VY again; more trouble at the troubled plant

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(Under the heading of “having one’s cake and eating it too,”  Entergy and the NRC wants  the state of Vermont to butt-out of safety issues, but also to ignore the endless blips in the plants “reliability” record.

Stardust draws our attention to yet another of these failures.  Not that we’re counting! – promoted by Sue Prent)

Stuck valve causes power reduction at Yankee

By SUSAN SMALLHEER

Staff Writer – Published: February 2, 2012

BRATTLEBORO – The Vermont Yankee power plant has been at reduced power for the past two days because of a problematic valve in a turbine in the non-nuclear side of the plant.

http://www.timesargus.com/arti…

7 thoughts on “VY again; more trouble at the troubled plant”

  1. Appears to have been a lack of lube:

    Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said that the problem was traced to a lack of lubrication.

    “They identified a lack of lubrication on the pilot (control) valve for the stop valve,” Sheehan wrote in an email.

    Tsk, tsk.

  3. If it caused them to reduce power for two days, I think that characterization could be open to debate.

  4. Remember Set 20th?  Oh, so long ago.  Murtha should have noted that these assholes can’t even do a break-in/arson job right.  And we should trust them with our public health and safety?  Oops, somebody just dropped a lit match–god knows where.

  5. “

    In 2007, a failure in the turbine stop valves caused an emergency shutdown of the reactor. The problem was attributed to the lack of preventative maintenance on a valve bell crank mechanism.

    On Aug. 30, 2007, a troubleshooting team entered the turbine building to inspect, lubricate and mechanically assist the No. 2 turbine stop valve mechanical linkage. The effort was successful and the valve stroked open, and indicated full open from the control room. Upon a subsequent retest, the valve was stroked closed and failed to open. The team then attempted to lubricate and free the linkage, after which the linkage was freed and the valve opened faster than expected, which resulted in a pressure deviation in the turbine stop valve actuator hydraulic oil system that resulted in the oil dump valves opening, causing all four valves to close.

    An analysis of the reactor trip concluded there was no preventive maintenance activity to inspect, rebuild and lubricate the bell crank mechanism on a periodic basis.[..]As a result of the malfunction, a preventative maintenance plan was developed and implemented.”

    http://www.reformer.com/localn…

    Apparently even after the so-called “preventative maintanance plan” was developed & implemented, valve still failed. Back to the drawing board boys.

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