Loss Of Gravity Accident
05-26-2005, 07:41 AM
#1
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One of the exercises the NRC put the nuclear industry through in the late 1980's was to identify and set up procedures for any concievable situation that could affect the plant.
At Trojan Nuclear Plant that included the possibility of a train derailing across the river in Washington and spilling a tank car load of chlorine gas. Turns out it happened in 1994.
Rancho Seco was operated by Sacramento Municipal Utility District and has been closed. At the time of the NRC directive, engineers at Rancho Seco started postulating anything that could happen. Somewhere in the process a few engineers got together and postulated some thngs that could never happen as an exercise in humor. One of the candidates was what would you do if gravity suddenly stopped. They went through the process and had operators atach themselves to handrails with lanyards to keep from floating away, motoring in the control rods to shut down as they wouldn't drop if unlatched, covering tank vents to keep water from loating away, etc. While the engineer in possession of the document was out on vacation, the due date for submitting contingency procedures to the NRC came due and the plant managers sent out the secretaries in search of procedures to be completed. The loss of gravity accident procedure got picked up along with the rest and got thrown into a stack for the general manager to sign. He dutifully went down the stack and signed everything and it all got sent to the NRC.
The NRC was less than impressed and imposed a hefty fine on Rancho Seco for not taking the contingency procedure process seriously.
At Trojan Nuclear Plant that included the possibility of a train derailing across the river in Washington and spilling a tank car load of chlorine gas. Turns out it happened in 1994.
Rancho Seco was operated by Sacramento Municipal Utility District and has been closed. At the time of the NRC directive, engineers at Rancho Seco started postulating anything that could happen. Somewhere in the process a few engineers got together and postulated some thngs that could never happen as an exercise in humor. One of the candidates was what would you do if gravity suddenly stopped. They went through the process and had operators atach themselves to handrails with lanyards to keep from floating away, motoring in the control rods to shut down as they wouldn't drop if unlatched, covering tank vents to keep water from loating away, etc. While the engineer in possession of the document was out on vacation, the due date for submitting contingency procedures to the NRC came due and the plant managers sent out the secretaries in search of procedures to be completed. The loss of gravity accident procedure got picked up along with the rest and got thrown into a stack for the general manager to sign. He dutifully went down the stack and signed everything and it all got sent to the NRC.
The NRC was less than impressed and imposed a hefty fine on Rancho Seco for not taking the contingency procedure process seriously.
05-26-2005, 10:34 PM
#5
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: California
Posts: 22,465
[quote name='Rotarydragon' date='May 26 2005, 10:13 AM']Somewhere there's a NASA document on how to deal with vikings if they attack the Ames labratory.
[/quote]
it could happen! well maybe it would be like angry norwegians....
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it could happen! well maybe it would be like angry norwegians....
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