Nuclear Reactor Just Outside Atlanta Abruptly Shuts Down (may restart today)

[TalkingDog]

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/news/27633540/detail.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Federal regulators say a nuclear reactor that unexpectedly shut down in Georgia could soon resume operations.

A spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says Southern Co. has told the government it is on a path to restarting the Unit 1 reactor at Plant Vogtle, near Waynesboro, as early as Friday.

The NRC and utility officials say the reactor shut down unexpectedly Wednesday and there have been no leaks, damage or other safety concerns reported.

[ArcticFox]

1. It doesn't concern them that a reactor shut down unexpectedly?

"Officials are still trying to determine what prompted an automatic safety system to shut the reactor down . . . ."

I would be concerned if a circuit breaker at my home were tripping and I was unable to determine why. Yet, these people are unconcerned when a nuclear reactor's safety system trips unexpectedly and without explanation?

We are all placing our lives in the hands of absolute morons every single day.

[TalkingDog]

2. Yah, that's pretty much my reasoning behind posting it.

Troubling, to say the least

[ReggieVeggie]

3. just outside Atlanta?

160 miles is hardly "just outside"

[TalkingDog]

9. Write the freakin' guy who wrote the headline....

stop bothering me about this nitpicking shit.

[ReggieVeggie]

17. you're free not to respond

[upi402]

4. Nuclear power is the safest power EVER!

:sarcasm:

Except when it's not.

[ddeclue]

5. Umm Plant Vogtle is nowhere near Atlanta...

:eyes:

It's nearly 200 miles southeast of Atlanta.

It's actually closer to AUGUSTA Georgia (about 50 miles southeast) where my parents live near Waynesboro.

I really hate it when people exaggerate to make something sound much worse than it really is.

Either that or the OP has never been anywhere near the state of Georgia.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL
(formerly of both Atlanta and Augusta Georgia)

[Mimosa]

7. Umm, it still MATTERS!

I'm in ATL GA and I know where the plant is. If the people around Augusta and S.C. got radiated I'd be quite concerned!

[TalkingDog]

8. The headline in the story said ATLANTA.... Blame the "journalist"

not someone who prefers to have a life rather than obsessively study the geographic distances between cities in the same state....

[FourScore]

21. In radiological terms it is. n/t

[ddeclue]

6. FYI: For many years Georgia Tech operated the Nealy Nuclear Reactor in DOWNTOWN Atlanta

on the Georgia Tech campus from 1961-1996. This was a 5MW Heavy Water research reactor right on campus while I attended school. It was defueled just prior to the Olympics because of security concerns and then finally demolished in 1999 to make room for another research facility.

Waynesboro on the other hand is nearly 200 miles from downtown Atlanta and Plant Vogtle is actually closer to Augusta Georgia, Columbia South Carolina, Charleston South Carolina, and Savannah Georgia than it is to Atlanta.

:eyes:

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Ok let me get this straight...

We had an UNEXPLAINED reactor SCRAM?

And nobody in the NRC is a we bit surprised...

Ok there is a rule about nuclear power... unexpected does NOT belong in the lexicon...

[Sirveri]

11. Something similar happened on my boat during the ORSE workup.

They scrammed as part of the drill, then during recovery the scram breaker failed right as they switched it back on. Equipment failures happen.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Yes but I am sure Naval Reactor

had you kill a few trees... the NRC ain't. The NRC is a joke. That is my point.

Nor do I expect you to confirm or deny this... just that it is known that if CIVILIAN reactors had to follow even 10% of the safety protocols ... profits would be non-existent.

IF we insist in keeping these things around, socialize them and put them UNDER the Naval reactor program...

[Sirveri]

13. NR self polices itself, which means public has zero oversight.

I haven't actually had much interaction with the NRC, so I'm not sure how valid claims are that they're nothing more than an industry spokesperson. The thing of it is that if they are they're not the only government agency to be so co-opted by the industry they're designed to police. It's really just a symptom of bigger issues with our own government. The issue isn't with the NRC, the issue is with the amount of influence corporations are able to exert on all of our government oversight groups. I'd argue that issues are much worse with the corruption inside the SEC than over at the NRC. In addition the industry is well aware of what happened last time there was a TMI style event, and is thus quite committed to insuring such an act doesn't occur again. The solution isn't to abolish the oversight agencies, but to repair them so that they're better capable to perform their tasks without potential corrupting influences.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Yes it is the corruption level

it is a symptom... and all that, but at this point they are that badly corrupted and cooped.

You got OORS... these guys need PAPER to start a reactor, not a physical check.

Think of that one for a second.

[Sirveri]

16. There wasn't much of a physical check involved for naval plants either.

There isn't much to physically check, most of it is data from the PNI anyways, you either trust it or you don't. Pretty sure that commercial is pretty similar in that regard. Probably also less log blazing involved in the civilian sector since they don't have to fill out 12 pages worth of logs every hour. Also I suspect you mean ORSE, never heard the acronym OORS. It stands for Operation Reactor Safeguards Exam. All it tests is that people know where stuff is and memorized the casualty procedures. From my plant tours prior to deciding to go back to school I found out that civilian guys get requalified too.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. You get far more checks than they do

thank a certain admiral for that. If you ever asked yourself why he NEVER moved to the civilian sector... that's the reason.

[NutmegYankee]

19. They found the issue. It was an electrical breaker failure.

The unexpected shutdown of a nuclear reactor at Plant Vogtle in east Georgia was triggered by a failed breaker, according to Atlanta-based Southern Co.No other equipment was damaged and the shutdown proceeded safely, the company said.

http://www.ajc.com/news/vogtle-nuclear-reactor-shutdown-921054.html

[Tesha]

20. And the circuit breaker tripped why?

(The article really doesn't assert a true root cause
for the failure.)

Tesha

[NutmegYankee]

22. It states that it failed and was replaced.

I don't know why it failed, but I know from my field that it does happen in high power electrical equipment. Nothing man-made lasts forever.

[Tesha]

23. Presumably it will be taken into custody and tested further?

(This being done so that a true root cause can
be established, of course.) After all, that's
what we'd expect for a piece of safety-critical
equipment in any other industry.

Tesha

[NutmegYankee]

25. I would presume so.

Failure analysis is usually a standard practice.

[Tesha]

26. Thanks! It will be interesting to see what is revealed...

...and whether what actually happened fits into
the accepted FMEA.

Tesha

[burrowowl]

14. And why did it shut down?

Interesting, very!

[NutmegYankee]

18. Vogtle nuclear reactor shutdown traced to tripped breaker

http://www.ajc.com/news/vogtle-nuclear-reactor-shutdown-921054.html