(The CURTAIN RISES to reveal a modest, shabby chic [OK, maybe shabby chick] living room of a renovated old schoolhouse. Outside, it is snowing. Heavily.  Nestled in the corner of a loveseat, wrapped in a fleece blanket, sits SERENITY. Attractive, but engrossed in MSNBC’s 7 p.m. airing of Hardball, SERENITY looks considerably younger than her 44 11/12 years. Pacing back in forth is SERENITY’s 16-year-old daughter, NATHALIE. NATHALIE is on the phone, talking to her older sister, JOHANNA-MARIA, an 18-year-old college student at the University of North Florida. )

NATHALIE: Mom, JoJo says I’m not her backbone anymore.

SERENITY: Why aren’t you her backbone?

NATHALIE (into the phone): Mom wants to know why I’m not your backbone!

SERENITY (perturbed at having to tear away from the always charismatic CHRIS MATTHEWS, she nonetheless takes a nanosecond to note that “got your back” has been replaced; time to check with the Urban Dictionary.):  No . . . why aren’t you your sister’s backbone, anymore? (She returns her loving gaze to CHRIS MATTHEWS.)

NATHALIE: (laughing) Mom! (laughs again) Well, she wants me to talk you into buying her plane tickets to come home for the Snowboard Grand Prix. But I told her you were buying her a laptop (laughs when SERENITY glares at her) even though I was supposed to keep it secret. Now she wants me to tell you to buy her tickets, anyway!

(SERENITY has tuned out everything save the compelling and intelligent words of her secret-fantasy-man.)

NATHALIE: Mom, JoJo wants to talk to you, now.

SERENITY (She knows that ignoring her precious children because of a cable TV show is not a great self-esteem builder, but priorities are priorities. Anyway, she already talked to once, today-and discovered that her daughterJOHANNA-MARIA had spent two hours on the beach in the 85-degree weather ): Not now. (This time she doesn’t even bother to look away from CHRIS MATTHEWS.)

NATHALIE: She can’t talk. She’s in love with the Hardball guy (laughs).

SERENITY: He has testicular cancer.

NATHALIE: (stricken) He has cancer?! (into the phone) I know!

SERENITY: (laughs guiltily) No . . . I was kidding .  . . you said “hardball” . . .

(They all laugh. But not CHRIS MATTHEWS. Relishing the prospect of the Philadelphia machine-which most assuredly will back HILLARY CLINTON–clashing with the OBAMA campaign, he earnestly explores that possibility)

FADE    

This is an interesting little tidbit:

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=02&year=2008&base_name=lets_call_t

Carbon emissions are now seen as a risk factor for these large infrastructure investments.  This may sound like a little thing, but it is actually huge.  You can't put up a coal plant unless you can get it financed and this seems to indicate the cost of capital is going up.

(Heh. “Romnivore.” Heh heh… – promoted by odum)

OK, so Mitten has dropped out. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23…

What to do if you are part of the GOP Conservative Establishment? You don’t like McCain… that’s why you were for Mitt to begin with. Do you heart Huckabee now?

Granted McCain now appears to have this thing sewn up, but if Huckabee doesn’t drop out and continues to campaign through the other primary states, it could be interesting to see what the “true” conservatives decide to do – both organizationally and in the money race.

Also, if Mitt’s strategy is to angle for a VP slot as an “economic” counterweight to McCain’s foreign policy credentials (not likely in any event as the two men apparently can’t stand one another… on the other hand, I seem to recall there was no love lost between JFK and LBJ, yet they forged a ticket for strategic reasons), what to do if Huckabee continues to pick up southern states, and arguably the conservative mantle? Some suggest that Huckabee may now drop out and lobby for the VP slot: http://www.boston.com/bostongl…

Still, it looks like the Republicans are doing what they always do: circle the wagons and annoint the frontrunner in hopes of preserving an orderly nominating process.  

NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS)

Entergy Nuclear VY license Renewal

Status of Review: ENVY still hasn’t resolved issue of metal fatigue.

NRC staff: NRC has worked over last few months to clarify problem. ENVY used software with unconventional methodology to predict metal fatigue. Used simplified calculations, combined six components into one component. It’s a mathematical manipulation but is not an industry standard. It was used before, but it was unknown to the NRC staff.

Method used has never been published in any professional literature.

NRC Conclusion: methodology MAY be used in some situations, but only if component not subject to sheer stress.

