Last week was a good news-bad news week for Entergy, the corporate owner of the Indian Point nuclear plant in Buchanan. There were awards, including one for a cutting edge alarm system; and there was a blaring, all-capital-letters headline in the New York Daily News: “Nuke steam scare.”
The alleged nuke steam scare ”“ from a 42-hour November event ”“ also accompanied news of 37 balky sirens during a Dec. 9 test of all 172 sirens surrounding the plant in a 10-mile radius.
A spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission told the Daily News a report on the November incident was expected by the end of January as part of the fourth-quarter plant operations review.
“The steam was from a nonradioactive secondary system,” an Entergy spokesman told the Daily News. The spokesman said the steam contained “slight amounts of tritium that is insignificant.”
Meantime, two Entergy projects were honored among a group of three finalists for Power Engineering Magazine”™s 2009 Nuclear Project of the Year.
More than 18,000 attendees, including delegations from 27 countries, attended the Power-Gen International and the Nuclear Power International conferences in Las Vegas Dec. 8-10.
“To receive honorable mention as one of the top three nuclear projects globally is a tribute to the innovative and dedicated work of our people,” said Donna Jacobs, senior vice president at Entergy Nuclear. “I am very proud of our teams and the outstanding results achieved.”
The three finalists honored were Entergy”™s River Bend wireless project in Louisiana, and its so-called SmartSignal at Waterford 3 project in Louisiana. The third winner was Pacific Gas & Electric”™s Diablo Canyon Unit 1 steam generator replacement project in California.
According to Entergy:
- The Entergy River Bend wireless project saved $4 million on a water-intake by foregoing the traditional fiber optic solution and using instead an innovative wireless technology.
- The Entergy Waterford 3 project implemented a predictive analytics tool for real-time monitoring that gives early notice before traditional alarms. Waterford 3 was the pilot for the program that is being implemented across the Entergy Nuclear family.
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