Byron: Reactor goes down

It is about screening for breast cancer and curing cancer in women...

UPDATE 2/8: BYRON (WIFR)-- 23 News has learned federal investigators at the Byron Nuclear Power Plant are looking at a possible design problem which could affect safety at the plant and may have been partly responsible for last weeks emergency shutdown.

You may remember last Monday when reactor two at the plant went offline. At the time Exelon said there was an electrical power fluxuation and the plant went offline automatically.

Now Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesperson Viktoria Mitlyng tells us investigators are concerned that the automatic safety switch was actually thrown manually. Tonight the NRC is questioning if there is a design problem with Byron and its sister plant at Braidwood.

Initial reports say a worker fortunately noticed the power fluxuation and cut power--a job which was designed to have been done automatically. Exelon also is investigating and said they expect to respond tomorrow.

It is hard to understand what happened?

Didn't the grid short not get isolated quickly enough or did the turbine not get tripped?

http://www.wifr.com/news/headlines/140818803....

NRC Spokesperson Preyma Chandratchil, "Whenever there is a situation we go ahead and take a look at it to go ahead and see does it impact one unit, two units, and multiple units. We also go ahead and take a look to see if there are any larger broader implications whether its events at Byron or it’s an event at another nuclear power plant."

It was determined that the generators were tripped on due to a failed insulator which happens to be the same reason the plant shut down their second unit last month.

Communications Manager for the Byron Station Paul Dempsey, "It is very similar to the failure we had last month. We still look into why the insulators failed. The last one looked at maybe the process of which it was manufactured. So this one we will do the same thing and try to find out why this insulator failed."

Excelon says the company that manufactured these parts is no longer in business which makes it harder to diagnose exactly how a piece of ceramic glass could break.

Dempsey said, "The insulator that failed last month in the kiln, the heating process once you are finished putting it together maybe wasn't done to standards so we will see if this current one has similar issues."

The insulator that failed last night was replaced this afternoon and Excelon and the NRC hope their report will help prevent other plants from having a similar issue in the future.

An insulator is a piece of ceramic glass that prevents the wire carrying the electricity from shorting the electricity to the ground. The NRC's report on how this may impact the rest of the industry is expected to be released within the next few months.

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Our the lines heating and cooling down caused by load...

Like, how about bad weather, a tornado or a earthquake...could that trip them into a LOOP.

Freaking heat treatment again like Palisades but it is glass this time...

If I was young and all filled with hormones, if my balls were just a little bigger, I through them another 2.206...

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/brattleboro-v...

Closed) Unresolved Item (URI) 05000455/2008002-03: Unit 2 Notice of Unusual Event
due to Loss of Both SATs
On March 25, 2008, Unit 2 SAT 242-2 de-energized upon receipt of a C phase to ground
relay actuation. As designed the upstream switchyard breakers opened de-energizing
both SAT 242-1 and 242-2. Also,

The inspectors reviewed the licensee’s root
cause analysis report, additional documentation, and interviewed licensee personnel.
The root cause analysis determined that the SAT tripped due to the failure of a ceramic
insulator on the B-Phase of the 4KiloVolt non-segregated bus duct. Routine preventive
testing of the bus duct did not identify the degraded insulator.

I wonder if inside and outside insulators are the same...same company?

There one: F. Previous Occurrences:
LER 454-96-007, "Loss of Offsite Power Due to a Failure of an Insulator on Phase B of the Unit 1
System Auxiliary Transformer From Water Intrusion."

Mike Mulligan wrote:

There one: F. Previous Occurrences:
LER 454-96-007, "Loss of Offsite Power Due to a Failure of an Insulator on Phase B of the Unit 1
System Auxiliary Transformer From Water Intrusion."

I doubt this guy is in adam its so old...

My best guess is the bankrupt vender is "Delta-Unibus"...

We don't the insulators defects discovered but not reported in LERs...?

Mike Mulligan wrote:

There one: F. Previous Occurrences:
LER 454-96-007, "Loss of Offsite Power Due to a Failure of an Insulator on Phase B of the Unit 1
System Auxiliary Transformer From Water Intrusion."

It is in a duck:

The root cause was identified as the failure of a ceramic insulator on the B-Phase of the 4kV nonsegregated
bus associated with SAT 242-2. This failure was attributed to internal corona discharges
that over time led to a breakdown of the insulating material.

duct

Mike Mulligan wrote:

There one: F. Previous Occurrences:
LER 454-96-007, "Loss of Offsite Power Due to a Failure of an Insulator on Phase B of the Unit 1
System Auxiliary Transformer From Water Intrusion."

This guy seem to be about leakage of rain into the duct causing failure...

VY 2004: The generator isolated phase bus duct is being upgraded from a rating of 17900 amps to a rating of 19000
amps by replacement of the bus duct cooler and by internal modifications to the bus duct cooling air
distribution system. Delta-Unibus, the bus duct manufacturer, is providing the internal design details, the
new cooler unit and the new bus rating. The generator no-load disconnect switch is also being upgraded
to a 19000 amp rating by Delta Unibus. Modification to the cooling air flowpath within the disconnect
switch have t o be implemented to achieve the increased rating.

The generator "no-load disconnect switch"
You should hear the normal howling and crackling lightening bolt noise these guys make when opening up the disconnect switch only under voltage...

Brunswick Steam Electric Plant, Unit No. 1
Docket No. 50-325/License No. DPR-71
Licensee Event Report 1-2005-005

The cause of the Main Turbine trip was the failure of the B phase of the Main Generator No Load Disconnect Switch (NLDS).

Delta-Unibus Corporation...VY no load generator disconnect switch is from the same guys....

Mike Mulligan wrote:

Brunswick Steam Electric Plant, Unit No. 1
Docket No. 50-325/License No. DPR-71
Licensee Event Report 1-2005-005
The cause of the Main Turbine trip was the failure of the B phase of the Main Generator No Load Disconnect Switch (NLDS).
Delta-Unibus Corporation...VY no load generator disconnect switch is from the same guys....

http://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/mai... 'ML052630377'

So big huge switchyard breakers would be used to open or close lines under loads. Say if a breaker had to be worked on, they would remover the amps going though the line, but the line would still have lots of voltage on the line. So a disconnect switch is a piece of bus work on the line that rotates away from the line...a 3 to 6 foot section that rotates 90 degrees perpendicular to the line. It just creates a big airspace in the line. It could be manually or electrically operated. The manual disconnect switches were neatest of all. You have a rotating shaft from the disconnect mechanism to a ground station. You have a helmet and huge rubber glove on. The station would be located right under the 340,000 volt line. You had a crank and you spun it around till the bus work became perpendicular to the line. It crackles and zaps like hell till enough air space is created to break the voltage.