybe should have caught these aberrant behaviors prior to the crimes actually taking place.  The worry escalates when one considers that it is purported that Buhrman also plotted crimes with a co-worker, while working inside a nuclear power plant, instead of watching reactor.  As told by one former senior licensed reactor operator in response to this story, there are so many moving pieces during normal operations of a nuclear power reactor.  The operators have to keep track of multiple overlapping tasks and processes which require constant vigil to ensure that no vital safety components are compromised.  These responsibilities weigh heavy during normal operations and it is difficult to understand how an appreciable lack of performance could not be noted when supervising operators are so caught up in other affairs.

Source: Chicago Tribune

Source: The Daily Herald

Source: Sun Times

The post Fugutive nuke operator described as “dangerous and evil” appeared first on Enformable.

After 6 months of investigation, Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority released a final report on Wednesday which officially concludes that the Unit 2 reactor of the Tsuruga nuclear power plant in central Japan rests upon an active fault.  The fault, known as the D-1 fault, runs directly underneath the Unit 2 reactor building and is located near another active fault, the Urasko fault which extends some 35 kilometers under and around the site.

“Safety levels (at Tsuruga) have been low and it is really just a matter of luck that there hasn’t been an accident,” said Kunihiko Shimazaki, the head of the panel and a commissioner of the NRA. “We are taking the first steps to correct the situation.”

The conclusion means that Japan Atomic Power, the utility which operates the plant will be unable to put the reactor back into operation, as government safety guidelines prohibit the construction or operation of reactors above faults.

Source: NHK

Source: Wall Street Journal

The post Tsuruga nuclear power plant sitting on active fault says Japanese regulator appeared first on Enformable.

A licensed reactor operator at the Grand Gulf nuclear power plant confirmed positive for alcohol during a for cause fitness for duty test.  The employee’s access to the plant has been terminated.

While random fitness-for-duty tests are administered in a lottery-style system and “winners” report to the medical office for testing, for cause tests are administered after supervisors note aberrant behaviors in workers and orders follow-up testing to ensure compliance.  Aberrant behaviors cover a wide range of actions from staggering, making simple mistakes (such as turning the wrong switch), acting belligerent or out of character, among a multitude of overall deviations from normal behavior for the individual.

Source: Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The post Licensed reactor operator at Grand Gulf nuclear power plant confirmed positive for alcohol appeared first on Enformable.

A non-licensed supervisor at the Limerick nuclear power plant confirmed positive for alcohol during a random fitness-for-duty test.  The employee has had access to the plant removed.

Source: NRC Event Notifications

The post Supervisor at Limerick Nuclear Power Plant tests positive for alcohol appeared first on Enformable.

Workers at the Monticello nuclear power plant in Minnesota discovered a small bottle of alcohol within the Protected Area.  The seal ring on the bottle was broken and it was approximately 2/3 full.  The bottle was discovered beneath a deck structure to a temporary trailer that was being demolished by workers.

Source: NRC Event Notifications

The post Alcohol discovered within Protected Area at Monticello Nuclear Power Plant appeared first on Enformable.

Investigators from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are still unable to explain why a crane accident at the Arkansas Nuclear One nuclear power plant which killed one twenty-four year old employee and injured eight others happened.  On Thursday night a meeting was held at the nuclear power plant in Russellville, Arkansas to discuss the findings where about 90 people showed up.

Workers were attempting to move a generator stator, which weighs some 525 tons, when the crane failed and dropped the stator.  An investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is
still underway.

Source: Westport News

The post NRC investigation unable to answer questions related to ANO accident appeared first on Enformable.

Congressman Fred Upton is demanding accountability and a permanent fix to the leaking tank at the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant on Lake Michigan, and says that he is “outraged” by the announced leak that escaped into the Great Lake over the weekend.  “This situation is not acceptable and demands full accountability,” Upton said in a Tuesday news release.

Upton, who chairs the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over domestic nuclear regulatory activities, further commented on the situation adding, “It is my understanding that the water tank will be emptied by the end of the week with the hope that the cause of the leak can be identified shortly thereafter.  Every option must be on the table – including a full replacement of the tank – to ensure that the continuing leak will not occur again.” Upton has announced plans to visit the plant with a board member from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the near future.

