Nukleyar

BATAAN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

Posted on March 23rd By Roberto A. Lozada, MIEAust, NZIME,PME


Roberto  A.  Lozada  a  Graduate  of  Bachelor  of  Science  in  Mechanical  Engineering  at  the  Mapua  Institue  of  Technology  in  !971.  a  Professional Mechanical  Engineer,  a  Registered  Safety  Practitioner,  Member  of  The  Institution  of  Engineers, Australia  and  the  New  Zealand  Institute  of  Mechanical  Engineers.  Trained in  Japan  on  Boilers, Heat  Exchangers, Steam  Turbines  ,  instrumentation  ,  Productive  Maintenance  and  Energy  Conservation.  Did  the  Energy  Development  Project  in  the  Kingdom  of  Tonga  South  Pacific. 
Designed,  Installed,  test  and  commissioned  and  training  of  power  plant  personnel  in  all  the  Power  Plant  in  JG  Summit  Group.   Presently,  The  Engineering  Director  of  Robinsons Land  Corporation,  member  of  the  Energy  Enterprise  Management  Group  of  JG  Summit  and  the  Corporate  Pollution  Head   also  of  the  JG  Summit  Group  of  Companies., 
The  Philippine  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers  was  invited  by  PNRI  on  their visit to the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant last March 5,  2011 to give our  technical  opinion  on  the  technical  integrity  of  the  plant. 
The  following  engineers  from  the  Philippine  Society of  Mechanical  Engineers  and  myself  were  present.. 
a.        Engr.  Lemicio  Roxas  Immediate  Past  national  President  of  PSME. 
b.        Engr.  Edimar  Salcedo   PSME  National  President  year  2006. 
c.        Engr.   Julius   Villanueva –  PSME  National  Secretary  2010 
d.        Engr.  Teddy  Arnaiz  -PSME   National  Vice  President  -Visayas  2011
Based  on  our  Technical  visit  at  the  Bataan  Nuclear  Power  Plant ,  we  firmly  believed  that  the  Bataan  Nuclear  Power  Plant  is  safe  to  operate. (  Minor  renovations  to be  done  ). 
Aside   from  being  safe  (  after  minor  revisions  ) ,  The  Philippine  Society of  Mechanical  Engineers  support  the  operation  for  the  following  reasons: 
1.        The  620Mw  Bataan Nuclear  Power  Plant  if  operated can  save  3,900,000  liters  of  Bunker  fuel  per  day.  Carbon  emission  that  cause  global  warming  is  also  greatly  reduced.. 
2.        The  cost  of  electricity  generated  by  the  Bataan  Nuclear  Power  Plant is only  about  P2.20 per  kwhr.  This  will  greatly  reduced  our  energy bills  thus  inviting  more   investors  to  invest  in  our  beloved  country.
3. We  need  additional  power  by  2014.  If  this  is  not  operated,  our  beloved  country  will be  experiencing again  series  of  blackouts..     
DDuring  the visit, main MAJOR  items  that we noticed  are  the  following: 
a.  Main  Distribution  Transformer-  The  main  620MW  transformer  was  not  there..  Only the transformer  pedestal  and  foundation  can  be  seen.  According  to  NPC  this  was sold       as  scrap  because  it  was  leaking.
b.  Emergency  Stand by  Generators-  The  two  units  10,000KW  emergency  stand by  generators  were  also not  there.  According to NPC,  they  were  sent  to the Visayas . 
c.  Fuel  Rods - The Fuel Rods for the Reactor was also not  there. According to NPC it was sold by Philippine Government  sometime  in   1989.. 

MINOR  Items  noticed. 
a.        Control  Rods  -  The  control  rods  were  still  there.    
b.        Other  auxiliaries  and  accessories  of  the  power  plant.  Other auxiliaries  and  accessories  inside   the  power  plant  like  the  Reactor, coolant  pump,  heat  exchanger, condensers  and  the  steam  turbines  and  generators look  well  maintained.  According  to  NPC  they  have  to  manually  rotate  the  rotating  equipments  (Coolant  pump,  condenser  pumps, generator  and  turbines  and  etc.)  to  prevent  shaft  deformation. 
c.        De-mineralizer  -  The  de-mineralizer    (Use  for  make  up  water  for  the  steam  boiler  to  prevent  scale)  was  still  there  but  the  resins  inside  the  de-mineralizer  were  removed.  According  to  NPC it was already  depleted. 
d.        Electrical  Control  Panel   and  electrical  wiring-  The  electrical  control  panels  for  the  electric  motors  and  the  cable  racks  were  properly  maintained. 
e.        Plant  Control  Room  -The  control  room  is  properly  maintained..  The  instruments  are  obsolete  and  in case  there  is   rehabilitation…  all  instruments  must  be  replaced.. 
f.        Cooling  Towers  -  The  cooling  towers  were  installed  separate  from  the  main  building.  This  is  a  permanent  type  of  cooling  tower   it  is  made  of   concrete  structures  and  this  does  not  need   more  maintenance. 

