Federal Chemical Safety Board comments on Y2k & accidents

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1/25/00

Preparations for Y2K proved to be beneficial

By MIKE DUNNE Advocate staff writer

~snip~

Phil Cogan of the federal Chemical Safety Board said to his knowledge there were no Y2K-related chemical accidents in the nation. Many environmental groups had asked the chemical industry to shut down, fearing exploding refineries and plants.

"We are not aware of any specific instances we can blame on Y2K," he said. Some accidents that occurred around the new year might have had a Y2K component, he said.

During the period before and after New Year's Day, there were fewer chemical accidents in general. "Attention focused on Y2K chemical safety apparently translated to safety in general," he said.

"Who's to say what would have happened if the hundreds of millions of dollars spent to remediate Y2K problems had not been spent?" he said.

A lot of the petrochemical industry's infrastructure is getting old and replacement equipment installed to avoid any Y2K problem -- such as new controls and valves -- will make systems more reliable, Cogan said.

"A lot of that equipment might not have been replaced until some event required it," he said.

---- Mike Dunne covers the environment for The Advocate. Reach him at mdunne@theadvocate.com or at 388-0301. The Advocate Online, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

http://www.theadvocate.com/opinion/story.asp?storyid=1794

-- Lee Maloney (leemaloney@hotmail.com), February 03, 2000

Answers

"A lot of the petrochemical industry's infrastructure is getting old and replacement equipment installed to avoid any Y2K problem -- such as new controls and valves -- will make systems more reliable, Cogan said."

It is interesting to note that several events reported on NRC's daily report website since Jan. 1 are valve related problems.

Some examples I've been keeping track of (the list is not all inclusive):

SALEM 1 92 Power Operation * REDUCED POWER FOR FEEDWATER HEATER VALVE TROUBLESHOOTING

http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/DAILY/000105pr.htm

CATAWBA 2 48 Power Operation * HOLDING POWER - TROUBLESHOOTING FEEDWATER ISOLATION VALVES http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/DAILY/000106pr.htm

PERRY 1 65 Power Operation * REDUCED REACTOR POWER TO LOCALIZE A SMALL FUEL DEFECT.

event #36588 on http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/DAILY/der.htm

Event exerpt:

"| "With the Inclined Fuel Transfer System (IFTS) flange removed at power, a | | single passive failure of the IFTS flap valve may have resulted in a loss of | | Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS) during a design basis Loss of Coolant | | Accident (LOCA). This was determined during an engineering review examining | | the effects on containment structural capability with the IFTS Blind Flange | | removed."

2 HATCH 1 0 01/26/00 Cold Shutdown REACTOR SCRAM WITH HPCI INJECTION DUE TO FW CONTROL FAILURE - SEE EVENT #36625

http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/DAILY/000128pr.htm

NINE MILE POINT 1 65 Power Operation * INVESTIGATING ODD TURBINE CONTROL VALVE INDICATIONS

2 ST LUCIE 1 90 Power Operation * HOLDING POWER AT THIS LEVEL TO PERFORM TURBINE VALVE TESTING

http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/DAILY/000201pr.htm

-- (lurker@somewhere.net), February 03, 2000.


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