“Enormous Challenges and Ludicrous Efforts”

If you happen to be in Washington DC tonight, check out a new film called Under Control at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum. If you’re not familiar with the Hirshhorn, it’s the modern art museum where your cranky aunt will point out that children could make art as good as that on display. And Under Control sounds as though it adopts an aesthetic rather than documentary approach.

Hirshhorn associate curator Kelly Gordon first saw the piece at the Berlin Film Festival this past February and came away impressed. “It is a mind-blowing study of the haunting elegance of the hardware of the industry,” she says. “The film meditates on the poetry of technology but also the echo of mass destruction.”

I imagine for some, including your cranky aunt, that says, “Poison. Stay away.” After all, it’s not just a film, it’s a “piece.” And it “meditates.”

And it does seem to want to at least imply a connection between constructive and destructive uses of energy.

Hollow, echoing sounds reflect the underlying menace that’s present. Yet there’s an appeal to the clean lines of the sterile, industrial design and a retro Eastern European feel to the furniture and instrument panels that ironically control some of the most powerful forces on the planet.

I’m not sure that even makes sense unless you’re already of a mind to imagine a “hollow, echoing sound” in a nuclear energy facility equals some “underlying menace.”

At its worst, talking and writing about modern art hits a kind of squishy liberalism where words mean what you want them to mean rather than what they clearly do mean. It’s a place where a grinding bore becomes a meditation.

Even though director Volker Satter has an agenda - here’s a quote: “Looking at the long term, you can sense the enormous challenges and ludicrous efforts that this form of energy generation demands of human beings” – he wants to make his case visually rather than verbally.

It’s always amusing to hear filmmakers, who after all practice the most technological and communal of arts, talk like this about any other human endeavor. “You can sense” they lack a certain self-knowledge.

But that’s not to say the film’s bad – after all, I’m describing a description not the film - or lacks points of interest. It’s on at 7:00. Director Satter will be there to explain it all for you.

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Sometimes, flipping a switch can be enough:

The North Anna nuclear plant is likely to begin generating electricity tomorrow for the first time since both reactors at the Louisa County power station were shut down by a magnitude 5.8 earthquake on Aug. 23.

With everything that’s happened this year, one can’t blame Dominion and the NRC for being extremely careful about North Anna. The earthquake, while light (and short) compared to the one that struck Japan in March, still exceeded North Anna’s seismic design basis – a bit – for a few seconds.

This is how the NRC put it:

“The earthquake shook the reactors more strongly than the plant’s design anticipated, so Dominion had to prove to us that the quake caused no functional damage to the reactors’ safety systems,” said Eric Leeds, director of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. “We’ve asked Dominion dozens of detailed questions, and our experts have examined Dominion’s answers as well as information from our own inspections. We’re satisfied the plant meets our requirements to restart safely, and we’ll monitor Dominion’s ongoing tests and inspections during startup of both reactors.”

That’s fine. But the key is here:

Both Dominion and NRC’s results showed only minor damage that did not affect North Anna’s safety systems.

Here is what the NRC still wants Dominion to do:

Updating North Anna’s Final Safety Analysis Report to incorporate information from the quake and subsequent analysis;

Additional characterization of the fault responsible for the Aug. 23 quake, as well as any special ground motion effects at North Anna;

Re-evaluating plant equipment (including an assessment of potential improvements) identified in earlier seismic reviews;

Developing any needed inspections or evaluations for components within the North Anna reactor vessels; and

Permanently updating seismic monitoring equipment for the North Anna reactors and dry-cask spent fuel storage facility.

Seems reasonable enough.

As you may expect, Dominion also put out a press release. This bit struck me as especially interesting:

[Following the earthquake] The company immediately began a program of inspections, testing and analysis to make sure the station was undamaged and capable of being safely restarted. The program involved more than 100,000 man-hours of work and cost more than $21 million, plus the use of numerous outside seismic and engineering experts.

Which may seem excessive, but the earthquake was so rare – and North Anna so near the epicenter (about 12 miles away) – that one doesn’t hesitate to suggest the money and time were well spent. Dominion doesn’t say how much of this was spent at their own behest and how much due to NRC questions, but presumably, there is some division.

Again, here’s the key:

“The station suffered no functional damage from the quake and is ready to resume generating clean, low-cost energy safely for our customers."

That’s David Heacock, Dominion’s president and chief nuclear officer. (NEI’s Nuclear Energy Insight newsletter recently published an interview with Heacock - mostly about Dominion’s post- Fukushima actions - which is online here.)

