NRC seeks info about fuel at 11 U.S. nuclear reactors including Byron | Reuters

Scott DiSavino Feb 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said Friday it was requesting information from 11 nuclear plants regarding fuel performance during accidents. The NRC said this was not something that presents an immediate safety concern so there was no reason to shut any of the plants. "But we do want them to come back to us to show they are meeting our regulations," NRC spokesman Scott Burnell told Reuters. The 11 reactors are located at FirstEnergy's Beaver Valley in Pennsylvania, Exelon's Byron in Illinois, Duke Energy's Catawba in South Carolina and McGuire in North Carolina, American Electric Power's Cook in Michigan, and Dominion's Kewaunee in Wisconsin. The 11 plants are customers of U.S. nuclear power company Westinghouse Electric. The NRC's Burnell said there was a fundamental flaw in a computer program Westinghouse used in determining how reactor fuel loses the ability to conduct heat, a phenomenon known as "thermal conductivity degradation." Because of that error there is a possibility that plants could underestimate how hot their fuel could get in an accident, Burnell said. Westinghouse is majority-owned by Japanese multinational Toshiba Corp. "The NRC alerted the industry to this problem in 2009, and Westinghouse needs to do more to account for thermal conductivity degradation in its fuel performance codes," said Eric Leeds, director of the NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, in a statement. "We need assurances from a few nuclear power plants licensees to maintain assurance that they can continue to operate safely with sufficient margin." The NRC said the plants have until March 19 to provide the requested information to the NRC staff. If the information received does not "demonstrate that NRC regulations are met, the staff will recommend imposing restrictions on reactor operating limits until acceptable action has been taken," the NRC said in the statement. The NRC said the thermal conductivity degradation phenomenon could change the performance of the fuel during various accident scenarios, including loss-of-coolant accidents. NOT FUKUSHIMA RELATED Burnell said this request for information from the 11 plants was not related to the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan last year where some reactor fuel melted down and released radiation. Fukushima was caused by a loss of electric power following an earthquake and tsunami, not a loss of coolant, Burnell said. The NRC said Westinghouse told the agency in December that an analysis the company had conducted indicated there could be thermal conductivity degradation in excess of NRC limits during a worst case loss of coolant accident at a Westinghouse pressurized reactor. The NRC said it also sent copies of the request for information to an additional 23 plants that use the Westinghouse performance models to ensure that they too are aware of their obligations to address this error.

UPDATE 1-NRC seeks info about fuel at 11 U.S. nuclear reactors | Reuters

Denial of Sheriff’s Fleet Expansion

By James Middleton

The above article is from page 2 of this week’s Boone County Journal which is available free of cost at merchants across the county and on the internet at: http://www.boonecountyjournal.com/news/2012/Boone-County-News-02-17-12.pdf#page=1

Used cop cars on most-wanted list

Great article on police cars and durability.

 

Neither did the miles on his cruiser worry Duchene. These babies are designed to go 500,000 miles plus, but law enforcement agencies routinely "roll", or put out to pasture, their cars at about 100,000 miles.

Click on the the following for more details:  Used cop cars on most-wanted list

Boone County Watchdog approaches 50,000 page views since its debut in May 2009

Look at the most viewed stories.  #1 Genoa’s forum on the train #2 Bruce Schlichting attack #3 Boone County posting of minutes (Note they still have not done that)#4 Prostitution charged against Sycamore/Belvidere lawyer(still has a court date in March) #5 Dissatisfaction with area coverage by Rockford Register Star.

Disciplinary Actions for December 2011

For complete list go to:  http://www.idfpr.com/Forms/DISCPLN/1112_dis.pdf

 

Division of Banking
.
PAWNSHOPS

Woodstock Jewelry & Pawn, Woodstock – assessed a $400 civil penalty for failure to
file their 2011 renewal application in a timely manner

.
Educated Mortgage Services, LLC, Sun Prairie, WI – residential mortgage license
(MB.6760468) fined $500 for failure to file Loan Servicer Report on-line during filing period.

Division of Professional Regulation

Dawn Barnes, Rockford – cosmetologist license (011-app3133595) issued and placed
on probation for one year due to previous conviction and unprofessional conduct.

Kimberley Jenkins, Rockford – cosmetologist license (011-295797) cosmetologist
license issued on a non-reporting probation for one year due to her felony conviction

Sara Sabo, Belvidere – nail technician license (169-005582) placed in refuse to renew
status for practicing nail technology on a non-renewed license.

DETECTIVE, ALARM, SECURITY, FINGERPRINT VENDOR AND LOCKSMITH

John Ingram, Rockford – permanent employee registration card (129-321085) revoked
for being more than 30 days delinquent in the payment of child support.

GEOLOGY
Matt Warneke, Loves Park - (unlicensed) ordered to cease and desist unlicensed
practice of professional geology services.

MASSAGE THERAPY

Joseph Fredericks, Wonder Lake – massage therapist license (227-013658) issued with
reprimand due to 2005 Retail Theft Criminal Misdemeanor Conviction and Alcohol Abuse.

Lihua Xu, McHenry - (unlicensed) ordered to cease and desist unlicensed practice of
massage therapy and assessed a $2,000 civil penalty.

MEDICAL

Sachidananda Shastri, Huntley – physician and surgeon license (036-045367)
reprimanded for prescribing a contraindicated medication to patient already on Lithium and
failing to monitor Lithium levels after said prescription.

Julie Wojciechowski, Round Lake Park – registered nurse license (041-356773)
automatically, indefinitely suspended for a minimum of 12 months due for having violated the
terms of a Care, Counseling and Treatment Agreement.

PHYSICAL THERAPY
John Voelz, Huntley – (unlicensed) ordered to cease and desist unlicensed practice of
physical therapy and assessed a $3,000 civil penalty.

REAL ESTATE

Terry Pounds, Johnsburg – real estate broker license (475app3653271) issued and
placed on probation for two years due to a 1987 conviction for delivery of a controlled substance
and a 1992 conviction for attempted theft.

CONTRACTORS
.
Anderson Roofing, Belvidere – roofing contractor license (104-015200) reprimanded
and fined $500 for aiding and assisting unlicensed practice and filing false reports.

Marty's Alpine Construction, Woodstock – roofing contractor license (104-005969)
placed in refuse to renew status for engaging in dishonorable, unethical or unprofessional
conduct of a character likely to deceive, defraud or harm the public.

SOCIAL WORK
.
Susan Klouda, Woodstock – licensed clinical social worker license (149-007738) fined
$500 for false advertising.

Ho Chunk Ad running on Chicago Tribune website

This pop-up is on the site for the Chicago Tribune on-line version.  Based upon he number of ad dollars the Indian Tribe is going all-out for a casino in Beloit.

See for yourself at:  http://goodforbeloit.org/

Click on the photocopy to enlarge:

How much does Belvidere Township pay its key employees

The following were obtained from the website:  http://www.openthebooks.com/

Please consider donating to this non-profit organization.

Click on the photocopy to enlarge:

TOWNSHIP SUPERVISORS:

Patrick J. Murphy

 

Robert L. Turner