NRC asked ENVY to look at six locations with conventional mathematical modeling. Nozzle and pipe to pipe applications.

“WE got the last submission yesterday, so we haven’t evaluated it yet. But we think the applicant is now on the right path.”

Entergy: We made all kinds of improvements to get the 20% power boost.

Steam Dryer– cracks have been a problem,  but I won’t say the word CRACK until later. No fatigue cracking found, only intergranular cracking.

NRC- what do you do when you find cracks?

Entergy- we don’t repair them, we just enter them into our records and look at them again in 18 months.

NRC-No samples taken to determine what kind of cracking it is? Only visual inspection?

ENVY- that’s right.

Corrosion

Entergy- We did 63 inspections, and found no additional corrosion due to power boost.

NRC- Are you still monitoring the steam line?

Entergy- No

NRC You’re only monitoring the water levels?

Entergy- Yes.

NRC- does the noble metals coating cover the stream dryer?

Entergy- probably not. We’ll let you know.

Underground tanks for emergency diesel generators:

Entergy-

I’m not aware that we’ve seen any significant corrosion.

Classic non-denial denial!

Cooling Towers

ENVY- collapse was a significant event for us, that did not meet our expectations.

NRC- explain why

ENVY- Inspection was insufficient. We didn’t predict it, so we didn’t look for it. The safety related cell has a different design.

Environmentally assisted fatigue–

gotta love it!

ENVY- Took our history and mixed it with history from younger, more robust reactor designs to show we’ll be good for another 20 years.

NRC-

Is this a reality?

ENVY consultant- It’s very conservative, used extensively over the life of the industry.

NRC-

I won’t go there! (laughter)

Corrosion  and stress, cont.

ENVY- The nozzles we’ve done calculations for all look great, even though the calculations don’t match up.

NRC- Did you expect the calculations to show different results?

ENVY- We’re so conservative, we expected the confirmatory calculations to be even better than the first analysis.

NRC staff- We’ll be looking into that further for the March meeting.

Dry Well and torus

ENVY- we haven’t seen any of the problems that other similar designs have found.

Sand cushion- corrosion of dry well shell has been seen elsewhere. ENVY is different-no insulating foam, it was a construction material that was removed. We’ve seen dust blowing that confirms that air is flowing, keeping air cushion dry. The sand drains are inspected daily to see if there’s any moisture.

Unasked question: Is there moisture found?

1999- found the moisture barrier degraded. Replaced (repainted?)

NRC- you have no measurements of the shell, because you didn’t think you had to check it?

ENVY-yes

NRC- you didn’t remove the sand to examine the metal?

ENVY-no

1998- de-sludged the torus and recoated it. No generalised corrosion, only localized. Blistering and paint failure.

NRC-why?

ENVY- poorly applied paint the last time.

NRC- not because of oxidation from underneath?

ENVY- Oh, no.

Emergency Back-up Power from the Vernon Dam

ENVY- If the dam generator is out, it takes about 30 minutes to restart it. Someone has to come to restart it. But we can go 2 hours before we get in trouble.

NRC- The dam generates 32 mW. How do you know it wouldn’t overload your incoming power system?

ENVY-Dam operator would only restart one unit at a time.

Safety Evaluation Report

NRC- 2 week on site inspection

19 inspector weeks for aging management systems

We were skeptical of the glowing reports we were getting

re dry wall corrosion. But it’s in good shape.

Some corrosion monitoring was not being done, as ENVY didn’t think it applied to them.

NRC- ENVY re-did the analysis they had submitted in December, this time using commonly accepted  practices. There was no change in the assumptions for water chemistry.

Now we’re happy with the philosophy of their analysis, although we’ve haven’t had time to check the calculations, because we only got them yesterday.

Sarah Hoffman VT DPS- buttering up the staff and ACRS, asks that there be no rush to judgement.

We want to make sure all the tires are kicked properly.

Joe Hoppenfeld (?) NEC consultant- ENVY assumptions need to be examined:

1. heat transfer co-efficients used are not applicable

2. used 10 year old data, not current

3. no evidence that the past history of transients will continue going forward

4. design geometry is not the same as installed geometry

5. corrosion is not a linear process.

(and more I didn’t get...)

ACRS-Is staff aware of new data?

NRC-yes. License renewal data requirements were developed quite a while back. It was decided it wouldn’t be fair to keep updating them.

NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS)

Entergy Nuclear VY license Renewal

Status of Review: ENVY still hasn’t resolved issue of metal fatigue.

NRC staff: NRC has worked over last few months to clarify problem. ENVY used software with unconventional methodology to predict metal fatigue. Used simplified calculations, combined six components into one component. It’s a mathematical manipulation but is not an industry standard. It was used before, but it was unknown to the NRC staff.

Method used has never been published in any professional literature.

NRC Conclusion: methodology MAY be used in some situations, but only if component not subject to sheer stress.

NRC asked ENVY to look at six locations with conventional mathematical modeling. Nozzle and pipe to pipe applications.

“WE got the last submission yesterday, so we haven’t evaluated it yet. But we think the applicant is now on the right path.”

Entergy: We made all kinds of improvements to get the 20% power boost.

Steam Dryer– cracks have been a problem,  but I won’t say the word CRACK until later. No fatigue cracking found, only intergranular cracking.

NRC- what do you do when you find cracks?

Entergy- we don’t repair them, we just enter them into our records and look at them again in 18 months.

NRC-No samples taken to determine what kind of cracking it is? Only visual inspection?

ENVY- that’s right.

Corrosion

Entergy- We did 63 inspections, and found no additional corrosion due to power boost.

NRC- Are you still monitoring the steam line?

Entergy- No

NRC You’re only monitoring the water levels?

Entergy- Yes.

NRC- does the noble metals coating cover the stream dryer?

Entergy- probably not. We’ll let you know.

Underground tanks for emergency diesel generators:

Entergy-

I’m not aware that we’ve seen any significant corrosion.

Classic non-denial denial!

Cooling Towers

ENVY- collapse was a significant event for us, that did not meet our expectations.

NRC- explain why

ENVY- Inspection was insufficient. We didn’t predict it, so we didn’t look for it. The safety related cell has a different design.

Environmentally assisted fatigue–gotta love it!

ENVY- Took our history and mixed it with history from younger, more robust reactor designs to show we’ll be good for another 20 years.

NRC-

Is this a reality?

ENVY consultant- It’s very conservative, used extensively over the life of the industry.

NRC-

I won’t go there! (laughter)

Corrosion  and stress, cont.

ENVY- The nozzles we’ve done calculations for all look great, even though the calculations don’t match up.

NRC- Did you expect the calculations to show different results?

ENVY- We’re so conservative, we expected the confirmatory calculations to be even better than the first analysis.

NRC staff- We’ll be looking into that further for the March meeting.

Dry Well and torus

ENVY- we haven’t seen any of the problems that other similar designs have found.

Sand cushion- corrosion of dry well shell has been seen elsewhere. ENVY is different-no insulating foam, it was a construction material that was removed. We’ve seen dust blowing that confirms that air is flowing, keeping air cushion dry. The sand drains are inspected daily to see if there’s any moisture.

Unasked question: Is there moisture found?

1999- found the moisture barrier degraded. Replaced (repainted?)

NRC- you have no measurements, because you didn’t think you had to?

ENVY-yes

NRC- you didn’t remove the sand to examine the metal?

ENVY-no

1998- de-sludged the torus and recoated it. No generalised corrosion, only localized. Blistering and paint failure.

NRC-why?

ENVY- poorly applied paint the last time.

NRC- not because of oxidation from underneath?

ENVY- Oh, no.

Emergency Back-up Power from the Vernon Dam

ENVY- If the dam generator is out, it takes about 30 minutes to restart it. Someone has to come to restart it. But we can go 2 hours before we get in trouble.

NRC- The dam generates 32 mW. How do you know it wouldn’t overload your incoming power system?

ENVY-Dam operator would only restart one unit at a time.

Safety Evaluation Report

NRC- 2 week on site inspection

19 inspector weeks for aging management systems

We were skeptical of the glowing reports we were getting

re dry wall corrosion. But it’s in good shape.

Some corrosion monitoring was not being done, as ENVY didn’t think it applied to them.

NRC- ENVY re-did the analysis they had submitted in December, this time using commonly accepted  practices. There was no change in the assumptions for water chemistry.

Now we’re happy with the philosophy of their analysis, although we’ve haven’t had time to check the calculations, because we only got them yesterday.

Sarah Hoffman VT DPS- buttering up the staff and ACRS, asks that there be no rush to judgement.

