Tag Archives: Pilgrim 1

Pilgrim and Salem nukes scrammed down

Two nukes down Friday: “lowering reactor water level was due to the trip of all three Feedwater Pumps” (Pilgrim 1 in Massachusetts) and “unidentified leakage” (Salem 1 in New Jersey). That’s the fifth downtime for Entergy’s Pilgrim 1 this year: cold, heat, leak, and now feedwater pumps. Remind me about the reliability and safety of big baseload nuclear?

Event Number: 49296 Facility: PILGRIM,

REACTOR PROTECTION ACTUATION (SCRAM)

“On Thursday, August 22, 2013 at 0755 hours [EDT], with the reactor critical at approximately 98% core thermal power, and the mode switch in RUN, a manual reactor scram was inserted due to lowering reactor water level. The cause of the lowering reactor water level was due to the trip of all three Feedwater Pumps. The cause of the Feedwater Pump trip event is currently under investigation.

“Following the reactor scram, Continue reading →

Pilgrim nuke down because of cold, heat, leak: when does it ever run?

Down in January, February, April, May, running low March and June, and now likely to go down because of summer heat, under what conditions does Entergy’s Pilgrim nuke near Boston, MA like to run? Entergy also couldn’t keep the power on during the Super Bowl and still has Arkansas Nuclear 1 down since a fatal accident in March. To be fair, many nukes can’t handle heat. Remind me, why are we building more of them?

Christine Legere wrote for Cape Cod Times 18 July 2013, Seawater temps too high for Pilgrim cooling,

PLYMOUTH — The ongoing heat wave could force Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station to shut down, as soaring temperatures continue to warm the Cape Cod Bay waters that the plant relies on to cool key safety systems.

Pilgrim’s license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires Continue reading →

Down and Low NRC Reactor Status 6 March 2013

104	100%	total
4	3%	newdown
17	16%	newlow
6	5%	newtop
16	15%	down
32	30%	low
72	69%	top

Since the last time I reported on NRC nuclear reactor statuses, 23 February 2013, six are back up, four are newly down (total of sixteen down), seventeen are newly running low (thirty two low). That’s 30% below 100% power, and only 69% (72 out of 104) running at full power. And that’s not counting Vogtle 3 and 4, which Georgia Power customers are paying for while never getting any power from them. This still doesn’t look like the 24/7 nuclear power we were promised, and it’s not too cheap to meter, either. Meanwhile, solar is already at grid parity without subsidies in India and Italy and will be soon in the rest of the world.

Newly down since 23 Feb 2013 on 6 March 2013

Newly down since 23 Feb 2013 on 6 March 2013: FitzPatrick, Indian Point 3, Brunswick 2, Monticello.

Newly low since 23 Feb 2013 on 6 March 2013

Continue reading →

Vermont Yankee may be next nuke to close

UBS predicts Entergy will close its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant soon: that’s the same Entergythat couldn’t keep the power on during the SuperBowl and that can’t keep Pilgrim 1 nuclear reactor up in Massachusetts during a winter storm (down 3 days now, for the third downtime in a month). A few days later, UBS set Entergy up on a quarterly earnings call to mention that Vermont Yankee had already been taken off the New England energy capacity auction, which would make it easy to replace. San Onofre still down in California, Dominion Power closing Kewaunee in Wisconsin, NRC terminated Calvert Cliffs in Maryland, Duke closing Crystal River in Florida, and maybe Vermont Yankee next? How about we pass HB 267 to stop Georgia Power charging for cost overruns for Vogtle 3 and 4 and see how long before Southern Company stops that project?

Andrew Stein wrote for vtdigger 6 February 2013 (updated 7 Feb), In report, financial firm forecasts that Entergy may close Vermont Yankee,

In an investment research letter, the Swiss financial services company UBS Securities anticipates Entergy Corp. will retire one of its nuclear power plants in 2013, and it cites “Vermont Yankee as the most tenuously positioned plant.”

UBS representatives met with Entergy’s new leadership team on Feb. 1, the same day Leo Denault became CEO and chair of the board for the Louisiana-based company that operates the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

And that’s how a clean-broom new CEO often signals his intentions: by bringing in outside experts to provide him cover for what he already intends to do anyway. And this new-broom CEO is Entergy’s former Chief Financial Officer who as CFO has repeated fiddled with Vermont Yankee to try to make it less unprofitable. What did those experts say?