Camera forces shutdown 2

[Zogzog]

A camera apparantly forced a shutdown at Indian Point, this story just dosent make sense to me, anyone explain?

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wi...,1540899.story

 

[vpl]

Radio frequency interference

Patricia Lougheed

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[vpl]

I shouldn't have hit the send button so quickly.

The publicly available report sent in by Entergy, who runs Indian Point, is available in NRC's ADAMS system (

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html)

The accession number is: ML081490318. It provides a fairly clear explanation of what happened.

Also, here's some NRC publications that address the phenomena:

NRC: Bulletin 76-03: Relay Malfunctions - GE Type STD Relays:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/gen-comm/bulletins/1976/bl76003.html

Information Notice No. 83-83: Use of Portable Radio Transmitters Inside Nuclear Power Plants:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/gen-comm/info-notices/1983/in83083.html

Information Notice No. 86-15: Loss Of Offsite Power Caused By Problems In Fiber Optics Systems:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/gen-comm/info-notices/1986/in86015.html

Information Notice No. 97-82: Inadvertent Control Room Halon Actuation Due To A Camera Flash:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/gen-comm/info-notices/1997/in97082.html

Patricia Lougheed

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[Zogzog]

Just from the camera being on and not even being used? Isnt all equipment supposed to go through testing for Rf interference? (ANSI)?

 

[Zogzog]

We posted at the same time, thanks Patricia, I will take a look at those docs.

 

[electricpete]

The link got butchered by eng-tips. Here is a tiny-sized link:

http://tinyurl.com/6rrwrt

Most of the IN's described interference of walkie-talkies to plant equipment. Makes sense since walkie-talkies are designed as transmitters.

One mentioned that flash from a camera disrupted EPROM. Makes sense since some EPROM are erased using UV light I think.

The Indian Point report says simply having the camera on caused the problem.

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[vpl]

Zogzog and electricpete

My understanding is that the camera was in use (based on a remark buried in the LER)

Patricia Lougheed

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[Zogzog]

Saw that, I wonder if that means taking pictures or just powered on?

Thanks Patricia, (star for you) you always have good answers in this forum and are a big reason I am now in this industry (Again). You care to share what plant you are at? By chance at the EPRI conference in Orlando this week?

 

[vpl]

zogzog, click on my handle, you'll find out where I work. And, unfortunately, I will not be at the EPRI conference in Orlando this week. Stuck in DC :-(

Patricia Lougheed

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[waross]

We had issues in a refinery years ago.
Random shutdowns of one of several process heaters on high stack temperature.
The operators noticed that the shutdowns occurred about the same time each night.
They noticed that the shutdowns occurred whenever the railway was picking up tank cars and the heater closest to the brakeman would be the one to trip.
As the engineer was backing in a string of cars to pick up two or three more cars the brakeman would talk him back.
"30 ft, 25 ft, 20 ft, 15 ft, 10 ft. etc."
While doing this he would be holding the transmit button down on his hand held transceiver.
We found that when a radio was keyed close to the control panel of a heater, the stack temperature controller would start to ramp the temperature indication upscale.
We did a little trial testing on other brand controllers.
We changed out the controller for a brand controller that was not affected by radio transmissions.
No more problems.


Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter