Pilgrim powers down day after favorable report

By Christine Legere
Posted Nov 2, 2018 

Valve problems come after NRC finds plant addressed 45 deficiencies.

PLYMOUTH — Operators at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station reduced power to 35 percent late Thursday to figure out why a valve in the feedwater system that regulates water flow into the reactor was experiencing problems.

Just a day earlier, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that Pilgrim had successfully addressed another 45 items on its list of plant deficiencies, including those in the area of equipment reliability.

That pronouncement was made despite the fact Pilgrim has been shut down a total of 60 days in the past 10 months because of equipment issues.

“Pilgrim is pleased that the NRC’s 4th Confirmatory Action Letter Inspection closed all 45 actions without any findings or violations,” Patrick O’Brien, spokesman for Entergy Corp., the plant’s owner-operator, said via email.

The federal inspection report, particularly the thumbs-up on equipment reliability, left plant opponents frustrated.

“Reliability is synonymous with consistency, and Entergy and the NRC have both shown consistency,” said Mary Lampert, president of the citizens group Pilgrim Watch. “Pilgrim has a consistent problem with the unreliability of equipment. The NRC is also consistent for poor oversight.”

Problems with the feedwater system plagued Pilgrim operators this year. A regulator valve unexpectedly closed Oct. 8, causing a drop in the reactor water level and forcing a six-day shutdown. Feedwater-related issues also caused shutdowns in early March and late April.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission records show the valves in the feedwater system also forced reactor shutdowns in February 2017 and September 2016.

“What we have observed so far is not indicative of a repeat failure,” NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan wrote in an email, referring to feedwater issues. In October, the reactor went into automatic shutdown because the valve was opening and closing quickly, he said, and this time, Pilgrim operators chose to power down because of an error code coming up on monitoring equipment.

“They could have continued to operate the reactor at 100 percent power but instead made the conservative decision to downpower and address the issue,” Sheehan wrote.

Diane Turco, president of the Cape Downwinders, a nonprofit group that has been fighting to close Pilgrim, said she found it ironic that federal inspectors signed off on equipment reliability hours before the valve problem.

“The ink was not even dry on the report before Pilgrim had another problem,” Turco said. “Obviously Entergy is not making the fixes on repetitive equipment failures. They are just putting Band-Aids on a bad reactor. Where is the checkbox for shutdown?”

Earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote to the chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, expressing “deep concern” over Pilgrim’s performance. The senator criticized the federal regulatory agency for not doing enough to force the plant to meet acceptable standards.

In her letter to Kristine Svinicki, the senator noted Pilgrim is in Column 4 under federal performance standards — one step from mandatory shutdown — and the worst plant among the nation’s fleet of 98 reactors.

“It is alarming the NRC has not taken additional steps to ensure that Entergy is safely operating the Pilgrim plant,” Warren wrote.

Pilgrim is set to close permanently by June 1, and operators hope to be moved up to Column 1 under performance standards by then, “finishing safely and strongly before our planned shutdown,” O’Brien wrote.

It could happen.

Only 40 items on Pilgrim’s list of 156 deficiencies, which were identified when the plant was put into Column 4 in 2015, still require final sign-off by federal regulators. An inspection to handle those final items is set for next month. All relate to safety culture at the plant.

Federal inspectors did a little advance work in that area during the previous inspection, talking to about 72 staff members, who were organized in focus groups.

Inspectors concluded, “most staff believe management places an appropriate level of emphasis on safety and makes conservative decisions that appropriately consider risk.” Group members stated they felt free to raise safety concerns without fear of retaliation and believe management would support stopping work to resolve safety concerns, inspectors said.

“Whether Pilgrim can return to Column 1 of our Action Matrix prior to shutdown remains an open question at this point,” Sheehan said. “We’ll await the results of our fifth and final follow-up inspection in December and then a determination by NRC senior managers as to progress at the plant.”

Which column the plant ends its 46-year history in will have no impact on federal oversight during decommissioning, Sheehan said.

https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20181102/pilgrim-powers-down-day-after-favorable-report