2 "Nuclear Emergencys" At The Same Nuclear Power Plant In Salem, New Jersey

Previous Event: (June 28th, 2011)

The Salem Unit 2 nuclear plant remained shut down this afternoon following a problem with a reactor coolant pump, according to a spokesman for the plant’s operator.

Salem 2 automatically went offline Sunday at 6:01 p.m. when the coolant pump tripped, said Joe Delmar, spokesman for PSEG Nuclear.

When the pump shut down, the auxiliary pump system automatically started to provide water to cool the reactor.

The cause of the pump failure is still being investigated, according to Delmar. The plant functioned as designed, he said.

The plant remained in “hot shutdown” mode this afternoon.

Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission resident inspectors assigned to the Salem site responded to Salem 2 and verified that the plant was stable and operator actions were consistent with procedures and that appropriate troubleshooting was being performed by PSEG Nuclear, according to NRC Spokesman Neil Sheehan.

(Click here to read the source)


Recent Event: (07/14/2011)

Event Number: 47052
Facility: SALEM
Region: 1 State: NJ
Event Date: 07/14/2011
Event Time: 20:53 [EDT]
Emergency Class: UNUSUAL EVENT
10 CFR Section: 50.72(a) (1) (i) – EMERGENCY DECLARED [...]

UNUSUAL EVENT DECLARED BASED ON REACTOR COOLANT LEAK GREATER THAN 10 GPM

“At 2053 on July 14, 2011 Salem unit 2 declared an Unusual Event due to reactor coolant system leakage greater than 10 gallons per minute. While performing a monthly Emergency Core Cooling System vent of the high head safety injection piping a motor operated valve was opened and a leak developed on the high head piping greater than 10 gallons per minute. The leak rate was approximately 11-15 gallon per minute. The leak was terminated when the motor operated valve was closed. The time of the leak was about 6 minutes.”

At this time the leak is believed to be from a crack on the Boron Injection Tank (BIT) relief valve line which is connected to the high head piping. A total of approximately 90 gallon of reactor coolant leaked into the BIT room. The licensee has declared the high head safety injection inoperable and is proceeding to shutdown under Tech Spec 3.0.3. [...]

(Click here to read the source)




I fear we are entering a phase where all of the older and now unreliable nuclear power plants will start to show there age and and begin to break down. It only takes one failure to cause a meltdown, and it only takes one meltdown to wreak the same havoc that Japan is facing now. I think it's important we find a way to safely bring these reactors offline, step by step, and at least replace them with the newer and safer thorium reactors:

www.thorium.tv...

it just goes to show that maintenance of things like this in any given nuclear power plant aren't as well done as it should be per the safety of the nation...

reply to post by v1rtu0s0

I couldn't agree more about the simple age and wear and tear the plants have taken over the years. In any normal plant or factory, that is no big deal. The worst that happens? Maybe someone gets hurt when a machine blows apart from failure and money is lost. Funny thing about Nuclear Plants...They don't just hurt a couple people when they have a major failure.

I've always wondered about the lack of planning shown by the very well known service life dates of everything from nuclear plants to highway bridges yet no one bothers even talking about the NEED (not wishful thought) of replacing these things before they exceed their lives and fail on us. It's sure something they need to start considering and doing it very seriously where Nuke plants are concerned. Some of those are getting ancient given their expected service lives when they were designed and built.

reply to post by v1rtu0s0


Double thread, is all ready posted ..

Search.ats

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I'm sorry, I just can't wrap my brain around all of these cooling issues / backup worked yippeee reports back to back. Yes they're all old plants. Yes there is wear and tear. But this is starting to sound like one of those Ford recall malfunction issues... except no one is being pro-active and preventative and replacing the parts BEFORE they fail.