Joe Hoppenfeld (?) NEC consultant- ENVY assumptions need to be examined:

1. heat transfer co-efficients are not accurate

2. used 10 year old data, not current

3. no evidence that the past history of transients will continue going forward

4. design geometry is not the same as installed geometry

5. corrosion is not a linear process.

(and more I didn’t get...)

ACRS-Is staff aware of new data?

NRC-yes. License renewal data requirements were developed quite a while back.

NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS)

Entergy Nuclear VY license Renewal

Status of Review: ENVY still hasn’t resolved issue of metal fatigue.

NRC staff: NRC has worked over last few months to clarify problem. ENVY used software with unconventional methodology to predict metal fatigue. Used simplified calculations, combined six components into one component. It’s a mathematical manipulation but is not an industry standard. It was used before, but it was unknown to the NRC staff.

Method used has never been published in any professional literature.

NRC Conclusion: methodology MAY be used in some situations, but only if component not subject to sheer stress.

NRC asked ENVY to look at six locations with conventional mathematical modeling. Nozzle and pipe to pipe applications.

“WE got the last submission yesterday, so we haven’t evaluated it yet. But we think the applicant is now on the right path.”

Entergy: We made all kinds of improvements to get the 20% power boost.

Steam Dryer– cracks have been a problem,  but I won’t say the word CRACK until later. No fatigue cracking found, only intergranular cracking.

NRC- what do you do when you find cracks?

Entergy- we don’t repair them, we just enter them into our records and look at them again in 18 months.

NRC-No samples taken to determine what kind of cracking it is? Only visual inspection?

ENVY- that’s right.

Corrosion

Entergy- We did 63 inspections, and found no additional corrosion due to power boost.

NRC- Are you still monitoring the steam line?

Entergy- No

NRC You’re only monitoring the water levels?

Entergy- Yes.

NRC- does the noble metals coating cover the stream dryer?

Entergy- probably not. We’ll let you know.

Underground tanks for emergency diesel generators:

Entergy-

I’m not aware that we’ve seen any significant corrosion.

Classic non-denial denial!

Cooling Towers

ENVY- collapse was a significant event for us, that did not meet our expectations.

NRC- explain why

ENVY- Inspection was insufficient. We didn’t predict it, so we didn’t look for it. The safety related cell has a different design.

Environmentally assisted fatigue–gotta love it!

ENVY- Took our history and mixed it with history from younger, more robust reactor designs to show we’ll be good for another 20 years.

NRC-

Is this a reality?

ENVY consultant- It’s very conservative, used extensively over the life of the industry.

NRC-

I won’t go there! (laughter)

Corrosion  and stress, cont.

ENVY- The nozzles we’ve done calculations for all look great, even though the calculations don’t match up.

NRC- Did you expect the calculations to show different results?

ENVY- We’re so conservative, we expected the confirmatory calculations to be even better than the first analysis.

NRC staff- We’ll be looking into that further for the March meeting.

Dry Well and torus

ENVY- we haven’t seen any of the problems that other similar designs have found.

Sand cushion- corrosion of dry well shell has been seen elsewhere. ENVY is different-no insulating foam, it was a construction material that was removed. We’ve seen dust blowing that confirms that air is flowing, keeping air cushion dry. The sand drains are inspected daily to see if there’s any moisture.

Unasked question: Is there moisture found?

1999- found the moisture barrier degraded. Replaced (repainted?)

NRC- you have no measurements, because you didn’t think you had to?

ENVY-yes

NRC- you didn’t remove the sand to examine the metal?

ENVY-no

1998- de-sludged the torus and recoated it. No generalised corrosion, only localized. Blistering and paint failure.

NRC-why?

ENVY- poorly applied paint the last time.

NRC- not because of oxidation from underneath?

ENVY- Oh, no.

Emergency Back-up Power from the Vernon Dam

ENVY- If the dam generator is out, it takes about 30 minutes to restart it. Someone has to come to restart it. But we can go 2 hours before we get in trouble.

NRC- The dam generates 32 mW. How do you know it wouldn’t overload your incoming power system?

ENVY-Dam operator would only restart one unit at a time.

Safety Evaluation Report

NRC- 2 week on site inspection

19 inspector weeks for aging management systems

We were skeptical of the glowing reports we were getting

re dry wall corrosion. But it’s in good shape.

Some corrosion monitoring was not being done, as ENVY didn’t think it applied to them.

NRC- ENVY re-did the analysis they had submitted in December, this time using commonly accepted  practices. There was no change in the assumptions for water chemistry.