So, good news – especially for Virginians - on a number of fronts.

From Under Control. Looks darkly lustrous.

NRC Discusses Preliminary Results from North Anna Inspections

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission held a public meeting yesterday to discuss its team’s preliminary inspection results on how the North Anna nuclear plant withstood the August 23 earthquake that rippled throughout the East Coast and the adequacy of the plant’s response.

What did they find?

David Heacock, Dominion’s president and chief nuclear officer, explains in a short video clip at the meeting:

The plant operated as designed with a few minor equipment problems and the people did a fantastic job operating the plant and safely shutting it down.

Each nuclear plant in the United States is built to safely withstand an earthquake—North Anna is no exception. But Heacock explains how having an additional safety margin helped the plant when the unexpected quake struck.

These plants were designed for a seismic event about the size of this seismic event, but for a much longer duration. Duration is very important. As duration gets longer, more and more energy gets imparted upon the plant. This event lasted about three seconds for the strong shaking, but we’re designed for a minimum of 15 seconds of strong shaking. So this is really about 20 percent of the energy the plant is designed to take.

Next steps: Starting tomorrow for about a 10-day period, the NRC will have a five-member crew conducting a thorough inspection at the site to ensure that all equipment is available and that there isn’t damage to safety equipment before the plant restarts. Last Friday the NRC outlined its post-earthquake requirements, which Dominion must meet before the plant is allowed to restart.

For more information, check out the NRC’s website where you can find current actions at the plant, a chronology of events, and frequently asked questions.

NRC Issues Press Release Concerning North Anna Re-Start

The following press release was just issued by NRC.

NRC CONFIRMS POST-EARTHQUAKE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE NORTH ANNA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has informed Dominion Generation, operator of the two-reactor North Anna nuclear power plant near Louisa, Va., of actions that must be completed before the agency will authorize the restart of the plant. The plant shut down safely following the Aug. 23 earthquake near Louisa.

“We’re reviewing Dominion’s information to ensure North Anna’s systems will be able to keep the public safe and the plant won’t start up again until we’re satisfied on that point,” said Eric Leeds, director of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. “We’re working diligently on coming to a technically sound decision.”

The NRC has issued Dominion a Confirmatory Action Letter, which reiterates that since the Aug. 23 earthquake exceeded design parameters for North Anna, the plant will remain shut down until Dominion demonstrates “to the Commission that no functional damage occurred to those features necessary for continued operation without undue risk to the health and safety of the public.” The letter then lays out the next steps in the restart process, starting with Dominion submitting documentation responding to all NRC questions regarding restart safety.

“Inspectors from the NRC Region II office and other agency experts will conduct additional onsite inspections at North Anna to verify that adequate actions have been taken in response to the Confirmatory Action Letter,” said Victor McCree, administrator of the NRC’s Atlanta office.

The NRC will also complete a safety evaluation regarding restart. The NRC’s directive will remain in effect until the NRC is satisfied Dominion has demonstrated the plant is safe to operate; at that point the agency would issue written permission for Dominion to restart the plant. North Anna Unit 2 is currently in a refueling outage and is shut down for refueling and associated maintenance.

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More details as we get them.

Memories of an Earthquake

How serious was the earthquake the hit the east coast last month. Consider:

These fine folk are starting at the top of the Washington Monument and rappelling down to check out the structure. In the meantime, the monument is closed to the public. Here’s some detail:

The team [two men and two women] plans to climb up and down the monument to check each stone for cracks, chips and other damage caused by the 5.8-magnitude quake that shook the nation's capital Aug. 23. They will take breaks as needed by making a descent that can take 12 to 15 minutes without stops, and resume work by riding the elevator back to the top.

Presumably, the fourth team member is on the dark side of the monument. Happily, these aren’t just daredevils without portfolio.

[Team member Erik] Sohn is part of a team from a private firm that's certified with a rare combination of climbing and engineering skills.

and:

Each team member is carrying several items, including a digital camera, an iPad that includes data from the 1999 restoration of the monument, a two-way radio, masonry tools that will allow them to remove loose pieces of stone or mortar and a soft mallet for audio testing.

An iPad! Hip engineer daredevils!

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And speaking of that August 23 earthquake, what about the North Anna plant in Virginia that has been closed since it occurred?

