Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 2015 Assessment on TVA's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, April 19, 2016

April 19, 2016, Decatur, Alabama at Calhoun College,TVA Browns Ferry Nuclear Facility Annual Assessment for 2015, Part 1 and 2 videos, Annual Report posted below via PDF, courtesy of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Many thanks to the members and donors of BREDL/BEST/MATRR who make these reports possible. . Special thanks to Nancy and Meghan Muse for their timely entrance, you saved me from a NRC shutdown of questions in the public venue. "Let us hear the questions, the research," you said. Very important statement from you. Vitally important that multiple citizens attend these meetings and comment.

NRC Statement by Alan Blamey, Region 2 Chief of the reactor projects stated,"[We]determined that overall, Browns Ferry Units 1, 2, and 3 operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety and met all cornerstone objectives."

NRC Assessment Letter
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2016/apr/13/nuclear-regulatory-commission-gives-top-ratings-browns-ferry-plant/359960/#document_1567

A big change, big improvement from this 2011 story regarding problems at the 3 GE Mark 1 Nuclear Reactors. http://blog.al.com/huntsville-times-business/2011/09/tvas_browns_ferry_reactor_need.html

VIDEOS of Assessment questions

PART 2


PART 1


About TVA's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant - https://www.tva.gov/Energy/Our-Power-System/Nuclear/Browns-Ferry-Nuclear-Plant 

Significant recent news story - Radiation triggers high alert at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant - http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2016/apr/07/high-radiation-triggers-alert-browns-ferry/359266/

TVA's Sequoyah Nuclear Facility, 2015 Annual Assessment and SOARCA - April 20, 2016

Safecast Monitoring Info - Chattanooga to Sequoyah Nuclear Facility - https://api.safecast.org/en-US/bgeigie_imports/22879

April 20, 2016, Soddy Daisy, Tn.,TVA Sequoyah Nuclear Facility - NRC 2015 Annual Assessment Questions about the January 2015 Fine Levied Against TVA - Q&A about Event Reports - 5 Scrams on Unit 1 Sequoyah. NRC to increase oversight on Sequoyah Unit 1 due to number of unplanned shutdowns, scrams:http://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1531/ML1531... Also in 2015, TVA was fined for earlier Sequoyah regulatory findings related to no Fire Watches and Falsification of Records by contractor - http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2015/mar/12/tvfined-fire-safety-violations-nuclear-plantc/292823/


April 20, 2016 Part 3 Soddy Daisy, Tn., TVA Sequoyah Nuclear Facility; Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) State-of-the-Art Reactor Consequence Analyses (SOARCA), Public Information Session.

The SOARCA Process

(NRC-The SOARCA Process - Fair Use for non-profit news reporting.)

Overall, the State-of-the-Art Reactor Consequence Analyses (SOARCA) process includes five general steps, as illustrated in the flowchart to the right. See the following pages for discussions of the methods and rationale that the project team uses in each step to determine the realistic consequences of the select severe accident scenarios:

• Step 1: Selecting Accident Scenarios to Model
• Step 2: Modeling Onsite Accident Progression and Mitigation Measures
• Step 3: Modeling Offsite Release of Radioactive Material
• Step 4: Modeling Emergency Response
• Step 5: Modeling Health Effects

Bias in Health Effects Modeling?

April 20, 2016 Soddy Daisy, Tn., Sequoyah Nuclear Facility; Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) State-of-the-Art Reactor Consequence Analyses (SOARCA), Public Information Session. This video highlights offsite health consequences of a severe accident, modeling; focus here is on skewered health risk factors - fact vs fallacy in NRC's modeling program. NRC - SOARCA site modeling of health effects indicates bias in modeling of health effects in support of the nuclear industry. The bias is evidenced in this video. 

NRC Reference: http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/regulatory/research/soar/soarca-health-effects.html There is no reference in the NRC link to the BIER VII Report which strongly supports the  linear no-threshold (LNT) model. However, the NRC site states - "The risk of a latent cancer fatality (LCF) from chronic exposure to low doses of radiation is very uncertain." The NRC site goes on to state it utilized the BIER V Report, which has been updated by the BIER VII Report which is ignored by the NRC. Inquiries addressed to NRC personnel and Sandia National Laboratory present indicated they apparently did not include specific groups of people in their health consequences modeling, e.g. infants, pregnant women young women of child bearing age and children who are most susceptible to ionizing radiation exposure.

April 20, 2016 Soddy Daisy, Tn., TVA Sequoyah Nuclear Facility Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) State-of-the-Art Reactor Consequence Analyses (SOARCA), Public Information Session. Presentation by David Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists. 

My apologies for the sound quality. The training room has a speaker system, however it is never used for public meetings such as this. I have complained to the NRC about the poor sound quality and I have ask for them to utilize the sound system. Unfortunately they are not responsive to having good sound so that participants may actually hear the presentation. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission 2014 Performance Report on TVA's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant May 14, 2015

TVA's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant - Fair Use Rights for non-profit news reporting. Picture credits "wiki" and "NRC."

NRC conducted a Public Meeting May 14, 2015 to discuss NRC’s 2014 Assessment of Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant. The annual assessment letter  for the Browns Ferry plant, as well as current performance information for Unit 1, Unit 2 and Unit 3 is available on the NRC website.

Assessment Letter -  http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/bf_2014q4.pdf  

Unit 1  http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/BF1/bf1_chart.html

Unit 2  http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/BF2/bf2_chart.html

Unit 3  http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/BF3/bf3_chart.html

Press Report - Al.com: "...The NRC will continue to monitor [the] utility's ability to sustain quality performance and the inspection emphasis in the coming year will include a focus on what TVA is doing toward ensuring its long-term performance."
http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2015/05/browns_ferry_nuclear_plant_giv.html

NRC Performance Report - TVA's Reply

Public Comment Part 1


Public Comment Part 2