Now we’re happy with the philosophy of their analysis, although we’ve haven’t had time to check the calculations, because we only got them yesterday.

Sarah Hoffman VT DPS- buttering up the staff and ACRS, asks that there be no rush to judgement.

Joe Hoppenfeld (?) NEC consultant- ENVY assumptions need to be examined:

1. heat transfer co-efficients are not accurate

2. used 10 year old data, not current

3. no evidence that the past history of transients will continue going forward

4. design geometry is not the same as installed geometry

5. corrosion is not a linear process.

(and more I didn’t get...)

NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS)

Entergy Nuclear VY license Renewal

Status of Review: ENVY still hasn’t resolved issue of metal fatigue.

NRC staff: NRC has worked over last few months to clarify problem. ENVY used software with unconventional methodology to predict metal fatigue. Used simplified calculations, combined six components into one component. It’s a mathematical manipulation but is not an industry standard. It was used before, but it was unknown to the NRC staff.

Method used has never been published in any professional literature.

NRC Conclusion: methodology MAY be used in some situations, but only if component not subject to sheer stress.

NRC asked ENVY to look at six locations with conventional mathematical modeling. Nozzle and pipe to pipe applications.

“WE got the last submission yesterday, so we haven’t evaluated it yet. But we think the applicant is now on the right path.”

Entergy: We made all kinds of improvements to get the 20% power boost.

Steam Dryer– cracks have been a problem,  but I won’t say the word CRACK until later. No fatigue cracking found, only intergranular cracking.

NRC- what do you do when you find cracks?

Entergy- we don’t repair them, we just enter them into our records and look at them again in 18 months.

NRC-No samples taken to determine what kind of cracking it is? Only visual inspection?

ENVY- that’s right.

Corrosion

Entergy- We did 63 inspections, and found no additional corrosion due to power boost.

NRC- Are you still monitoring the steam line?

Entergy- No

NRC You’re only monitoring the water levels?

Entergy- Yes.

NRC- does the noble metals coating cover the stream dryer?

Entergy- probably not. We’ll let you know.

Underground tanks for emergency diesel generators:

Entergy-

I’m not aware that we’ve seen any significant corrosion.

Classic non-denial denial!

Cooling Towers

ENVY- collapse was a significant event for us, that did not meet our expectations.

NRC- explain why

ENVY- Inspection was insufficient. We didn’t predict it, so we didn’t look for it. The safety related cell has a different design.

Environmentally assisted fatigue–gotta love it!

ENVY- Took our history and mixed it with history from younger, more robust reactor designs to show we’ll be good for another 20 years.

NRC-

Is this a reality?

ENVY consultant- It’s very conservative, used extensively over the life of the industry.

NRC-

I won’t go there! (laughter)

Corrosion  and stress, cont.

ENVY- The nozzles we’ve done calculations for all look great, even though the calculations don’t match up.

NRC- Did you expect the calculations to show different results?

ENVY- We’re so conservative, we expected the confirmatory calculations to be even better than the first analysis.

NRC staff- We’ll be looking into that further for the March meeting.

Dry Well and torus

ENVY- we haven’t seen any of the problems that other similar designs have found.

Sand cushion- corrosion of dry well shell has been seen elsewhere. ENVY is different-no insulating foam, it was a construction material that was removed. We’ve seen dust blowing that confirms that air is flowing, keeping air cushion dry. The sand drains are inspected daily to see if there’s any moisture.

Unasked question: Is there moisture found?

1999- found the moisture barrier degraded. Replaced (repainted?)

NRC- you have no measurements, because you didn’t think you had to?

ENVY-yes

NRC- you didn’t remove the sand to examine the metal?

ENVY-no

1998- de-sludged the torus and recoated it. No generalised corrosion, only localized. Blistering and paint failure.

NRC-why?

ENVY- poorly applied paint the last time.

NRC- not because of oxidation from underneath?

ENVY- Oh, no.

Emergency Back-up Power from the Vernon Dam

ENVY- If the dam generator is out, it takes about 30 minutes to restart it. Someone has to come to restart it. But we can go 2 hours before we get in trouble.

NRC- The dam generates 32 mW. How do you know it wouldn’t overload your incoming power system?

ENVY-Dam operator would only restart one unit at a time.

Safety Evaluation Report

2 week on site inspection

19 inspector weeks for aging management systems

We were skeptical of the glowing reports we were getting

re dry wall corrosion.

