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TVA's Browns Ferry nuclear plant reactor's cooling system stalls

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posted on May, 17 2011 @ 06:43 PM
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This was in our local paper today. Just a week after the NRC cited Browns Ferry with a 'red letter violation', another incident occured last week that shut down the cooling in one of the reactors for 40 minutes.

The Tennessean - article May 17th, 2011



The Tennessee Valley Authority, which has touted the safety of its nuclear reactors amid a continuing crisis in Japan, suffered a cooling system shutdown for 40 minutes Thursday after electricity shorted out at a Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant reactor.

The incident came two days after the plant 100 miles south of Nashville was cited by federal authorities with a “red” level violation for a cooling system valve that failed at its Unit 1 reactor.


The incident appears to be an 'oversight' during normal operations. All this tells me is that this aging nuclear technology is much like an old car that needs something tightened, has to be started just the right way, can't turn left without leaning right,etc...everything has to be done in an exact order or something will fail. This is part of the plant's history, as far back as 1974 when technicians started a fire in the plant by using candles to locate a gas leak. These plants, BTW are the sister plants of Fukushima (identical GE platform).

A bit disturbing if you ask me - that this can happen so easily, and especially when the workers at the plant are already under the gun to not make mistakes. The system is not forgiving to mistakes...



posted on May, 17 2011 @ 07:03 PM
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Strange, indeed, that an incident like this has recieved little focus, but I guess I am not surprised.

A plant with that many isses in its history and its technical aptitude is just BEGGING to go into meltdown.



posted on May, 17 2011 @ 07:04 PM
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reply to post by lakesidepark
 


Holy $h*t!

I live about fifteen miles away from the Browns Ferry plant...



posted on May, 17 2011 @ 07:18 PM
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I was only 15 minutes away this morning as I read the article. Then I drove by the plant on the way back to Tennessee. Sure made me think about the consequences of more than one 'mistake'.

What is really disturbing is the list of violations and failures at the bottom of the article. It seems Browns Ferry has been down as often as it has been operational up over the last 37 years. And every time they bring a reactor back on line, they find another pesky cooling valve problem.

This is not a stable technology.



posted on May, 17 2011 @ 07:56 PM
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I don't trust these nuclear reactor plants - as long as we have them we are all in potential danger. When they fail, the effects are so destructive.

I have always had a niggling feeling that nuclear plants are 'disasters waiting to happen'. Sounds gloomy I know, but I think that the benefits of nuclear energy are not worth the risk and never will be - not until we find a way to totally eliminate the possiblity of a meltdown, and to safely dispose of toxic waste.

Until these two things are resolved, nuclear energy should be out of the question IMO.



posted on May, 17 2011 @ 09:31 PM
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Another disturbing consideration is that one of the (fukushima) type reactors was mothballed and TVA re-rehabilitated it , "successfully"...also when the tornado hit that particular reactor did not shut down on it's primary system and was being cooled on one of two back-up systems.



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