Group items tagged

"Download: Palisades Recurring Leakage (07/16/10) The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) regulations (specifically Appendix B to 10 CFR Part 50) require that plant owners find and fix safety problems. At the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, there have been recurring leaks of reactor cooling water past the seals on the control rod drives. Such a leak forced operators to shut down the reactor on June 24, 2010, for yet another repair attempt. Workers have replaced the seals numerous times, trying different designs and materials. Workers have also modified and re-modified the ventilation system for the area where the control rod drive seals are located in attempts to prevent seal damage from high temperatures. As our brief describes, the Palisades' owner found it cannot fix this safety problem. This is where an effective regulator would step in. Safety regulations require safety problems to be found and fixed. The NRC must stop monitoring the repetitive failures at Palisades and take the steps necessary to ensue that the proper fix is finally found. "

"Human error continued to hinder operations in 2009 at the Palisades nuclear power plant, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The commission found last year that workers failed to notice a problem in the pool where spent fuel rods are stored. The finding kept Palisades for the second year in a row on an NRC list of plants that require additional regulatory oversight. A plant spokesman disputed the NRC's finding, saying the pool is safe. He said the 700-worker plant takes training and human error issues very seriously. Palisades has "strong training programs that focus on human performance," said spokesman Mark Savage. But the problem, reported by the NRC in its annual safety assessment of the nuclear plant, follows several notable lapses at the plant in recent years, including:"

Entergy Nuclear Palisades, LLC (Palisades Nuclear Plant); Order Approving Indirect Transfer of Facility Operating License

A second radioactive leak at the Palisades nuclear plant has been fixed. "I'm happy to say we have found the source of the leak," said Mark Savage, the public-affairs and communications director for Palisades, "and have repaired that." The new leak was at a turn in a pipe and was because of the failure of a weld, Savage said. The pipes and welds are stainless steel. "We think it was during original construction," Savage said. In June, Savage told the Van Buren County Board of Commissioners that tritium levels were rising in monitoring wells.

For some unknown reason, there's still detectable radioactive tritium in one well at the Palisades nuclear plant. Mark Savage, public affairs and communications director for Palisades, told the Van Buren County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday that 13 of its monitoring wells are below the "minimal detectable activity," or MDA, for the substance. But one well still has detectable levels. "All of the 14 wells, save the one, continue to show MDA," Savage said.

Four errors of ``very low safety significance'' were identified by investigators looking into how workers became trapped in a containment area at Palisades Nuclear Power Plant, a government report says. Palisades has been ``taking action to correct'' all of the problems, said Mark Savage, communications manager for the plant, near South Haven. Five workers who were inspecting safety-related piping and components during a plant shutdown were trapped in a high-temperature area for about 90 minutes Aug. 6 when a hatch malfunctioned. They were able to exit when another worker entered.

Michigan regulators on Tuesday ordered Consumers Energy to return an additional $36 million from the sale of its Palisades nuclear plant to customers to help offset utility plans to implement a $179 million electric rate hike. The CMS Energy subsidiary asked the Michigan Public Service Commission last November for a nearly $215 million annual rate hike, citing "substantial investments" it is making to serve its 1.8 million electric customers. The state's new comprehensive energy law, which the Legislature passed last year, includes a "file and use" provision allowing utilities to implement rate cases if the PSC has not acted within 180 days of a filing. That deadline for Consumers falls on Thursday and the utility intends to implement the hike, subject to refund. Consumers can implement the entire rate request if the PSC fails to issue a final order by November 14.

Entergy was dealt another setback in its efforts to form a new holding company for six of its nuclear reactors after a pair of New York state administrative law judges told the state's Public Service Commission it shouldn't issue its final decision until Feb. 11. The judges wrote that the PSC needs time to determine whether Enexus' forecasted financial position is "at least as good as Entergy's," considering that Enexus is currently a shell corporation with no financial history that can be examined, as reported in SNL Energy Finance Daily on Dec. 15. That's especially important, wrote the judges, because Enexus would be an "unaffiliated" owner of nuclear generating facilities, and there is "no other company in the world" like it, reported SNL. Entergy wants to spin off Vermont Yankee in Vernon, Indian Point and FitzPatrick in New York, Palisades in Michigan and Plymouth in Massachusetts into an independent company named Enexus. The plants are considered merchant plants because they sell electricity directly to the power market with price controls set by the states they are located in. When the transaction was first proposed, Entergy said that Enexus would have $4.5 billion in debt. That didn't sit well with the PSC, so Entergy came back with the lower figure of $3.5 billion and assured the PSC that Enexus would have liquidity of $350 million and an unrestricted cash balance of $750 million.