Some corrosion monitoring was not being done, as ENVY didn’t think it applied to them.

NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS)

Entergy Nuclear VY license Renewal

Status of Review: ENVY still hasn’t resolved issue of metal fatigue.

NRC staff: NRC has worked over last few months to clarify problem. ENVY used software with unconventional methodology to predict metal fatigue. Used simplified calculations, combined six components into one component. It’s a mathematical manipulation but is not an industry standard. It was used before, but it was unknown to the NRC staff.

Method used has never been published in any professional literature.

NRC Conclusion: methodology MAY be used in some situations, but only if component not subject to sheer stress.

NRC asked ENVY to look at six locations with conventional mathematical modeling. Nozzle and pipe to pipe applications.

“WE got the last submission yesterday, so we haven’t evaluated it yet. But we think the applicant is now on the right path.”

Entergy: We made all kinds of improvements to get the 20% power boost.

Steam Dryer– cracks have been a problem,  but I won’t say the word CRACK until later. No fatigue cracking found, only intergranular cracking.

NRC- what do you do when you find cracks?

Entergy- we don’t repair them, we just enter them into our records and look at them again in 18 months.

NRC-No samples taken to determine what kind of cracking it is? Only visual inspection?

ENVY- that’s right.

Corrosion

Entergy- We did 63 inspections, and found no additional corrosion due to power boost.

NRC- Are you still monitoring the steam line?

Entergy- No

NRC You’re only monitoring the water levels?

Entergy- Yes.

NRC- does the noble metals coating cover the stream dryer?

Entergy- probably not. We’ll let you know.

Underground tanks for emergency diesel generators:

Entergy-

I’m not aware that we’ve seen any significant corrosion.

Classic non-denial denial!

Cooling Towers

ENVY- collapse was a significant event for us, that did not meet our expectations.

NRC- explain why

ENVY- Inspection was insufficient. We didn’t predict it, so we didn’t look for it. The safety related cell has a different design.

Environmentally assisted fatigue–gotta love it!

ENVY- Took our history and mixed it with history from younger, more robust reactor designs to show we’ll be good for another 20 years.

NRC-

Is this a reality?

ENVY consultant- It’s very conservative, used extensively over the life of the industry.

NRC-

I won’t go there! (laughter)

Corrosion  and stress, cont.

ENVY- The nozzles we’ve done calculations for all look great, even though the calculations don’t match up.

NRC- Did you expect the calculations to show different results?

ENVY- We’re so conservative, we expected the confirmatory calculations to be even better than the first analysis.

NRC staff- We’ll be looking into that further for the March meeting.

Dry Well and torus

ENVY- we haven’t seen any of the problems that other similar designs have found.

Sand cushion- corrosion of dry well shell has been seen elsewhere. ENVY is different-no insulating foam, it was a construction material that was removed. We’ve seen dust blowing that confirms that air is flowing, keeping air cushion dry. The sand drains are inspected daily to see if there’s any moisture.

Unasked question: Is there moisture found?

1999- found the moisture barrier degraded. Replaced (repainted?)

NRC- you have no measurements, because you didn’t think you had to?

ENVY-yes

NRC- you didn’t remove the sand to examine the metal?

ENVY-no

1998- de-sludged the torus and recoated it. No generalised corrosion, only localized. Blistering and paint failure.

NRC-why?

ENVY- poorly applied paint the last time.

NRC- not because of oxidation from underneath?

ENVY- Oh, no.

Emergency Back-up Power from the Vernon Dam

ENVY- If the dam generator is out, it takes about 30 minutes to restart it. Someone has to come to restart it. But we can go 2 hours before we get in trouble.

NRC- The dam generates 32 mW. How do you know it wouldn’t overload your incoming power system?

ENVY-Dam operator would only restart one unit at a time.

Safety Evaluation Report

2 week on site inspection

19 inspector weeks for aging management systems

We were skeptical of the glowing reports we were getting re dry wall corrosion.

Some corrosion monitoring was not being done, as ENVY didn’t think it applied to them.

The Hartford Courant has a quick blurb on the latest chapter of Joe Lieberman's slide into irrelevancy. Due to his backing of John “Rambo” McCain, he's lost his superdelegate status, due to the “Zell Miller” rule:

Lieberman's endorsement of Republican John McCain disqualifies him as a super-delegate to the Democratic National Convention under what is informally known as the Zell Miller rule, according to Democratic State Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo.