Observations: 
      The  plant  is  properly  maintained   by  the  engineers  assigned  in  the  Bataan Nuclear  Power  Plant. 
         The  Bataan  Nuclear  Power  Plant  is  very  safe  based  on  our  technical     assessment..  Here  are  some  safety  features  in  the  plant  that  we  noticed.
1.        Major  plant  accessories  (  Coolant  pumps,  condenser  pumps  and  etc)  were  upgraded.  In  the  usual   plant  design  say  the  coolant  pumps  of  the  reactor,  we  usually  install  2  coolant  pumps..  One operational,  the  other  act  as  spare or  stand by  unit.  Here  in  Bataan  Nuclear  Power  Plant  they  have  3  units…Only  one  will  be  operating  and  the  2  are  on  stand by..   Reliability  is  high. 
2.        Power supply for the  Major  accessory  equipment. The power supply is coming from two independent circuit. If one is defective they can easily  transfer to another power supply. 
3.        The  main  reactor  core  structure   is  completely  separated  from  the  main  building  by  an  8  inches  seismic  gap.  In  case  of  an  earthquake  the  movement  in  main power  house  building  will  not  affect  the  structure  of  the  main  reactor  core. 
4.         The  reactor  containment  or  the  Biological  containment  is  about  1  meter  thick  of  Class  A  concrete.   Radiation  leaks    if  there  is  any  cannot  pass  thru  to  this  structure…. 
Note:   Fuel  rods  for  Nuclear  power  plant    has  only  3 %  of  Radioactive  Uranium 235  versus  90%  Uranium 235  in  Nuclear  Bombs   
5.        There  is  a  room  Inside  the  reactor  containment  for  spent  fuel  rods.  In  case  the  fuel  rods  are  used  up  (  Uranium  235  purity  is  only  1%.  ).  Fuel  rods  are  pepaced  and  the  spent  fuel  rods  are  stored  here  to  cool  it  down  and  decay.  Once the radioactivity  of  the  stored  spent  fuel  are  gone  spent  fuels  are  ship  to  US  or  Europe  for  reprocessing.   There  is  no   nuclear  waste  in  Bataan Nuclear  Power  Plant. 
6.        The  Boiler  for  Bataan  Nuclear  Power  Plant  is  designed  to  operate  on  Saturated  steam.   Our  present  NPC  Coal  and  gas  thermal  plants  are  more  dangerous  since  they  are  subject  to  leaks  and  explosion  because  they  are  using  High  pressure  Superheated  steam. 

Questions  raised  from  the  visitors  about  the  Bataan  Nuclear  Power  Plant. 
1. Is  the  Bataan Nuclear  Power  Plant  dangerous  to  public  health? 
No.   The  Bataan  Nuclear  Power  Plant  is  simply  a  Thermal  Plant,  the  heat  is  supplied  by  the  nuclear  reactor…We  have a nuclear  reactor  installed  in  PNRI  ,  Diliman,  Quezon  City.  It  has  been  there  for  about  50  years and  no  reported  accident/death  caused  by  radioactive  radiation. 

2.        What  about  the  accident  at  the  Chernobyl Nuclear  Plant  Ukraine  in  1986.  Will  this  also  happen  in  the  Bataan  Nuclear  Power  Plant?. 
The Chernobyl accident  was  caused  by the  problematic  reactor  RBMK  design.  Design use  only  by  the  Soviet Union.  For  Example  lack  of  Robust  containment  building. Also  inadequate  training  of  plant  personnel. 
This  will  never  happen  in  BNPP  because  the main  reactor  core  is  properly  designed  and  BNPP  will  be  operated  by  well  trained PSME  P-noy  engineers. 
The  Main Reactor   is contained in  a  Robust  1 meter  thick  concrete  biological  containment   and  is  completely  separated  from  the  main  building  by  an  8  inches  seismic  gap.  In  case  of  an  earthquake  the  movement  in  the  main  power  house  building  will  not  affect  the  structure  of  the  main  reactor  core.   

3.  The  worst  American  accident  was  at  the  Three  Mile  Island  Nuclear  Power  Plant in  Pennsylvania in  1979..  Will  this  happen also  to  the  Bataan  Nuclear  Power  Plant. 
  It  was  caused  by  the  malfunctioning  of  the Reactor  Coolant  Pump.   Because  of  this  accident  ,  the  Former  Pres.  Ferdinand Marcos  ordered  for  the  review  on  the  safety  aspects  of  the  plant. In  three  mile  Island,  there  were  two  reactor  coolant  pumps.  One  operating  and  one  spare  unit.  Because  of  the accident,  the  designer  of  BNPP  installed  additional  pumps..  There  are  now  threen  coolant  pumps  two act as   spares. units..  For  this  reason,  reliability  was  greatly  increase. 
Note:  Because  of increase  in   redundancy ,  the  budget  was  increased.  This  is  the  main  reason  why  the  BNPP  was  expensive..  It  is  expensive  because  of  added  safety  measures. 

