Oyster Creek
Wall Street Journal, 10-29-2012 8:25pm
Dangerous Water Levels at Nuclear Plant
"Rising water threatened the cooling system at the Oyster Creek nuclear plant, in Toms River, N.J., on Monday night. The plant declared an alert at 8:45 p.m., which is the second-lowest level of the four-tier emergency scale established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The water level was more than six feet above normal. At seven feet, the plant would lose the ability to cool its spent fuel pool in the normal fashion, according to Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The plant would probably have to switch to using fire hoses to pump in extra water to make up for evaporation, Mr. Sheehan said, because it could no longer pull water out of Barnegat Bay and circulate it through a heat exchanger, to cool the water in the pool.
If ordinary cooling ceased, the pool would take 25 hours to reach the boiling point, he said, giving the operators ample time to take corrective steps. The reactor itself has been shut since Oct. 22 for refueling, so it is relatively cool."
Yay.
Oyster Creek Degraded
Oyster Creek Degraded condition
PINHOLE LEAK IN REACTOR HEAD SPRAY LINE
Power Reactor
Event Number: 48537
Facility: OYSTER CREEK
Region: 1 State: NJ
Unit: [1] [ ] [ ]
RX Type: [1] GE-2
NRC Notified By: STEVE JOHNSTON
HQ OPS Officer: CHARLES TEAL
Notification Date: 11/27/2012
Notification Time: 00:02 [ET]
Event Date: 11/26/2012
Event Time: 19:30 [EST]
Last Update Date: 11/27/2012
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(3)(ii)(A) - DEGRADED CONDITION
Person (Organization):
JAMES DWYER (R1DO)
Unit
Current RX Mode
Cold Shutdown
Event Text
"Pinhole leak discovered on a Reactor Head Spray line weld during Nuclear Steam Supply System Leak Test."
"Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station is currently in the Shutdown Condition executing Refueling Outage 1R24, which includes Nuclear Steam Supply System (NSSS) Leak Testing, prior to startup."
"At 1930 on 11/26/2012, a pinhole leak was discovered on a Reactor Head Spray Class 1 piping weld. The leak was discovered during the NSSS Leak Test, while the Reactor was in the Shutdown Condition. The leak is on a flange to piping weld on the Reactor Head Spray system upstream of the N-7B nozzle. Water was found to be weeping from the pinhole leak (approximately 2 to 3 drops per minute)."
"The cause is under investigation and corrective action plans are being developed."
"The leak has been evaluated by Exelon and determined to meet the criteria for reporting identified in NUREG-1022: Welding or material defects in the primary coolant system that cannot be found acceptable under ASME Section XI, IWB-3600, 'Analytical Evaluation of Flaws,' or ASME Section XI, Table IWB-3410-1, 'Acceptable Standards.'"
The NRC Resident Inspector has been informed."
When doing home plumbing and finding a pinhole leak in a pipe it is bad news, the internal integrity of all the pipework becomes suspect.
This is a pinhole leak in the primary coolant system of this Nuclear Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) in New Jersey.
A loss-of-coolant accident due to such a leak rupturing under the high pressure can easily lead to core meltdown in this type of reactor.
“Pinhole leaks rapidly grow when in use. The pinhole wouldn’t have been a pinhole very long,” Arnie Gunderson
During Hurricane Sandy an
During Hurricane Sandy an astonishing 36 of the 43 emergency sirens for the area surrounding the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey were not working, 84% failed (see NRC event 48450).
The people living in New Jersey should be aware that the majority of these so-called emergency sirens were not working when a real nuclear emergency at Oyster Creek was actually occurring (see NRC event 48452).
It is interesting that the NRC considers the loss of emergency sirens in an emergency to be a 'non-emergency'.
An emergency was declared at Oyster Creek during Hurricane Sandy due to flooded non-functional cooling intakes combined with a loss of off-site power.
The NRC wording in the event declaration during Hurricane Sandy for Oyster Creek makes it clear this was an emergency:
"At 2044 EDT on 10/29/2012, the licensee escalated its emergency declaration to an Alert ... "
Off-site power is needed during an outage to keep the cooling systems running, losing that power is a major problem if the on-site emergency diesels do not then start when off-site power is lost, or if the diesels then fail in use before off-site power is restored.
The emergency diesels are being relied upon during that time to power the emergency electrical systems and run the cooling pumps.