Dominion Resources officials said vibration from an August 23 earthquake in Virginia detected inside the two North Anna nuclear reactors caused the units to shut rather than a loss of power into the station, a Dominion spokesman said on Tuesday.

Which it’s supposed to do. The reason the two reactors remain closed is because no U.S. nuclear plant has experienced an earthquake larger than its design basis and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Dominion want to be thorough in their review of the facility. It can also act as a case study of such an incident.

Even with these ongoing efforts, Dominion is ready to roll:

Richmond-based Dominion had asked the commission to possibly restart one of the reactors by the end of the month…

But may be cooling its heels until the NRC issues a report, now due in late October. We’ll see.

Reasons to Doubt the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League

This morning's edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a short piece reporting that the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League is moving to block the construction of a third reactor at North Anna in Virginia in the wake of the August earthquake on the East coast.

Here's what the folks at Dominion Virginia Power have to say about the action:

Dominion Virginia Power, owner of two nuclear reactors at the North Anna plant, said the earthquake has no bearing on the licensing of a third unit, which would be built to a seismic standard more than four times that of the existing units.

"We have worked through the seismic requirements for Unit 3," utility spokesman Rick Zuercher said Thursday night. "They're stringent and would have well withstood what happened at North Anna with the existing units."

While the ground vibration from the quake exceeded design limits for the two existing reactors, the utility said the plant suffered no significant damage.

I can't help but shake my head every time I read something from the folks at BREDL. From my experience, they're just not credible, something we've pointed out here at NEI Nuclear Notes in a number of instances:

• Playing Fast and Loose With the Data, December 2005
• More Anti-Nuke Half-Truths About North Anna, August 2006
• When BREDL Makes Claims, Be Sure to Check the Data, June 2007

Something tells me that the folks at the Atomic Safety Licensing Board Panel will take these points into account when they consider BREDL's latest complaint.

North Anna, Paducah, Japan

Just to cross a T from last week’s earthquake:

Dominion, the plant's operator, notified the NRC Friday that its analysis of ground shaking showed the quake could have exceeded its design parameters. An independent analysis by the government also had determined that was likely.

Oh?

But since nuclear power plants are built with margins of safety beyond the maximum expected shaking, the damage detected so far has been minimal.

Oh!

The NRC had already sent a seismic expert and a structural expert out to the facility, in addition to its inspector onsite.

Let’s keep on eye on this one and see how it shakes out.

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The Paducah (Ken.) Sun looks at both North Anna and Nebraska’s Fort Calhoun (which found itself in the middle of a swollen Missouri River during much of the summer) and notes that both came through their respective bouts with mother nature unscathed. Conclusion:

With debate growing more intense over the safety of nuclear power as part of the U.S. energy picture, these two unplanned tests of nuclear reactors are instructive. Especially in light of the March 11 earthquake in Japan that provided fodder for opponents of nuclear energy.

The performance of the nuclear plants at Fort Calhoun and North Anna demonstrates that nuclear power generation can be safe, economical and reliable.

Well, safe in these situations is the one to note and the plants did do reliably what they’re supposed to do when the ground shakes or the water rises. They’re economical all the time – it’s a gimmee in this context. We’ll take it.

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Japan's parliament has backed Yoshihiko Noda as the country's sixth prime minister in five years.

I cannot pretend to understand Japanese politics, but I think I can grasp the revolving doors at the prime minister’s residence:

An earlier agreement to raise taxes to cover welfare costs was a good start at fiscal consolidation, but the best chance for success is a stable government, Byrne added.

Japan's next leader has a mountain of challenges ahead, from battling a soaring yen and forging a post-nuclear crisis energy policy to rebuilding from the tsunami and reining in public debt, while paying for reconstruction and the bulging costs of an aging society.

The March disasters knocked the economy back into recession, and the strength of an expected rebound later this year is being clouded by weak domestic and global demand and recent gains in the yen, which threaten export competitiveness.

This story from Moodys is largely about its investor service cutting its rating on Japan’s debt. But Japanese Prime Ministers seem much more likely to throw in the towel before their terms are up than, say, American Presidents or British Prime Ministers. That leads to instability – even if the ruling party remains the same – while a new Prime Minister assembles his staff. I imagine there are a lot of people coming and going in the ministerial jobs. Although Japan does not appear to be in a political state of crisis, it makes Moodys nervous.

The BBC included this tidbit:

Unlike Mr [Naoto] Kan [the former PM], he [Noda] wants Japan's halted nuclear reactors to be restarted and has not backed his call for a nuclear-free Japan.

