NRC Engineers Urge Shutdown of Nuclear Plants If Design Flaw Not Fixed (utilitydive.com)

mdsolar writes: A group of engineers in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission say they have identified a design flaw in nearly all nuclear reactors in the country that should result in their mandatory shutdown unless operators fix the problem, Reuters reports. In late February, the engineers petitioned the NRC to order immediate enforcement actions to correct the design flaw, which they say could result in damage to cooling systems and ultimately lead to an emergency situation. The filing asks the agency to respond by March 21 and is a part of a standard NRC process, according to the news outlet. The filing stems from an incident in January 2012, when Exelon's Byron 2 unit in Illinois experienced an automatic reactor trip from full power after an undervoltage condition was detected. The unit was shut down for a week, in what is known as an open phase condition created by an unbalanced voltage. The NRC engineers say such an event could cause an electrical short, reducing the abilituy of cooling systems to operate.

Comments

So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why are all these non-stories submitted by mdsolar being approved? They identified a possible flaw and recommended a fix. Nothing to see here, move on.

Re:So what?

[HiThere]

Yeah. Simply amazing all the anonymous cowards posting that his is not a story.

Nuclear power has four big problems:
1) It's expensive
2) It's complicated
3) It's dangerous
4) It's managed to create short-term profit.

The other problems are derivative of those. They exist, and they are severe, but they can be handled. And the main problem of the 4 big ones is number 4...though that would be less of a problem without the other three. And profit shouldn't only be calculated in dollars, but should also include such things as political power and centralized control.

Re:Have they thought this through?

[hey!]

Doesn't sound like it's a major design flaw; they just have to detect an open phase condition more quickly, or provide an alternative power source to the emergency cooling pumps.

One of the few happy lessons from Fukushima is that defense-in-depth works -- at least to prevent mishaps from developing into the worst possible scenario. So we shouldn't be cavalier about the potential loss of one of our layers of protection.

Re: Have they thought this through?

[Nethemas the Great]

Some risks aren't work taking. I'm not a nuclear engineer, and can't speak directly to the issue here. However, if a nuclear engineer intimate with the details speaks up in such a manner, and especially if a group of them do, you'd damn well better pay attention. Engineers don't use hyperbole. If they say this is a problem that merits shutting down reactors it does.