The NRC is investigating why the leak rake suddenly increased from 5 gallons per day to over 90 gallons per day in the course of one 24-hour period, but the leaking tank cannot be fully inspected until all of the remaining water is drained.

While the only permanent and reliable fix is to replace the leaking tank, the utility, Entergy requests an alternative fix for the tank “that would add a fiberglass-reinforced vinyl ester liner to the tank bottom and to a portion of the tank wall in lieu of identifying the location of the thru-wallleak(s) and performing code compliant repairs.”

The proposed liner would be applied the bottom of the tank and two feet up the interior walls. The utility says it plans to install the liner in the fall during a scheduled refueling outage. “(The liner) will eliminate tank bottom leakage by forming a leak tight membrane on the tank bottom, isolating leak pathways. It will provide the required containment of the tank contents in lieu of relying on the existing aluminum tank bottom for this function. Further degradation of the welds in the current aluminum boundary is not expected based on ENO’s understanding of the cause of the leakage and the repairs that have been performed. If any further weld degradation were to occur, the degradation will not affect the lining since the lining will be a distinct and independent material. While bonded to the surface of the existing tank, the physical properties of the liner will prevent potential future weld degradation, if it were to occur, from propagating into and through the liner.”

Source: Michigan Radio

The post Congressman: NRC needs to get serious on Palisades appeared first on Enformable.

The debris, which is approximately 1 cubic meter in size, was transferred to a building on the south side of the Fukushima Daiichi complex for temporary storage, until it can be transferred to a solid waste storage site in the future.

Source: JiJi Press

The post Highly radioactive debris recovered from atop crippled Fukushima Daiichi reactor appeared first on Enformable.

The work is being monitored by on-site inspectors from the NRC, but thus far the workers have been unable to locate the source of the leak.  The utility has not indicated if it will attempt to repair the leaking tank or if it has committed to the replacement of the tank, which would require a longer shutdown.

The Palisades plant, operated by Entergy Corp. has been facing additional oversight from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after repeated safety issues, plant shutdowns, and indications that the plant has not even been meeting its own standards.

Source: NRC Event Notifications

The post Palisades nuclear power plant shut down due to leaks appeared first on Enformable.

An employee supervisor at the V.C. Summer nuclear power plant in South Carolina tested positive for alcohol during a random fitness for duty test.  The individual has had site access terminated.

Source: NRC Event Notifications

The post Employee supervisor at V.C. Summer nuclear power plant fails fitness for duty test appeared first on Enformable.

Early Easter Sunday morning, an industrial accident at the Arkansas Nuclear Power Plant killed one worker and injured 8 others and left the unit without offsite power.  At the time of the accident, workers were moving the Main Turbine Generator Stator out of the turbine building when the lift crane failed and dropped the load.  In the days after the event it was announced that the United States Occupational & Health Administration would investigate the incident and the NRC later announced that they would investigate the licensee’s response to the event.

While the event was immediately picked up by headlines around the world, very little information has been released in the meantime. Our readers have been sharing different opinions on the accident, describing two distinct scenarios which may have resulted in the accident.  We would like to share these two scenarios, not to imply which may or may not be the most likely, but to help communicate the difficulty of the operation being performed and encourage healthy discussion of safety-related accidents to ensure that lessons are learned.

In the first scenario, it was noted that the Bigge equipment did not look severely damaged, that the stator had made it from the turbine deck to the hatchway and was in the process of being turned correctly to be lowered to the transport below.  It appears that the front left leg of the gantry crane was positioned on a floor beam. That beam is bent. A rational hypothesis could be posed asking whether or not the floor which supported the front two legs of the gantry beams was strong enough, and if the under-beam buckled and the gantry came apart.  The turbine deck was strong enough to support the back two legs of the gantry, and may have had jack plates built into the foundation. The legs of gantry may have been positioned right above foundation columns under the turbine deck, while the front legs were on building floor. This could like the fatal flaw for this scenario, and even though the floor beam held for a while, it may have then deflected.

