TVA Browns Ferry: Local Blackout, On Emergency Power Due To Tornado 5

[racookpe1978]

This from

http://www.freerepublic.com,

repeating a story reported at the Times Free Press:

"TVA loses all power transmission lines ... Browns Ferry Nuclear plant forced into emergency shutdown"

Times Free Press ^ | April 28, 2011 | Pam Sohn

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2011/apr/28/tva-losses-all-power-transmission-lines-alabama-an/

Wednesday’s storms took out all of TVA’s electric power transmission lines in Mississippi and North Alabama, and forced Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant unto diesel backup power and into emergency and automatic cold shutdown.

Bill McCollum, the chief operating officer of Tennessee Valley Authority, said it may be weeks before power can be restored to all of the 300,000 customers whose power is supplied by the federal utility.

“With the level of damage we have, it will be — we hope it will be days until we get most of the customers back on, but it will be weeks before we’ve fully repaired all of the damage,” he said.

McCollum said the reactors, now being cooled by backup diesel power, are safe.

He said the spent fuel pools also are being cooled by backup diesel power and are safe.

The transmission lines are the monster power lines that carry electricity from TVA power plants to power distributors such as EPB and Huntsville Utilities."

 

[vpl]

"They got handed a red tag."

Thanks Keith -- this comment got quite a chuckle in our weekly meeting.

They actually got a "red finding" -- which is NRC's highest level of enforcement action for reactors. As a result, NRC will be doing substantially more inspections in a number of areas. If you'd like to read the dry, boring stuff behind the NRC reactor oversight process of evaluating issues, you can go here:

http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/index.html.

Under the section titled "NRC Response to Plant Performance" there is a link to NRC "Manual Chapter" 0605.

The actual "Final Significance Determination" for Browns Ferry should be available for publi review within a few days.

Patricia Lougheed

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[rmw]

That's interesting; one government agency getting in after another government agency. Kind of rich ain't it?

rmw

PS: Remark not to be construed as disapproval of what the NRC is doing - even if it is to its "corporate" cousins and maybe I should say especially to its "corporate" cousin.