Entergy was dealt another setback in its efforts to form a new holding company for six of its nuclear reactors after a pair of New York state administrative law judges told the state's Public Service Commission it shouldn't issue its final decision until Feb. 11. The judges wrote that the PSC needs time to determine whether Enexus' forecasted financial position is "at least as good as Entergy's," considering that Enexus is currently a shell corporation with no financial history that can be examined, as reported in SNL Energy Finance Daily on Dec. 15. That's especially important, wrote the judges, because Enexus would be an "unaffiliated" owner of nuclear generating facilities, and there is "no other company in the world" like it, reported SNL. Entergy wants to spin off Vermont Yankee in Vernon, Indian Point and FitzPatrick in New York, Palisades in Michigan and Plymouth in Massachusetts into an independent company named Enexus. The plants are considered merchant plants because they sell electricity directly to the power market with price controls set by the states they are located in. When the transaction was first proposed, Entergy said that Enexus would have $4.5 billion in debt. That didn't sit well with the PSC, so Entergy came back with the lower figure of $3.5 billion and assured the PSC that Enexus would have liquidity of $350 million and an unrestricted cash balance of $750 million.

The Shaw Group's power division has expanded its contract with Entergy Corp. to provide nuclear maintenance services at the 798-megawatt Palisades nuclear power plant near South Haven, Michigan. The Shaw Group, a Baton Rouge company that provides maintenance to roughly 40 percent of the nuclear reactors in the country, did not disclose how much it will be paid under the expanded contract.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has approved the transfer of operating licenses for the FitzPatrick, Indian Point Units 2 and 3, Palisades, Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee nuclear power plants from owner Entergy Corp. to new owner Enexus Energy Corporation. The transfer also covers the licenses for the permanently shut down Indian Point Unit 1 and the independent spent fuel storage installation at Big Rock Point. The staff's approval of the transfer is effective July 28.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued annual assessment letters to the nation's 104 operating commercial nuclear power plants. All the plants continue to operate safely. "Our ongoing assessment of nuclear power plant performance is at the heart of the agency's mission of protecting people and the environment," said Eric Leeds, director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. "The 2008 year-end results show that about 83 percent of the plants are performing strongly enough that we're satisfied with our basic level of inspections at those sites." If a nuclear power plant's performance declines, the NRC increases the level of inspection to ensure the plant operator is taking the steps necessary to correct the situation. The additional amount of inspection is commensurate with the level of plant performance. At the close of last year, only one reactor, Unit 3 at Palo Verde (Ariz.), required the NRC's highest level of attention. Three reactor units, Cooper (Neb.) and Units 1 and 2 at Palo Verde (Ariz.), required significant NRC attention. And another 14 reactor units, Units 1 and 2 at Byron (Ill.), Unit 1 at Comanche Peak (Texas), Unit 1 at Farley (Ala.), Unit 1 at Grand Gulf ( Miss.), Unit 2 at Hatch (Ga.), Kewaunee (Wis.), Units 1 and 2 at McGuire (N.C.), Unit 2 at Nine Mile Point (N.Y.), Unit 1 at Oconee (S.C.), Palisades (Mich.), Unit 1 at Prairie Island (Minn.), and Unit 2 at San Onofre (Calif.), required additional attention beyond the basic level.

Entergy Corp. has filed a proposal with utility regulators in New York state in a push to get approval of its long-running plan to spin off some of its nuclear power plants into a separate company. Under a plan announced in late 2007, Entergy would spin off six nuclear reactors involved in the wholesale power business into a separate publicly traded company called Enexus Energy Corp. Enexus would control five nuclear operations: Pilgrim Nuclear Station near Plymouth, Mass.; the James A. Fitzpatrick station in Oswego County, N.Y.; two units at the Indian Point Energy Center in Westchester County, N.Y.; Vermont Yankee in Vernon, Vt.; and Palisades Power Plant in Covert, Mich.