Ringhals: unforeseen risks | 79 comments (79 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Ringhals: unforeseen risks (4.00 / 5)

Därför brann Ringhals 2 - NyTeknik		why burned Ringhals 2 - NyTeknik
Uppgifterna om att ledningen på reaktor 2 i Ringhals ville vinna tillbaka förlorad tid och därför frångick rutinerna på ett sätt som man aldrig gjort innan, framförs i SVT Uppdrag Granskning i kväll.		The information that the management at Unit 2 of Ringhals wanted to win back the lost time and therefore deviated from practices in a manner never done before, will be shown in SVT's Uppdrag Granskning this evening.

The program was shown in February and appears to be the source for the details. The vacuum cleaner was known in November.

It can be noted that it was the same show that blew the lid of the cover-up after the Forsmark 2006 incident. That time the internal report talked about neglected security culture, while the managment claimed it was a freak accident. Local leading politician claimed that even tough half the security measures had failed, it was still 100% safe as it was 200% safe from the beginning (I kid you not).

Local managment was in the end fired by Vattenfall. Anyway, back to Ringhals.

Därför brann Ringhals 2 - NyTeknik		why burned Ringhals 2 - NyTeknik
- För att tjäna in 40 dyrbara timmar valde man att tidigare lägga det nödvändiga tryckprovet inför en återstart av reaktorn - trots att servicearbetet fortfarande pågick, säger Uppdrag Gransknings reporter Henrik Bergsten i programmet.		- To earn 40 precious hours it was chosen to bring forward the necessary compression test before a restart of the reactor - despite the maintenance work was still ongoing, says reporter Henrik Bergsten of the program.
Servicearbetena avbröts men verktyg och annan utrustning lämnades kvar i reaktorbyggnaden eftersom service och bränslebyte skulle fortsätta efter tryckprovet.		Service work was interrupted but tools and other equipment was left in the reactor building as servicing and refueling would continue after the pressure test.
Bland annat lämnades en vattendammsugare kvar - med förödande konsekvenser.		Among other things, was a water vacuum cleaner left - with devastating consequences.

Därför brann Ringhals 2 - NyTeknik		why burned Ringhals 2 - NyTeknik
Och varför blev det inte utstädat?		And why was it not utstädat?
- Det fanns organisatoriska brister i vem som hade det slutliga ansvaret.		- There were organizational deficiencies of who had ultimate responsibility.
Hur menar du?		What do you mean?
- Det fanns olika order på hur det skulle se ut. Det fanns motstridiga order och sen fanns det inte någon organisationsenhet som hade det slutliga ansvaret för att se till att se till att det såg ut som det skulle göra, säger Gösta Larsen i programmet som sänds i SVT klockan 20.00 på onsdagen.		- There were various orders about what it would look like. There were conflicting orders and then there was no organization unit that had the ultimate responsibility to ensure to ensure that it looked like it would do, says Gösta Larsen in the program broadcast on SVT at 20.00 on Wednesday.

To try shortcuts to save time, issue conflicting orders and have no one really responsible for the result, I guess that can sort under neglected security culture too.

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

by A swedish kind of death on Mon Apr 2nd, 2012 at 03:46:21 AM EST

Re: Ringhals: unforeseen risks (none / 0)

Thanks! What about the litter in the emergency cooling system? The taz article onléy says that it was left during welding work in the early eighties. What I wonder about is whether this litter could have been picked up by the water, in which case I would also think about potential turbine or vent damage, not just a throttling of the water flow.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Mon Apr 2nd, 2012 at 05:15:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Ringhals: unforeseen risks (4.00 / 5)

Can't find anything. NyTeknik is the engineering paper in Sweden and in general has good coverage of technology news.

Might be mentioned in the actual program (which I have not seen, but can be seen online, just click "Branden på Ringhals" in the little box to the left of any of these articles).

SVT's articles about the program are:

Säkerhetsbrister på Ringhals påtalade under flera år - Ringhals under special supervision from SSM since 2011 for numerous problems.
Var på plats på Ringhals - fick inget veta om branden - SSMs representative who was there the day after the fire (presumably for the special supervision) was not informed about the fire.
Ledningen tummade på säkerheten för att spara tid - When in November it was revealed the source of the fire Ringhals managment claimed it was human error, and withheld information about changing the order of actions to save time.
Ringhals undanhöll de mest avslöjande bilderna - When säkerhetsnämnden in Varberg, the local security board with local politicians, was informed Ringhals witheld their own pictures of the fire and in general downplayed it.
Vattenfall hade stoppat rekrytering av brandspecialist - Vattenfall (the owner) stopped the recruitment of a fire specialist due to a general stop in new recruitment at the company. The security group RSS1 thought they needed one, but Vattenfall thought they were fine anyway.
And then there is a pretty good questions segment online but I did not see anything about litter there.

