There was an accident that took place at Arkansas Nuclear One Power Plant back on March 31st 2013. Which was Easter Sunday. The companies involved were fined after the investigation into why a young 25 year old fresh graduate was killed and 8 more workers ended up injured. arkansasmatters/…/sto…/WKMAV9kMiUqm0zX9HNE-sw THE FINES ARE A Fen JOKE!!! THIS WAS A VERY SERIOUS NEAR-MISS OF A MAJOR NUCLEAR MELT DOWN. The cooling could have been lost for the SPENT FUEL POOL if it wasnt for the Backup Diesel Generators. One reactor was in maintenance shutdown but still needed cooling for the Spent Fuel Pool and the other reactor was running at full capacity but was scrammed from the vibrational sensors and needed immediate cooling water available. This was a cascading failure as the force of the 1,050,000lbs Generator Stator took out the electrical system, the fire suppression system, and grid power that was needed to power the cooling pumps. Even without the added danger of the nuclear reactor contents or accumulated highly radioactive waste that can travel a hell of a lot farther than a 10 mile Emergency Protection Zone or 50 mile evacuation that would never happen with the flawed system of triggering such a Protection Action, nuclear reactor power stations are a dangerous place to work. Turns out this accident was a hell of a lot more of a close call to a full on nuclear melt down then the apologetic articles that came out at the time. enformable/…/healthy-discussion-of-the-arkansas…/ IF it wasnt for the crap shoot of whether or not the back up diesel generators actually started and ran without breaking down for a change then this huge and heavy piece of equipment falling would have taken out Arkansas Nuclear one, and whatever lay in the path that the wind would have been blowing. 50 miles be damned. Forevermore generational cleanup and cover-up commencement begins. What is even a bigger joke is the nuclear regulator that doesnt seem to care about actions that can cascade into a very serious matter for us all. What is their motto again? pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1400/ML14008A375.pdf -Some of the quick reports downplaying the incident leave a lot to be desired. Accurate reporting should never use the utility as a source. examiner/.../one-killed-eight-injured... -And never believe the stories from Mainstream Media. Ever. katv/.../arkansas-nuclear-one-accident... Why did OSHA issue financial penalties, but the NRC did not? During the AIT, the NRC coordinated with OSHA that was onsite at the time doing their investigation that focused on industrial safety. The NRC inspection activities focus on reactor, radiological, and physical security safety of the nuclear plant. OSHA issued financial penalties to each of the companies involved with the industrial accident because OSHA has jurisdiction. The NRC uses different assessment methods and enforcement actions than OSHA. The NRCs focus is the affect the stator drop had on nuclear safety. The NRC did consider issuing civil penalties, but no criteria were met that could impose civil penalties. (pg 10) pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1425/ML14258A108.pdf But if you go to page 25 it gets interesting.... : Michal asked about how the Red finding was reduced to Yellow. I explained to her the regulatory conference process and that ANO provided additional information during and after the regulatory conference that we evaluated. For items we specifically gave ANO credit, referenced her to the final significance determination letter. I did summarize that the primary reason that the risk was reduced was based on recovery credit of offsite power, which ANO did demonstrate that they could do. Indicated that ANO thought they should get 97%, but based on the adverse conditions that would exist during a blackout, we felt that 90% was more realistic and this reduced the risk to Yellow. Now to give you my take on this. There is one hell of a lot of force generated when you drop something this heavy, 525tons or 1,050,000 pounds. I read a report from the locals in the area that said the dropped Stator sounded like Thunder. It also creates a shock wave that propagates through the surrounding structure and machinery. Not only is the structure not designed for such a shock wave but neither is every load bearing surface in this plant. Including machinery bearings. That means that every rotating piece of machinery has bearings that are not designed to be shocked by external forces that were generated by dropping 525Tons of Stator. When the machine is not running and this load is applied that is the most damaging time from what I know as a Millwright. This means that every bearing in this facility, from pump cartridge bearings for impeller/shaft rotation to the crankshaft journal bearings on the back up diesel generators have a potential flaw in them now from this impact shock wave. The engineering term would be brinelling of a bearing surface. This is the most common failure mode for all bearings on all machines. The impact causes indentations from either the rolling elements of the roller bearing (balls indent the inner and outer races as well as create a flat spot on the ball bearing itself OR the crankshaft from the diesel generator engine impacts the journal bearing (tri metal with the load bearing surface made mostly of babbit- which is a soft metal like lead) creating an axial indentation which changes the clearances needed for proper lubrication and hydrodynamic lubrication wedge formation. linearmotiontips/how-bearings-fail-a.../ When I say that it was very lucky that the machines (EDGs) that needed to start to provide backup power and the machines (pumps) to provide the cooling STARTED at all or didnt FAIL shortly thereafter is exactly that, dumb luck. That is not to say that they will start trouble-free in the future when they are needed the most. I highly doubt that the inspections administered by the NRC take this into account. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong on this point. Anyone want to compare the shock load of dropping what is now estimated at 600ton from a height to the load from a magnitude 7 earthquake is? Yes the mass of the stator and the crane was actually undersized by 35ton. And yes Fukushima Daiichi only saw a M7 at site from the M9 100+km offshore. I am going to guess that the shock wave and frequency of dropping the stator causes unseen damages that were not inspected for and from what I read in the inspection reports below my brinelling issue was not even thought of. After all the NRC is in the atom splitting business and not in the industrial maintenance business. This plant is now way more dangerous as a result and should be immediately shut down. Lets not let this 25y/o young mans life be in vain nor ignore the dangers that are hidden at Arkansas One NPP. pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1413/ML14132A228.pdf pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1422/ML14220A222.pdf pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1425/ML14258A108.pdf
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 03:51:52 +0000
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