TMI Update: Jan 14, 2024

Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 1 - Three Mile Island - NRC Integrated Inspection Report 05000289/2012002

Download: ML12122A131

From Huffington Post:

From her home, Mary Lampert, 70, has a clear view of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, which sits just across the Duxbury and Plymouth Bays in coastal Massachusetts. The proximity, Lampert says, lends itself to a good deal of contemplating "what ifs." Among these: what if the Pilgrim plant experienced a meltdown like the one that unfolded just over a year ago in Fukushima, Japan?

"I live just six miles from that plant across open water," says Lampert, a staunch advocate for tougher oversight of the nuclear power industry. "It always comes down to public safety versus the cost to industry of implementing something."

So it has been, Lampert argues, with one seemingly straightforward emergency feature: Requiring a filtered vent in the concrete containment buildings surrounding nuclear reactors like the one at Pilgrim.

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Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Units 2 and 3 – Issuance of Amendments Re: Revise Actions for Reactor Coolant System Leakage Instrumentation (TAC Nos. ME6008 and ME6009)

Download: ML120940055

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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