In the second scenario, it was noted that the end of the long travel beams over the hoist well were fully supported on two vertical beams from a beam in the rail bay with a horizontal beam at the turbine floor level and two further verticals to the main long travel beams (this could be a standard arrangement for Bigge systems). In this scenario, the accident could have been the result of the vertical supports tilting, stopping the load too quickly as it was being rotated to align with the hoist well and causing the whole rig to collapse.

Source: Efin Engineer

Source: Frank Bailey

Source: SteamShovel2002

The post Healthy discussion of the Arkansas Nuclear One accident appeared first on Enformable.

In 2013, Edison International has been focused on narrowing the uncertainties which surround the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station after a first-of-a-kind event shut down the nuclear reactors.  The licensee submitted a plan to return Unit 2 to 70% power for an initial 5-month period, but was unable to provide a plan which would ensure the accelerated wear which shut down both units would be arrested and admitted that the problems would lead to a shortened life expectancy of the plant without massive overhauls.  Edison is worried the process could be delayed due to the number of interveners and other groups which are filing appeals, and have admitted that it could stretch into year-end or a longer period.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission continues to evaluate Southern California Edison’s Confirmatory Action Letter response, despite the request of multiple public officials and state organizations to provide a more in-depth review of the problems at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.  The NRC’s continued consideration of the restart plan has attracted an unforeseen amount of controversy and opposition.  Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the company which designed and manufactured the steam generators, has advised that a possible course of action would be the replacement of significant portions of the steam generator, a process that could take more than 5 years.

The licensee had requested the NRC made a decision on the Unit 2 restart by May 24th, so they could restart by June 1st, but now they do not expect this timeline to be met and admitted that it is very likely the process to continue for at least a few more months before any NRC decision is made.  In the April 16th notice of the Federal Register, the NRC requested public comments on Southern California Edison’s proposed license amendment, though the 30 day window to submit comments is nearly half expended.  The license amendment notice also requests comments on the NRC’s proposed no significant hazards consideration determination.  The commission can make a decision on the license amendment request if there’s a no significant hazards consideration following the public comment period.

In a first-quarter results conference call, Edison executives acknowledged that “there’s a general limit of how much” the company can rack up in terms of cost “without certainty of recovery” but options to limit costs are limited due to logistics of restarting the facility if a favorable decision is reached.   Edison is hoping that the outside parties allow the nuclear safety technical work to be overseen by the NRC, as it would likely allow the fastest restart of the Unit 2 reactor, but the public has a right to file motions to stay the issuance of license amendments before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and federal courts.  Though Edison has laid off as many workers as possible while waiting for a decision to restart, they are working to keep all systems at the nuclear power plant ready to go so that if a decision to restart is made, they can do so as quickly as possible, but even if the license amendment is approved by the NRC, the approval of the Confirmatory Action Letter restart plan for the Unit 2 reactor could take some time, and the licensee would be forced to obtain necessary authorizations for long-term power operation beyond that cycle.

While on one hand publicly promoting the safety of the restart plan to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the public, Edison is worried about the possibility of future stranded costs, where there is no further opportunity to reduce the debt and the utility is forced to eat the difference. To address this potential and reduce the soaring costs, Edison is working swiftly behind the scenes to recover as much as possible from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and have also filed over $230 million in insurance policy claims with the NEIL nuclear insurance program.  The utility is also still in the early stages of proceedings with the California Public Utilities Commission to review possible rate-hikes for incurred costs related to the outage.

If denied the authority to restart the Unit 2 reactor, Edison executives have indicated that a decision to decommission one or both units would likely be made before the end of the year.  This announcement signals Edison’s attempt to warn the NRC and nuclear industry that without some clarity on what the NRC decision is going to be, it will be difficult for the licensee to continue underwriting the costs of the outage.  “There’s a practical limit to how much we can absorb of that risk,” said Theodore F. Craver, Chief Executive Officer and President.

Source: Edison Transcripts

The post Without permission to restart Unit 2 Edison may announce decision to decommission San Onofre by end of year appeared first on Enformable.