Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumThousands of uncertified parts installed in TVA nuclear plants
Friday, April 19th, 2013, by Daniel Potter
The new president of the Tennessee Valley Authority says hes worried over a failure to properly vet parts used at several of its nuclear power plants. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission stepped up oversight of TVA last month over required quality checks.
Every last piece of a nuclear plant has to have proof its up to snuff, says TVA president Bill Johnson.
These can be pretty simple parts like light switches were not talking about big major nuclear parts.
Johnson says thousands of parts slipped by without certification over the course of several years. Asked if hes worried how the situation looks, he said I worry about us ever not getting every regulation right, every standard right, every specification right. These are things were supposed to do, this should not have happened, and then you fix it and make sure it never happens again....
http://wpln.org/?p=47235
Translation: "Ooops, my bad, no biggy."
darkangel218
(13,985 posts)OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)(Lets not lose sight of that.)
The light switch in the mens room probably doesnt need the same degree of certification as a switch on the master control panel.
darkangel218
(13,985 posts)Any part of the electrical system could potentially malfunction and create HUGE problems. Especially if it's not certified. I wouldn't want a switch like that in my house, why would you be ok with it in a nuclear plant?
FBaggins
(26,731 posts)We're not talking about switches without a U/L listing. We're talking about parts that weren't certified at the higher standard (which doesn't mean that they don't meet them).
FBaggins
(26,731 posts)Arnie will have a "We almost lost Tennesee" theory shortly.
Probably something to do with a key operator being afraid of the dark... so he's forced to hold it when the switch goes bad (which is only a matter of time)... he focuses so much on his discomfort that he fails to pay attention and accidentally kicks out the extension cord for offsite power.
All joking aside. The interviewee seems to have the right perspective. Even if there isn't a direct risk from this error, nuclear plants are supposed to have VERY tight quality control. They now need to evaluate the full process and make certain that more important parts are as they need to be.
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)If people bought (UL rated) light switches down at the local hardware store, that would be good enough for some applications.
kristopher
(29,798 posts)Wouldn't you say?
Meanwhile in India:
Reported by Pallava Bagla, Edited by Ashish Mukherjee | Updated: April 20, 2013 10:27 IST
New Delhi: For the very first time, India's nuclear watchdog, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), has indicated that faulty parts have been found at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant. The problematic valves are being replaced, said officials.
The Department of Atomic Energy, which reports to the Prime Minister, has been insisting that the nuclear facility in coastal Tamil Nadu is safe and ready to be commissioned in weeks.
Protesters, including local fishermen and villagers who have campaigned long and hard against the nuclear plant, have repeatedly shared their concern that sub-standard equipment has been installed at the facility.
...
AERB told NDTV that the defective valves were part of the special passive cooling system installed in these nuclear reactors to avert a Fukushima-type accident.
http://www.ndtv.com/article/south/india-s-nuclear-watchdog-finds-faulty-valves-in-kudankulam-plant-356391
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)No, Im not worried about the fox guarding the chickens.
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2013/mar/29/tva-cited-for-not-testing-nuclear-parts/
[font size=5]TVA cited for not testing nuclear parts[/font]
by Pam Sohn
[font size=3]Federal regulators have cited TVA with three more apparent violations at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant this time over thousands of parts the utility purchased that are not documented as nuclear-grade quality.
In 1995, the NRC recognized that nuclear operators were having increasing problems finding nuclear-grade parts as the industry's growth lulled in the United States after the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. So regulators enacted rules requiring that parts obtained from non-nuclear-certified vendors must receive special and strict industry testing to be performed and documented by the operators.
TVA officials who met Thursday with NRC regulators in Atlanta acknowledged that their engineers didn't notice the new rules and didn't make the change.
Calle told NRC officials that TVA officials have confidence in the parts based on the utility's historical relationships with the commercial vendors and the specifications of their purchase orders. The quality of the parts is not the problem, he said. Rather, the trouble was in TVA's record-keeping for quality control.
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OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)[font size=5]NRC SCHEDULES MEETING WITH TVA TO DISCUSS USE OF COMMERCIAL PARTS IN ITS OPERATING NUCLEAR PLANTS[/font]
[font size=3]The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has scheduled a meeting for Thursday, March 28, to discuss the Tennessee Valley Authoritys commercial grade dedication program for its operating units at three nuclear plant sites Watts Bar and Sequoyah in Tennessee, and Browns Ferry in Alabama.
The NRC requires certain components in a nuclear plant to meet strict nuclear quality assurance standards. Commercial grade dedication is a process that provides reasonable assurance that components purchased from a commercial supplier are equivalent to nuclear grade items. This assurance is achieved through documented inspections, tests or analyses.
The NRC identified some issues with TVAs commercial grade dedication program during the continuing construction of Watts Bar Unit 2. TVA subsequently began an effort to review that program at Watts Bar Unit 1 and at both Sequoyah and Browns Ferry. Neither TVA nor the NRC has identified any significant issues related to the safe operation of the units.
The March 28 meeting is being held at the request of TVA and is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. EDT in the NRCs Region II office. That office is located at 245 Peachtree Center Avenue NE, Suite 1200, in Atlanta. The meeting will be open to public observation, and NRC staff will be available to answer questions after the business portion of the meeting.
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madokie
(51,076 posts)Nuclear energy has the potential of great harm, need I say more
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)At this point, there is no indication that the parts in question are not up-to-snuff.