I knew things were BAD at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station but HOLY CRAP
http://www.azcentral.com
U.S. begins 2 probes at Palo Verde
Recent woes raise concerns on safety
Max Jarman
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 21, 2004 12:00 AM
For the fourth time this year, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is sending special investigative teams to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station west of Phoenix to take a closer look at recent events at the plant.
Federal regulators said one group will determine whether air recently found trapped in key safety lines posed a significant threat to the plant.
Palo Verde concerns
Some events that have raised regulatory concerns at Palo Verde this year:
JANUARY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials call in Palo Verde managers to discuss concerns raised over allegations of deteriorating relations between management and workers.
FEB. 3: Unit 1 is shut down when radioactive water is discovered dripping from a drain line.
FEB. 19: Unit 2 is shut down when radioactive water is found leaking from a tube in the unit's steam generator. The NRC launches an investigation.
FEB. 29: Unit 3 is shut down because of electrical problems. Later, boron is found on a heater sleeve, indicating a leak of radioactive material.
MAY: NRC team sent to Palo Verde to investigate a potential erosion of a "culture of safety" after allegations of management-employee disconnect.
JUNE 7: Unit 3 shut down after turbine control fails.
JUNE 14: Units 1, 2 and 3 are shut down when a power surge cuts off outside power to the plant. NRC sends a team to investigate.
JULY 29: Air is found in a line that provides water for emergency cooling for the plant's three reactor cores.
AUG. 20: NRC sends team to Palo Verde to evaluate July 29 waterline issue and follow up on investigation of June 14 outage.
The other team will follow up on the investigation of a June 14 power surge in the West Valley that shut down the plant's three reactors. Regulators noted concerns about the way the nuclear plant had shut down and the age of some of the equipment at the Westwing electrical substation, where the surge should have been stopped.
Regulators say there has been an unusually high number of problems at Palo Verde this year, but they believe they are unrelated and not indicative of a pattern of neglect or faulty procedures.
"If they have questions, we'll answer them," said Jim McDonald, spokesman for plant operator Arizona Public Service Co. "We don't anticipate this being an ongoing problem."
Investigators probed a steam generator leak in February, and in May they investigated allegations of erosion of a "culture of safety" because of what was called a disconnect between management and workers.
The June 14 incident was one of five unplanned outages at Palo Verde this year that have caught regulators' eyes. Three of the events involved radiation leaks.
Anthony Gody, chief of the NRC's Region IV Reactor Safety Division, said Palo Verde has had an unusually high number of problems this year. "These things are supposed to operate pretty reliably," he said.
Palo Verde's first two units were completed in 1986 and are approaching middle age. Palo Verde is the nation's largest nuclear power plant and is commissioned for 40 years, although APS will likely seek an extension.
The initial investigation of the June incident concluded that the safe shutdown of the plant was "complicated by equipment failures, procedural issues and human performance issues."
Victor Dricks, a spokesman in the NRC's Region IV headquarters in Arlington, Texas, said the agency felt the incident needed a "closer look."
The second issue to be investigated involves air found inside lines that supply water for emergency cooling of Palo Verde's three nuclear reactor cores.
The pipes were dry when inspected July 29, raising concerns that the void could incapacitate the pumps when they were started.
APS simply filled the pipes with water after the discovery.
The commission said it wanted to independently assess APS' corrective action to determine if it is acceptable for the long term and that there are no generic issues for other nuclear plants.
The problem also has been identified at the Waterford Nuclear Power Plant in Louisiana.
Palo Verde Manager Dave Smith said the eventual replacement of water with air was because of the way the system was designed. If the NRC concludes that it poses a safety risk, Smith said, APS will take corrective action. He was unsure what that would involve.
All three of the plant's reactors are running at full capacity.
Meanwhile, Gregg Overbeck, APS senior vice president in charge of Palo Verde, was in Arlington on Friday to answer questions about a 2002 accident that damaged a radioactive fuel assembly being installed at the plant.
The accident was not immediately reported to plant managers, and an investigation raised concerns about "willful disregard for procedural requirements."
The NRC raised concerns this year about allegations of a disconnect between Palo Verde's management and its employees, which regulators said possibly could lead to an erosion of the plant's culture of safety.
Palo Verde led the industry last year with the number of allegations filed by employees with the NRC. The allegations are generally filed with the agency because the employee could not get satisfaction from management or they feared retaliation.
The 28 allegations ranged from safety concerns such as the showers and eyewash stations to more generic human resource issues.
