Civilian Nuclear Power, A Year in Review - Focus on TVA

At mid year CBS News and other news organizations looked closely at U.S. commercial nuclear facilities and asked the question, is a Fukushima type disaster inevitable in the United States?


2011 has been  a year which bears close scrutiny for environmental organizations relative to the nuclear industry. Serious problems for the civilian nuclear power industry have emerged. Cover-ups and failed facilities, a year in review. Issues involving nuclear power on this blog -  http://arklite.blogspot.com/search/label/Nuclear%20Power

In this installment I will look at concerns which have not been adequately addressed by our governments nuclear power regulator, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission - NRC, nor the nuclear industry itself.

Nuclear Power safety and security is lacking. A clear and present danger, problems not resolved. http://www.propublica.org/article/nrc-waives-enforcement-of-fire-rules-at-nuclear-plants

This year during the annual physical security tests at civilian nuclear reactors, 8% of the nuclear plants failed the test. http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-29/us/nuclear.plants.security_1_nrc-nuclear-power-plants-nu...clear-fuel-facility?_s=PM%3AUS

Worse, security and safety at TVA Nuclear Plants is appalling and dangerous. At Watts Bar a manager was dismissed due to a serious security breech.

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_193558.asp 

At Browns Ferry the NRC discovered a lack luster management culture failing to pay attention to causative factors for plant failures. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2011/jul/14/tva-defends-browns-ferry-after-reports-equipment-o/  " Shortly after the valve failure, NRC found that the valve may have been inoperable for about 18 months." http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2011/oct/08/tva-nrc-to-work-together-on-safety/

CBS news held 2 exposes exposing intimidation attempts including threats of murder carried out against TVA employees reporting safety hazards. The first video is above, the second below. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/19/earlyshow/main20080633.shtml

At Bellefonte, a cancelled nuclear construction permit was reinstated in a stripped nuclear plant without one singular vote of approval from the NRC Board. Local politicians all showered praises on the TVA while ignoring serious safety problems relating to site geology, hydrology, river flow reversal at the inflow-outflow cooling area and ground collapse related to sinkhole, Karst Terrain, problems discovered on the new Environmental and Safety reports for the AP1000 reactors.

Local environmental groups attempted to require the TVA via the NRC to place forward a new nuclear construction licensing process due to the old permit failed to identify problems identified in the new AP 1000 reports. The NRC denied the request.

The TVA and NRC is involved in a Federal legal action due to their ignoring site safety and the law thus endangering the public. Arguments have been made in the case before the Federal Court of Appeals. A decision will be made soon. Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League vs The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

GROUP TAKES BELLEFONTE FIGHT TO A HIGHER COURT

March 31, 2009: Yesterday the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL) filed a Petition for Review in the US Court of Appeals of the Bellefonte nuclear power plant in Alabama. The League seeks judicial review of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s reinstatement of construction permits for two nuclear reactors, the so-called Bellefonte 1 and 2. BREDL Press Release | Petition for Review | NRC's voting record

BREDL website concerning Bellefonte -  http://www.bredl.org/nuclear/Bellefonte.htm

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The TVA Bellefonte Nuclear Plant Timeline
1974 - Construction permit issued for two reactors at Bellefonte
1985 - Unit 2 work is suspended when the reactor was considered 58 percent complete
1988 - Unit 1 work is suspended when the reactor was considered 88 percent complete
1992 - Engineering work resumed to prepare for restart of construction.
1994 - Finishing Bellefonte is estimated to cost $2.6 billion; engineering work halted due to nuclear debt construction.
1996 - TVA studies option of converting plant to combined-cycle, natural gas.
1998 - Gas conversion option dropped; TVA offers plant to the Department of Energy to make bomb-grade tritium. DOE picks existing TVA plants to produce tritium, local citizen interaction defeats DOE efforts to produce Tritium at Bellefonte.
2001 - Texaco proposes using Bellefonte as site for coal gasification plant. Chattanooga financier Franklin Haney offers to finance completion of Bellefonte as a nuclear plant.
2002 - Texaco drops proposal; TVA turns down Haney offer.
2004 - TVA enters into discussions with other utilities and joins Nu-Start to plan for a new nuclear design for the site.
2005 - Bellefonte is selected as the test site for the Westinghouse AP-1000, one of the first of the next generation of nuclear plants containing a "passive emergency cooling system."
2006 - TVA cancels NRC permits for original Bellefonte reactors, claiming the units are too expensive to complete and the new reactor design would be better at the site; TVA begins cannibalizing Bellefonte Units 1 and 2
2007 - Application filed for combined operating license for AP-1000
2008 - TVA reverses decision to scrap original reactors and petitions the NRC to reinstate the deferred license for Bellefonte's original reactors; Nu-Start changes the AP1000 site to Plant Vogtle in Georgia.
2009 - NRC reinstates the construction permit for Bellefonte unit 1 to a terminated status, TVA decides to focus on one reactor for the immediate future
2010 - TVA completes study on costs of finishing the original reactors or building new and decides to complete the original reactors; TVA completes an Environmental Impact Study; NRC approves moving reactor Unit 1 to a deferred status;

2011- TVA Board approves Bellefonte completion; NRC approves renewal of construction permit
2013- Projected Bellefonte construction start date after fuel is loaded into the Watts Bar nuclear reactor
2019- Bellefonte projected completion date

Ignore the danger, ignore the law, ignore the problems: problem solving the nuclear way, a path to disaster?

