david lochbaum got water-20120629
TRANSCRIPT
Got Water?
David Lochbaum
Director, Nuclear Safety Project
June 29, 2012
Easy as 1 – 2 – 3
3
1
2
3 units of energy produced by the reactor
core yield 1 unit of electricity and 2 units of
waste heat (thermal pollution)
2 to Go
The waste
heat is
dissipated
into lots of
river, lake, or
ocean water.
Circulating Water System Modes
OPEN MODE
Circulating Water System Modes
HELPER MODE
Circulating Water System Modes
CLOSED MODE
Circulating Water System Modes
Cooling towers
reduce how much
water is drawn from
lakes, rivers, and
oceans by re-using
water.
Water is drawn to
replace water vapor
emitted from the
cooling towers.
There’s More
Nuclear plants also take water from the nearby
lake, river, or ocean and use it to cool
components and buildings.
This cooling system, commonly called the
Service Water system, supplies cooling water to
air conditioning units, lube oil coolers,
emergency diesel generator engine coolers,
spent fuel pool heat exchangers, and so on.
Intake
Intake
Plant Type
Total
Internal
CDF (mean)
SW CDF
Contribution
SW %
Contribution
Calvert Cliffs
1
PWR 1.3x10-4 1.4x10-5 11
Point Beach 1 PWR 1.4x10-4 2.6x10-5 19
Turkey Point 3 PWR 7.1x10-5 3.4x10-6 5
St. Lucie 1 PWR 1.4x10-5 1.8x10-6 13
ANO-1 PWR 8.8x10-5 1.1x10-5 12
Quad Cities 1 BWR 9.9x10-5 3.0x10-5 30
Cooper BWR 2.9x10-4 1.9x10-4 65
Surry 1 PWR 4.0x10-5 1.5x10-8 <1
Sequoyah 1 PWR 5.7x10-5 2.4x10-7 <1
Peach Bottom
2
BWR 4.5x10-6 1.4x10-6 22
Grand Gulf BWR 4.1x10-6 5.6x10-7 14
Table 4.8-1
Risk associated with Service Water (SW)
system problems can be high because of
the common mode factor – loss of cooling
provided by service water can disable
emergency systems and their backups.
Service Water Risk
07/2006 Calvert Cliffs 1
10/2008 Diablo Canyon 1
09/1993 St. Lucie 1
08/1984 St. Lucie 2
04/1994 Salem 1
06/1989 Salem 2
06/2004 San Onofre 304/2007 Salem 1
08/1970 Oyster Creek
06/2001 Point Beach 2
04/1976 Nine Mile Point 106/2001 Point Beach 2
04/2003 D C Cook 1&2
03/2006 FitzPatrick
02/2000 Ginna01/1996 Wolf Creek01/1982 Salem 201/1977 Salem 2
07/2007 Brunswick 101/1982 D C Cook 1&206/1972 Quad Cities 1
Which have caused problems?
Byron (2007): Corrosion (rust) thinned pipe wall until service water leak developed.
Location of leak
was just above
concrete floor
where service
water pipe rises
from underground
run and enters
safety-related
cooling tower
(part of Ultimate
Heat Sink).
XX
Non-safety related cooling
towers may be
unavailable, so safety-
related cooling towers
ensure adequate cooling for
Service Water.
Service Water system degradation
adversely affected safety-related
equipment at Indian Point Unit 2
(October 1980) and forced a shut down
with regulatory sanctions.
Containment cooling was provided by five Fan Cooler Units (FCUs).
Two headers provided Service Water to cool the FCUs
Common header routed Service Water from FCUs
There were leaks.
Lots of leaks.
Lots of time.
While the reactor operated, over 100,000
gallons of leaked water flooded the
containment and submerged the lower 9 feet of
the reactor vessel.
The NRC fined the company $210,000 in 1980.