So there’s that. We may feel this is the best thing for Japan to do, especially as it will suffer a pretty rough winter without the reactors, but how it goes for nuclear energy in Japan will likely not be determined for some time. Kan was reacting to public opinion perhaps a little precipitously, but Noda will take account of it too – and the opinions of his ministers – and the options open to Japan in the electricity sphere.

So we can agree with Noda’s current views without necessarily expecting they will remain unchanged – or that Noda will retain his position where his predecessors did not – or without imagining that anything is settled about the future of nuclear energy in Japan.

Japan Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

The East Coast Earthquake Redux

From NEI’s Response Center (this goes to members and Capitol Hill, but I asked to be able to share it with you):

All 12 plants that declared unusual events in the wake of yesterday’s East Coast earthquake have exited emergency status. Dominion’s North Anna station declared an alert, as both reactors at the site shut down automatically upon the loss of off-site power, which the company reported late yesterday had been restored. North Anna remains in alert status. NEI will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.

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Here’s your headline (from The Hill, which covers Capitol Hill) - Earthquake reignites debate over safety of nuclear power – and here’s your sample paragraph:

While there were no reports of damage at the North Anna reactors [the ones nearest the epicenter] and plant operator Dominion said the cooling systems were working properly, nuclear opponents quickly pounced on the incident Tuesday.

I’m almost absolutely sure The Hill isn’t this naïve. The web is generally uncontrollable – as it should be – but mainstream sources have been very good not to gin up fear where it is not justified. “Nuclear opponents” are always only going to have one thing to say – it’s just their nature - so using them as a go-to source has the effect of throwing the nuclear industry into a defensive stance even when there is nothing to defend.

I get the idea of creating conflict in news stories, but sheesh! Let there be something to have a conflict about first.

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I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the industry’s response to the quake. As we saw yesterday, news sources have been looking at their local nuclear plants for potential drama – and none have really found any. If North Anna switching to diesel power for a short stint is the drama you’ve got, you’ve got nothing.

None-the-less, reporters will look to the NRC, DOE, NEI, INPO and other sources to get some official or well-informed viewpoints.

I’ve made this point many times before, but it’s worth making again in this context. NEI and its sister organizations never lie. I’ve seen instances where associations did lie about events that aroused media curiosity about their industries and their names were mud. You lose trust, you lose everything – Congressional figures give you and your industry the fishy eye - and reporters and congressional staffs in particular have long, long memories.

So – no lies allowed.

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Here’s Tony Pietrangelo, NEI’s senior vice president and chief nuclear officer:

“Per procedures and training, qualified personnel at affected facilities are conducting walk-downs and visually inspecting safety-related structures and components for indications of damage that might have resulted from the earthquake. We do not have any reports of such impacts at this time.

This part’s a little dated already – the bit at the top of this post brings everything up to date. But Pietrangelo brings up a subject that is exceptionally salient:

“U.S. nuclear energy facilities have been tested repeatedly by Mother Nature this summer, with tornadoes in the Southeast and record flooding in Nebraska. They have successfully met these challenges because plant personnel are fully trained and proficient in their duties within a multi-layered protective strategy that has multiple defenses to ensure safety even in the face of extreme events.”

I’d only add that the country as a whole has been “tested repeatedly by Mother Nature” - and industry in general and, well, folks have held up pretty well. Now, on to Hurricane Irene.

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Here’s the NRC:

Nuclear power plants are built to withstand environmental hazards, including earthquakes. Even those plants that are located outside of areas with extensive seismic activity are designed for safety in the event of such a natural disaster. The NRC requires that safety-significant structures, systems, and components be designed to take into account the most severe natural phenomena historically reported for the site and surrounding area.

Plants declaring Unusual Events, which indicate a potential decrease in plant safety, include Peach Bottom, Three Mile Island, Susquehanna and Limerick in Pennsylvania; Salem,
Hope Creek and Oyster Creek in New Jersey, Calvert Cliffs in Maryland, Surry in Virginia, Shearon Harris in North Carolina and D.C. Cook and Palisades in Michigan. All these plants continue to operate while plant personnel examine their sites.

They caught up with some plants that I missed in my roundup yesterday, but they are the NRC.

The first paragraph is important: although the east does not suffer earthquakes frequently, it has suffered them historically and nuclear plants are built with the idea of taking account of the whole known history of an area. So no nuclear facility fell short of being prepared for yesterday’s earthquake. Not one.