The problem is politics and money. The nuclear industry has supplied Federal Politicians with large amounts of campaign money; state, county and local governmental entities are supplied with TVA in-lieu-of-tax payments and decades of promises, some promises true, many false.

Jackson County, Alabama is a depressed area with a decreasing population, approximate current population 53,000. 14% of Citizens income in Jackson County are below the poverty level, 78% have a high school education or higher, 22% have less than a high school education of which 6% are functionally illiterate.

Current amount of river water withdrawal for Jackson County Alabama is 6.5 million gallons per day. A Bellefonte nuclear plant would increase the daily Tennessee River water withdrawal 4.5 times the current rate for Jackson County.

The current Bellefonte nuclear facility was built over Karst Terrain. The TVA claims there are no sinkholes on the property, but that is a dangerously false statement. There are 2 known large sinkholes on the Bellefonte nuclear plant property as demonstrated on the TVA/USGS 1970 topographical map. One of the sinkholes is located next to the proposed AP1000 Unit 3 site, another large sinkhole exists near the cooling towers in a fenced in area. Geological Survey maps available at the University of Alabama Cartography division indicate there are 58 caves within 5 miles of the Bellefonte area. The entire Bellefonte area is classified as a likely sinkhole area. The NRC dismissed the geological evidence and historic data presented to them in an official report in 2008 during the Environmental Scoping Session.

Bellefonte is located in an active seismic zone, less than 2 miles from the Sequatchie Fault and adjacent to a minor fault along River Ridge which is less than 1/4 mile east of the Bellefonte nuclear reactors.

The Bellefonte Nuclear Reactors have a series of 45 foot vertical supporting anchor rods drilled into the Limestone rock to stabilize the reactor structure. Rock which is noted for its ability to fracture and allow moisture seepage, characteristics of Karst Terrain geology. There have already been 8 instances of vertical supporting tendon cable couplings breaking over the years, the last being 2 years ago. It is possible that the occasional small ground tremors, along with the alkalinity of the limestone rock, are contributing factors affecting the supporting tendon structure breakage. This is part of the critical primary containment structure for the nuclear reactor and represents a containment structure failure a decade prior to the nuclear reactor becoming operable.

The river current in the area of Bellefonte's outflow and intake pipes reverses current at times of fast flowing river current. The area is a large elongated bay area along the west river bank where the river forms a very large deep water eddy within the bay. This problem was not identified in the original safety and environmental reports. It was reported in the recent AP1000 safety and environmental reports. The problem will result in the warmed outflow going back into the water inflow, which is supposed to be cool water.

There are meteorological changes in our area due to climate change. The frequency of tornadic storms have increased, thus increasing the risk of catastrophic damage to the nuclear facility. Also, during the period of draught 3 years ago, it was noted that ground collapse was evident within the Bellefonte reactor security zone.

In August of this year, the TVA approved the construction continuation of the Bellefonte Unit 1 nuclear reactor. The continuation of a stripped, cannibalized nuclear plant which the NRC reinstated the cancelled construction permit prior to the TVA approving to finish its construction. The approval of an antiquated Bellefonte nuclear construction permit appears to be for the sole purpose of circumventing modern safety standards and newly discovered environmental issues not previously addressed in the original 1970's environmental reports.

Another issue for the current debate: the Bellefonte Nuclear Reactor Unit 1 will cost the TVA ratepayers $9 billion dollars if it is completed by 2019. TVA can not afford Bellefonte, it has a $25 billion dollar debt, over $25 billion dollars owed in interest on its debt. Long term TVA commitments concerning fuel options, leases and the debt bring the TVA's long term financial commitments to approximately $68 billion. The TVA has proposed a financing scheme to sell the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant and the John Sevier Combined Cycle Gas Plant to fund the completion of Bellefonte. This scheme has not been approved by the full TVA Board and does not meet the requirements of the TVA Act; it is another example of TVA's failure to disclose important aspects of its decision making process to the public as required by the Federal Sunshine Act.

The question: will the NRC and the TVA follow good sense and responsible governmental practice to protect the citizenry from error, defect and deceit as required by nuclear safety law, or will they support the nuclear energy industry by placing money before the value of human life? The current trend of the TVA and NRC demonstrates the citizenry must take a back seat to the nuclear corporations hunger for money over life.

Learn more about the dangers of commercial nuclear power and sustainable energy solutions at the BEST/MATRR web site, http://www.matrr.org "why, because it matters."