Shutdown cooling and spent fuel pool cooling were both reported by the NRC to be lost for an unspecified length of time at Oyster Creek during Hurricane Sandy.
The loss of spent fuel pool cooling causes the pool water to heat up and eventually it will start boiling dry in an estimated 25 hours if nothing is done to stop it.
A boiling fuel pool would then be followed by a fuel pool nuclear fire and widespread fallout,
a fuel pool fire is one of the worst-case scenarios for a nuclear power plant disaster.
It is not clear from the NRC event report or Exelon's press release when exactly the off-site power itself was restored,
but according to the statements made by both parties restoration of off-site power
may only have occurred as much as 35 hours after the original power loss.
Exelon and the NRC need to clarify and document the duration of the off-site power loss.
This nuclear emergency was a close call,
and it was happening yesterday in highly populated New Jersey.
For NRC events 48450 and 48452 see the following web-page, scroll down the page, the events are in the middle, also see Salem NPP event 48457, there they lost all 6 steam condenser circulators and were forced to steam-dump to atmosphere:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/event/2012/20...
Exelon:
http://www.exeloncorp.com/Newsroom/WatersRecede,OysterCreekTerminatesAle...
From the NRC's event web page:
Power Reactor
Event Number: 48450
Facility: OYSTER CREEK
Region: 1 State: NJ
Unit: [1] [ ] [ ]
RX Type: [1] GE-2
NRC Notified By: JOHN CLARK
HQ OPS Officer: DAN LIVERMORE
Notification Date: 10/29/2012
Notification Time: 16:15 [ET]
Event Date: 10/29/2012
Event Time: 15:00 [EDT]
Last Update Date: 10/30/2012
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(3)(xiii) - LOSS COMM/ASMT/RESPONSE
Person (Organization):
JOHN CARUSO (R1DO)
JANE MARSHALL (IRD)
...
Event Text
LOSS OF 21 EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SIRENS
...
As of 0320 EDT on 10/30/12, it was determined that 36 of the 43 Emergency Planning Zone sirens were out of service, and the licensee continues work to rectify the issue.
Power Reactor
Event Number: 48452
Facility: OYSTER CREEK
Region: 1 State: NJ
Unit: [1] [ ] [ ]
RX Type: [1] GE-2
NRC Notified By: STEVE SERPE
HQ OPS Officer: RYAN ALEXANDER
Notification Date: 10/29/2012
Notification Time: 19:18 [ET]
Event Date: 10/29/2012
Event Time: 18:55 [EDT]
Last Update Date: 10/31/2012
Emergency Class: ALERT
10 CFR Section:
50.72(a) (1) (i) - EMERGENCY DECLARED
50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A) - VALID SPECIF SYS ACTUATION
50.72(b)(3)(v)(B) - POT RHR INOP
Person (Organization):
JOHN CARUSO (R1DO)
WILLIAM DEAN (R1 R)
ERIC LEEDS (NRR)
MICHELE EVANS (NRR)
JANE MARSHALL (IRD)
VICTOR MCCREE (R2 R)
...
Event Text
NOTICE OF UNUSUAL EVENT DECLARED DUE TO HIGH INTAKE STRUCTURE WATER LEVEL
At 1855 EDT on 10/29/2012, the licensee declared a Notice of Unusual Event (NOUE) per criteria HU4 for high water level in the station intake structure of greater than 4.5 feet. At the time of the notification, water level in the intake structure was approximate 4.8 feet and slowly rising. The cause of the increased water level was due to storm surge associated with Hurricane Sandy. No other station impacts were reported at the time. The licensee continues to monitor the intake levels and ocean tides.
The licensee has notified the NRC Resident Inspector and the State of New Jersey.
* * * ALERT UPDATE ON 10/29/2012 AT 2141 EDT FROM STEVE SERPE TO RYAN ALEXANDER * * *
At 2044 EDT on 10/29/2012, the licensee escalated its emergency declaration to an Alert per criteria HA4 for high water level in the station intake structure of greater than 6.0 feet.
At the time of the notification, water level in the intake structure was approximately 6.6 feet.
The site also experienced a loss of offsite power event concurrent with the additional water level increase.
Both emergency diesel generators started and are supplying power to the emergency electrical busses.
Shutdown cooling and spent fuel pool cooling have been restored.
Reactor pressure vessel level is steady at 584.7 inches.
Intake levels continues to rise slowly and the licensee is monitoring.