Crossing the Finish Line at Watts Bar
Joey Ledford
Public Affairs Officer
Region II
Watts Bar Unit 2, the nation’s first new commercial nuclear unit in a
generation, received its NRC operating license last October and is
closing in on its first nuclear chain reaction. (Power production is
still a ways off.) The NRC is still on the job as the staff transitions
to operational inspection duties.
An NRC inspector looks on as TVA workers install components at Watts Bar Unit 2.
The agency’s Region II-based construction inspection staff,
supplemented by headquarters staff, have booked more than 127,000 hours
making sure the new unit has been built according to its design
specifications. More than 350 agency inspectors and other staff have
been involved in the inspection and project management effort, which
geared up in earnest in 2008 when the Tennessee Valley Authority
committed to completing the unit it had initially started building in
1973 and later suspended.
The Watts Bar plant, located about 50 miles northeast of Chattanooga,
Tenn., has a unique history. Unit 1, which also traces its roots to
1973, was the last U.S. plant to come on line when it was finally
licensed in 1996 after a similarly lengthy construction hiatus.
When work resumed on Unit 2, the NRC recalled a handful of staffers
who had been involved in inspecting work on the sister unit to ensure
“knowledge transfer.”
“Our goal is to verify the design is accurate,” said James Baptist,
who was a team leader for several years during Watts Bar 2 construction
and has recently become chief of the Region II branch overseeing the
transition from construction to operation. “We want to ensure Unit 2
looks and operates just like Unit 1. It greatly assists the effort when
you have a working model right beside you.”
As is the case with most NRC inspection efforts, the corps of
construction resident inspectors led the way, reporting to the site
daily and amassing a big percentage of those 127,000 hours.
“Everything came through the residents in terms of what was going on
at the site,” said Chris Even, who recently transitioned from senior
construction project manager to senior project inspector in the new
branch overseeing the transition. “We always relied on the residents for
knowing exactly what was going on.”
The workload was huge from the beginning, with more than 550
construction inspection items to be inspected and closed. And Baptist
noted that even though the plant was designed in the 1970s, it’s built
to today’s standards.
“They purposely built Unit 2 to be a mirror image of Unit 1 while
including all the updated safety enhancements that have accrued over the
last 25 or 30 years,” he said.
For example, Watts Bar is the first plant in the nation to comply
with all the NRC’s post- Fukushima upgrades as well as the newest
cybersecurity requirements.
One might think that with the license issued and the plant about to
start up that the NRC inspection effort would be winding down. Baptist
said that is not the case.
“We still have our foot on the gas,” he said.
Just as the NRC inspectors were dedicated to make sure Watts Bar Unit
2 was constructed and tested according to the design and NRC regulatory
requirements, they will continue to maintain that vigilance as the
plant begins and continues to operate.
Austin TX (SPX) Feb 05, 2016 -
Scientists have created the first map that shows how the Greenland Ice
Sheet has moved over time, revealing that ice in the interior is moving
more slowly toward the edges than it has, on average, during the past
9,000 years.
The findings, which researchers said don't change the fact that the ice
sheet is losing mass overall and contributing to sea level rise, are
published in the Feb. 5 i ...
morehttp://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Scientists_map_movement_of_Greenland_Ice_during_past_9000_years_999.html
Champaign IL (SPX) Feb 05, 2016 -
The technology that charges batteries for electronic devices could
provide fresh water from salty seas, says a new study by University of
Illinois engineers. Electricity running through a salt water-filled
battery draws the salt ions out of the water. Illinois mechanical
science and engineering professor Kyle Smith and graduate student Rylan
Dmello published their work in the Journal of the Elec ...
morehttp://www.terradaily.com/reports/Battery_technology_could_charge_up_water_desalination_999.html
Beijing (XNA) Feb 05, 2016 -
China is to speed up drafting of the nuclear safety law and atomic
energy law, a white paper on its nuclear emergency preparedness said on Wednesday.
Since China started to build its first nuclear power plant in 1985, the
country has made fast progress in legislation of nuclear emergency
response, said the document issued by the State Council Information
Office.
China adopted a regul ...
morehttp://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/China_drafts_nuclear_safety_law_999.html
In December of 2014, the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant
embarked on that phase of its life after being permanently shut down.
As required by the NRC, Entergy, the plant’s owner, submitted a Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report, or PSDAR, on Dec. 19, 2014.
Edinburgh UK (SPX) Feb 04, 2016 -
Loss of ice in Antarctica caused by a warming ocean could raise global
sea levels by three metres, research suggests. Scientists carrying out
fieldwork in the region have assessed the landscape to determine how the
West Antarctic ice sheet might respond to increasing global
temperatures.
In the first study of its kind, researchers were able to gauge how
levels of ice covering the land have ...
morehttp://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Antarctic_study_identifies_melting_ice_sheets_role_in_sea_level_rise_999.html
Fairbanks AK (SPX) Feb 04, 2016 -
University of Alaska Fairbanks mathematicians and glaciologists have
taken a first step toward understanding how glacier ice flowing off
Greenland affects sea levels.
Andy Aschwanden, Martin Truffer and Mark Fahnestock used mathematical
computer models and field tests to reproduce the flow of 29 inlet
glaciers fed by the Greenland ice sheet. They compared their data with
data from NASA's O ...
morehttp://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Greenland_model_could_help_estimate_sea_level_rise_999.html
Scientists in Germany
flipped the switch on an experiment they hope will advance the quest for
nuclear fusion, considered a clean and safe form of nuclear power.
…
Continue Reading
http://www.pennenergy.com/articles/pennenergy/2016/02/scientists-in-germany-switch-on-nuclear-fusion-experiment.html?cmpid=EnlDailyPowerFebruary42016&eid=288118515&bid=1301170