The reactor is by the way up and running now, and the estimated cost of trying to cut 40 hours is around 200 million euros.

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

by A swedish kind of death on Mon Apr 2nd, 2012 at 06:07:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Ringhals: unforeseen risks (none / 1)

Can't find anything.

Digging back in time, I found an earlier article, which has more details that could help tracking it down in Swedish: the litter in question is a piece of isolation, and (answering my own concern) it was found already stuck inside the piping. The find was made at the "end of August" [2011], the report is from September 2011. The news in the current article is that tests were done with pressurized air instead of water.

The reactor is by the way up and running now

Checking Vattenfall's homepage, no it isn't: only the three other reactors at Ringhals are up and running.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Mon Apr 2nd, 2012 at 08:51:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Ringhals: unforeseen risks (4.00 / 2)

Still no success. Found this instead:

"Ringhals order var tydliga: ingen får veta om säkerhetsriskerna" \| Debatt \| svt.se		"Ringhals orders were clear: no one may know about the security risks" \| Debate \| svt.se
KÄRNKRAFT Kvällens Uppdrag Granskning (8/2) visar på allvarliga säkerhetsbrister och lögner för att hålla skenet uppe om den "säkra" svenska kärnkraften. Jag jobbade själv på Ringhals som säkerhetsvakt för ett tiotal år sedan och känner igen mycket av det som Uppdrag Granskning fått fram. Allvarliga tillbud, som vi rapporterade till bolaget överlämnades aldrig till högre instanser eller till polis. Det kunde handla om alkoholförtäring, vapeninförsel eller spioneri, bolagets praxis var tydlig. Locket på. Det skriver tidigare säkerhetsvakten på Ringhals Roger Windahl.		NUCLEAR Tonight's Uppdrag Granskning (8/2) showing serious safety and lies to keep up appearances on the "safe" Swedish nuclear power. I worked myself at Ringhals as a security guard for about ten years ago and recognize much of what Uppdrag Granskning have determined. Serious incidents, that we reported to the company was never passed on to higher authorities or the police. It could be alcohol, weapons or espionage, the company's practice was evident. The lid must stay on. This was written by former security guard at Ringhals Roger Windahl.

DoDo:

Checking Vattenfall's homepage, no it isn't: only the three other reactors at Ringhals are up and running.

Ah, then its down again. In one of the many articles I browsed it was mentioned that it had started (jan/feb) after the long downtime.

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

by A swedish kind of death on Mon Apr 2nd, 2012 at 02:33:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Ringhals: unforeseen risks (none / 0)

I found one report in Swedish, albeit in what appears to be a countryside paper.

it was mentioned that it had started (jan/feb) after the long downtime.

If Google translate is right, here they say that only the first permission was granted in January, when testing showed problems with the valves. Then a permission to run at 94% was granted at the end of March, and although the plan was to start it again on 4 April, they are again in a hurry and are starting it up right now(!).

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Mon Apr 2nd, 2012 at 02:59:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Ringhals: unforeseen risks (4.00 / 3)

DoDo:

I found one report in Swedish, albeit in what appears to be a countryside paper.

Yes, it is the local countryside paper (Halland is the landskap (and län) that hosts Ringhals). Local papers are often the best as long as you are interested in what happened in their local area.

In short, it is isolation in an emergency sprinkler system that probably was left there in the late 80ies when a security filter was installed. The isolation was used to "keep gas in place during the welding". Reactor 4 was also checked at the time of the article and had similar problem, reactor 3 was scheduled to be checked within days.

Ringhals claimed it was not a big problem, since it would only have clogged one pipe out of a lot of pipes in case if it had been needed to spray water. Sounds like a reasonable explanation, to bad then that the source has so little credibility left.

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

by A swedish kind of death on Mon Apr 2nd, 2012 at 03:21:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Ringhals: unforeseen risks | 79 comments (79 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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