Milller, then a Democratic senator from Georgia, not only endorsed Republican George Bush four years ago, but he delivered a vitriolic attack on Democrat John Kerry at the Republican National Convention. 

The Democrats responded with a rule disqualifying any Democrat who crosses the aisle from being a super delegate. Lieberman will not be replaced, DiNardo said.

What's one superdelegate, you might ask? Well, as the race gets tighter and tighter, with the possibility of the superdelegates deciding who gets the nomination, it's a bit more important. One could speculate that Lieberman would more likely than not cast his vote for Clinton, for the reasons that her Iraq votes in the past were more in line with his incessant warmongering, plus his boy McCain has a better shot against Clinton than Obama. Now, it's a moot point.

NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS)

Entergy Nuclear VY license Renewal

Status of Review: ENVY still hasn’t resolved issue of metal fatigue.

NRC staff: NRC has worked over last few months to clarify problem. ENVY used software with unconventional methodology to predict metal fatigue. Used simplified calculations, combined six components into one component. It’s a mathematical manipulation but is not an industry standard. It was used before, but it was unknown to the NRC staff.

Method used has never been published in any professional literature.

NRC Conclusion: methodology MAY be used in some situations, but only if component not subject to sheer stress.

NRC asked ENVY to look at six locations with conventional mathematical modeling. Nozzle and pipe to pipe applications.

“WE got the last submission yesterday, so we haven’t evaluated it yet. But we think the applicant is now on the right path.”

Entergy: We made all kinds of improvements to get the 20% power boost.

Steam Dryer– cracks have been a problem,  but I won’t say the word CRACK until later. No fatigue cracking found, only intergranular cracking.

NRC- what do you do when you find cracks?

Entergy- we don’t repair them, we just enter them into our records and look at them again in 18 months.

NRC-No samples taken to determine what kind of cracking it is? Only visual inspection?

ENVY- that’s right.

Corrosion

Entergy- We did 63 inspections, and found no additional corrosion due to power boost.

NRC- Are you still monitoring the steam line?

Entergy- No

NRC You’re only monitoring the water levels?

Entergy- Yes.

NRC- does the noble metals coating cover the stream dryer?

Entergy- probably not. We’ll let you know.

Underground tanks for emergency diesel generators:

Entergy-

I’m not aware that we’ve seen any significant corrosion.

Classic non-denial denial!

Cooling Towers

ENVY- collapse was a significant event for us, that did not meet our expectations.

NRC- explain why

ENVY- Inspection was insufficient. We didn’t predict it, so we didn’t look for it. The safety related cell has a different design.

Environmentally assisted fatigue–gotta love it!

ENVY- Took our history and mixed it with history from younger, more robust reactor designs to show we’ll be good for another 20 years.

NRC-

Is this a reality?

ENVY consultant- It’s very conservative, used extensively over the life of the industry.

NRC-

I won’t go there! (laughter)

Corrosion  and stress, cont.

ENVY- The nozzles we’ve done calculations for all look great, even though the calculations don’t match up.

NRC- Did you expect the calculations to show different results?

ENVY- We’re so conservative, we expected the confirmatory calculations to be even better than the first analysis.

NRC staff- We’ll be looking into that further for the March meeting.

Dry Well and torus

ENVY- we haven’t seen any of the problems that other similar designs have found.

Sand cushion- corrosion of dry well shell has been seen elsewhere. ENVY is different-no insulating foam, it was a construction material that was removed. We’ve seen dust blowing that confirms that air is flowing, keeping air cushion dry. The sand drains are inspected daily to see if there’s any moisture.

Unasked question: Is there moisture found?

1999- found the moisture barrier degraded. Replaced (repainted?)

NRC- you have no measurements, because you didn’t think you had to?

ENVY-yes

NRC- you didn’t remove the sand to examine the metal?

ENVY-no

1998- de-sludged the torus and recoated it. No generalised corrosion, only localized. Blistering and paint failure.

NRC-why?

ENVY- poorly applied paint the last time.

NRC- not because of oxidation from underneath?

ENVY- Oh, no.

Emergency Back-up Power from the Vernon Dam

ENVY- If the dam generator is out, it takes about 30 minutes to restart it. Someone has to come to restart it. But we can go 2 hours before we get in trouble.

NRC- The dam generates 32 mW. How do you know it wouldn’t overload your incoming power system?

ENVY-Dam operator would only restart one unit at a time