Swap-out evaluation to be completed in the first quarter of 2010, and thta they will come back to the NRC to discuss the decision
- Edited by Mark McFadden -
According to a report by StarNews, Progress Energy is evaluating swapping out the emergency diesel generators at the Brunswick Nuclear Plant, company officials told a Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearing.
Testifying Thursday on corrective actions taken over the past two years as a result of problems with this troublesome plant component, company officials said the swapping out is being evaluated as a “longer term” solution to the problems that forced the shutdown of both Brunswick Nuclear reactors in 2008 and 2009.
The generators were produced by Nordberg, a Milwaukee-based company no longer is in business.
Progress officials provided no further details, saying they expect the swap-out evaluation to be completed in the first quarter of 2010, and thta they will come back to the NRC to discuss the decision.
Raleigh-based Progress also told the hearing that it is moving engineering strategy evaluations from Southport to the corporate level.
This is “a good approach to long-term” efforts, the hearing officer said.
Luis Reyes, regional administrator for NRC Region II, went on to say, “There is a reason (the owner of the other plant using Nordberg emergency diesel generators) invested capital to make changes” in this high-risk system.
Although not named by Reyes or Progress Energy officials, the NRC Web site shows the other plant using Nordberg diesel engines is Duke Energy’s McGuire Nuclear Station, located in Mecklenburg County west of Charlotte.
In the shorter term, the utility told the NRC that the diesel engine’s governor problems that led to last month’s shutdown of both Brunswick nuclear reactors for 10 days will force it to reconsider plans to upgrade the governors for the four Nordberg diesel engines between 2012 and 2018.
Progress officials said they had gathered a supply of governors for the Nordberg diesel engines and had plans to rebuild them for use in the upgrade.
“Given recent issues (found last month), we’re confident we’ll have to change” these plans, a Progress official told the NRC, explaining “we do need to step back and find out” why the governor failed last month.
Progress Energy told the NRC it has, in the interim, placed “all diesel parts on hold (to) test before use.”
The officials said they are considering seeking latitude to extend the 7-day limits that forced last month’s shutdown of both reactors by proposing that one Brunswick Nuclear reactor can continue operating with three emergency diesel generators available, allowing one generator to be shut down for maintenance for more than seven days.
The utility is “at the starting point of that evaluation,” the officials said.
NRC regulations require that both reactors be shut down when one of the four diesel generators is unavailable for more than seven days.