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Finally, a curious aspect of the earthquake is that it shook up nearly the entire east coast. Much larger tremblers out west don’t send shock waves up to Washington state and down to Mexico, so why was this one so widely felt?

Ars Technica provides a short explanation. We won’t steal the whole thing, but this is the gist of it:

On the East Coast, the continental crust is older, colder, and denser. The coastline hasn't been tectonically active since Pangaea split apart, back when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth.

“Older, colder and denser.” We think our western friends can have quite a lot of fun with that description of the east – and I don’t mean tectonically, either. Read the rest at the site.

The last time everyone in downtown Washington, D.C. left their buildings was during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The feeling then was intense fear. Yesterday, the mood was bemusement and bafflement while everyone waited (for about 30 minutes) for the cell towers to work again so loved ones could be reassured and checked. This shot was taken on Pennsylvania Ave. fairly close to NEI.

The East Coast Earthquake of 2011

Those of us on the east coast have yet another major event to remember – a 5.8 earthquake that shook virtually the entire east coast. No one who doesn’t come from the west is used to such an event, so the level of surprise and mystified reaction was considerable. We won’t know for awhile if there was substantial damage or casualties. Let’s hope for little of the former and none of the latter. But we do know something about the nuclear facilities.

Dominion Virginia Power shut down its two North Anna reactors  as a result of the earthquake, according to the  the company.

The earthquake was felt at the North Anna Power Station and the reactor operators, following procedures, shut down the reactors," said company spokesman Jim Norvelle. "It was a manual shutdown."

The plant declared an alert, the second lowest level of emergency declaration, a commission spokesman said.

About what you’d expect. Virginia was at the epicenter of the quake.

Dominion Virginia Power's Surry Power Station is operating as normal, he said.

Also about right. Power was knocked out at North Anna – it has diesel generators to keep things running - but retained at Surrey.

How about Limerick in Pennsylvania?

“The earthquake was felt, but it didn’t jeopardize the safe operation of the plant. Both units are 100 percent and are online,” Szafran said in a phone interview just before 3 p.m. Tuesday.

“For this type of event, we have procedures in place, including a walk-down of all structures.” No evacuation was necessary, he said.

Indian Point in New York?

Indian Point Nuclear Power Plants have begun “Abnormal Operating Procedures,” according to Entergy Spokesman Jim Steets, after Tuesday afternoon's 5.9 magnitude earthquake. Abnormal Operating Procedures, or AOP, mean that the plant is being inspected for damage, although none has yet been found.

Calvert Cliffs in Maryland?

The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Maryland, the closest nuclear plant to Washington, D.C., remained stable at 100% of capacity, a spokesman for Constellation Energy Nuclear Group LLC said Tuesday.

Constellation declared an "unusual event" at the plant, said Constellation spokesman Mark Sullivan.

This story mentions two more.

Mr. Sullivan said the company's nuclear plants in Scriba, N.Y., and Ontario, N.Y., were performing similar examinations although neither plant registered abnormal seismic activity.

These would be Nine Mile Point and R.E. Ginna.

Now, of course, we understand that Fukushima Daiichi in Japan was hit by an earthquake, though it may turn out that it was the tsunami following the earthquake that was the determinative event. No American plant is vulnerable to tsunami and this wasn’t the kind of earthquake that could generate a tsunami.

Regardless of all this, it makes sense that the very fact of an earthquake set reporters to asking about the local nuclear facilities. By and large, reporters have been responsible, calling over to the plants – when the lines were open – and finding out what’s what.

And what’s what? The plant nearest the epicenter closed down – though mostly due to loss of external power - and most of the others (all of the others I found information about) are puttering right along, checking around the plants for any damage but mostly unaffected.

The earthquake just happened a couple of hours ago. There will be aftershocks, though none so far. Most folks, I reckon, are a little shook up. There’s no reason to believe the nuclear facilities should contribute to that, and they haven’t.

Let’s let Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell have the last word:

"In the wake of the earthquake, I would like to encourage all Virginians to check on neighbors and loved ones to ensure that everyone is safe and to continue cooperating with law enforcement and emergency responders working in your neighborhood,’’said McDonnell, who is holding a news conference later today. 

Let’s do that. Check on loved ones, make sure your neighbors are okay, get home safely, calm any panicky pets and turn on the TV or radio to keep up with events. It’s plenty. It’s enough.