Sep 29, 2024: The case against restarting Three Mile Island’s Unit-1

From Japan Realtime:

It’s official: Japan now has four fewer nuclear reactors than it did the day before.

That’s because on April 19, one year, one month and one week after Fukushima Daiichi units 1 through 4 lost power and either melted down or blew up, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. formally announced it had taken them out of service forever, never to be restarted ever again.

JRT readers may be wondering why it took so long for this to happen. After all, by the end of March 2011, most of the fuel rods of units 1, 2 and 3 had melted, while explosions had destroyed the reactor buildings at units 1, 3 and 4. The radiation around most of those units is still so high that people can’t go inside.

Tepco says its board of directors had actually bitten the bullet and decided to decommission the units last May. But they only started on the paperwork needed in December, after the government had declared the crisis stage of the Fukushima Daiichi accident to be over.

Since this wasn’t a routine power-plant decommissioning, it took about three months for the company to confirm what the right procedure under Japan’s electric utilities law was, says Tepco spokesman Yoshikazu Nagai. Tepco submitted the paperwork on March 30 of this year, and it took effect 20 days later. Bureaucracy has now caught up with reality.

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Susquehanna: Issuance of Amendment Re: Temporary Change to Unit 2 Technical Specifications 3.8.7 and 3.7.1

Download: ML12096A158

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Region I, located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, is moving effective May 14, 2012.

Download: PDF of announcement

Susquehanna Steam Electric Station (SSES), Unit 2 - Issuance of Amendment Re: Temporary Change to Unit 2 Technical Specifications 3.8.7 and 3.7.1 to Allow Implementation of Multiple Spurious Operations Modifications on SSES Unit 1, 4160 V Busses

Download: ML12096A158

From Press & Journal:

Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 reactor operated safely in 2011, despite unexpected wear on radioactive water-carrying tubes in its new steam generators and amid public fears of nuclear catastrophe after the meltdown of Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichireactor, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.

A series of inspections uncovered no significant safety issues, said David Werkheiser, one of two resident inspectors at TMI, during an annual open house on Wednesday, April 11 at the Londonderry Twp. municipal building.

A handful of tubes in TMI’s 2-year-old steam generators were rubbing together, causing wear that surprised NRC officials.

The damaged tubes were discovered during a routine refueling and maintenance of Unit 1, an event that takes place every two years.

Damage was found on 257 of the 31,194 tubes in the generators – thinned alloy walls that could have led to a rupture and release of radioactive steam into the turbine building. Seven were removed after the damage was discovered by Exelon Nuclear, the plant’s Chicago-based operator.

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From US NRC:

Filings on (2) of (3) NRC Post Fukushima Orders are now posed on NRC’s Electronic Hearing DocketEA-12-050 and EA 12-051 spent fuel storage & vent

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From PA DEP:

The Department of Environmental Protection has received $33,000 from NVI LLC based in Gray, La., as a result of a consent assessment of civil penalty for violations of the Radiation Protection Act in Wyalusing, Bradford County.

NVI conducts radiographic testing at temporary job sites in Pennsylvania to determine if there are flaws in building materials and welded pipelines.

“Companies that operate radiological equipment in Pennsylvania must be accountable to the provisions of the Radiation Protection Act,” DEP South-central Regional Director Rachel Diamond said. “Its regulations protect the safety of workers, and the department is committed to their enforcement.”

NVI notified DEP on Nov. 1, 2011, that an employee had received radiation exposure above the annual occupational dose due to a radiation source being unlocked and unshielded. Although the worker presented no immediate health effects following the incident, the employee was restricted from working around radiation sources to prevent additional exposure.

DEP reviewed a 30-day report submitted by NVI that revealed the company had also failed to check survey equipment to ensure proper functioning, did not conduct a visual inspection of the survey equipment at the job site and failed to follow proper emergency procedures. DEP issued a notice of violation on Dec. 20, 2011.

The report documented corrective actions taken by NVI to address the violations and verified that NVI is now in compliance.

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From ENENews:

Originally the nuclear industry and government reports in the United States concluded that the maximum gamma dose to a member of the general population there was about 1 mSv and that the Three Mile Island meltdown would not result in detectable health effects.

But Dr. Steve Wing and colleagues re-analyzed data from the TMI Public Health Fund. The result: “Increases in cancer incidence after the 1979 TMI incident were greater in areas estimated to have been more exposed to accident plumes. … These associations were stronger, in particular for all cancers and leukemia. …Findings support the allegation that people in the area who reported erythema (skin redness), hair loss, vomiting and pet deaths at the time of the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear melt down were not suffering from emotional stress, but rather were exposed to high level radiation.”

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Forthcoming Meeting with Exelon Nuclear to Discuss Future Fleet Submittal

Download: ML120860290

From PA DEP:

The Department of Environmental Protection has received $33,000 from NVI LLC based in Gray, La., as a result of a consent assessment of civil penalty for violations of the Radiation Protection Act in Wyalusing, Bradford County.

NVI conducts radiographic testing at temporary job sites in Pennsylvania to determine if there are flaws in building materials and welded pipelines.

“Companies that operate radiological equipment in Pennsylvania must be accountable to the provisions of the Radiation Protection Act,” DEP South-central Regional Director Rachel Diamond said. “Its regulations protect the safety of workers, and the department is committed to their enforcement.”

NVI notified DEP on Nov. 1, 2011, that an employee had received radiation exposure above the annual occupational dose due to a radiation source being unlocked and unshielded. Although the worker presented no immediate health effects following the incident, the employee was restricted from working around radiation sources to prevent additional exposure.

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