4.   According  to  Media  the  Bataan  Nuclear  Power  Plant  is  near  a  fault  line.  What  will  happen  to  BNPP  in  case  there  is  a  earthquake  of  Magnitude 8. 
There  is  already  built  in  BNPP  a  feature passive  safety  system,  which  automatically  shut  the  plant  down  in  case  there  is  a  massive  earthquake..  In  2007  a  Nuclear  Power  Plant  in  Japan (  Kasiwasaki-Kariwa  Nuclear  Power  Plant  )   was  automatically stop following  the  Niigata-Chuetsu-Oki  earthquake. 

5.   How  about  the  Nuclear  waste.  What  should  we  do ? 
There  is  no  such  thing   as  “ Nuclear  waste  “  .  This  is  the  term  used  by  anti- nuclear ideologues to  frighten  the  public.   The spent  fuel  created  in  the  BNPP  is  stored  inside  the  reactor  containment  for  spent  fuel  rods.  It  is  store  here  to  cool  down  and  decay.   Once  the  radioactivity  of  the  spent  fuels  are  gone,  the  spent  fuels  are  pack  and  sent  for  reprocessing.  There  is  no  nuclear  waste  in  Bataan  Nuclear  Power  Plant. 

6.  How  about  converting  the  Bataan  Nuclear  Power  Plant  to  Coal , bunker  fuel  or  Natural  Gas. 
It  can  be  done  but  its  very  impractical  solution  for  the  following  reasons: 
-        If  it  is  converted  to  Bunker  fuel..  You  need  a  huge  fuel  storage  and  there  is  a  danger  of  fire  and  explosion..  The  Bataan  620 Mw  power  plant  needs  about  4,000,000  liters  of  bunker  fuel per  day  if  converted  to  fossil  fuel. 
-        If  converted  to  coal..  you  need  201  tons  of  coal  per  hour  or  5,000  tons  of  coal  per  day…  This  requires  huge  fuel  storage  area..  Pollution  is  a  problem  .  Plant  surrounding  will  be  polluted  with   coal  ash  and  dust…

7.    Is  there  a  pollution  in  Bataan  Nuclear  Power  Plant? 
No. There  is  no  air  and  water  pollution  emitted  in  Nuclear  Power  Plant  . 

8.  We  heard  that  it  will  cost  2 billion  Dollars  to  re-habilitate  the  BNPP..  Is  this  true.. ? 
No  Comment….But  If  we  were  to  recommend..  This  is  what  we  must  do  to  minimize  the  rehabilitation  cost. 
a.  Items  to  be  ordered…Main  620MVA   Oil  Immersed  Transformer, 2 units  10,000  kva  stand by  diesel  generator  sets.   Fuel  rods  to  be  ordered  later.  Bidding  must  be   transparent..  Highly  recommend  that Ms. Hydee  Mendoza  to  head  the  bidding  committee.  ”Kung  walang  corrupt  walang  mahirap  ” 
b.  Main  components  of  the  BNPP  are  the  Reactor,  Steam  Generator ,  steam  turbines  and  the  Electric  generator. 
We  hire  Korean  consultants  (  Those  that  are  now  operating/maintaining   the  similar  620 Mw Plant  in  Korea  )  for  the  Reactor  only..  For  the  Boiler  Turbines  and  generator  let  PSME P Noy  engineers  handle  this..  They  are  experts  better  than  foreigners. 
All  Instruments  must  be  upgraded..  Upgrading  be  done  by  P  Noy  engineers..  we  have  experts  on  this  field. 
Start  the  training  of  PSME P Noy  engineers  that  will  operate  the  BNPP  plant   to  the  similar  plant  now  operating  in  Korea.. 
Hire  Korean  engineers  to  do  the  start  up  and  commissioning..  Then  the  start  up  must be   together  with  our  trained  PSME  P Noy  engineers. 

9. The protection for earthquake of a nuclear power plant is only to automatically shut off. How about the structure of the nuclear reactor? Is it design to stand beyond magnitude 8? 
The  main  reactor  core  structure  is  completely separated  from  the  main  building  by  a  seismic  gap.  The  structure  were  all  design  under  Zone  4  category.  The  base area  of  the  core  is  minimal,  therefore  the  effect  of  an  earthquake  to  the  core  is  not  so great. 

10.        Who  will  operate  the  Bataan  Nuclear  Power  Plant  ? 
Of  course  PSME  P Noy  Engineers.  Operating  a  Nuclear  plant   is  easy  for  our   engineers  for  the  following  reasons: 
a.        Control  of  Heat..  In  BNPP you  have  to  adjust  only  the  control  rod. 
    More  heat needed..  pull  the  control  rod  down.  Less  heat  needed  or  to  stop  the  heat,  raise  control  rod  up.   
    In   coal  fired  power  plant,  the  control  is  more complicated..If  you  need  more  heat  you  have  to  adjust   the  amount  of  coal  and  the  amout  of  air..P  Noy  engineers  now  operating  coal  thermal  power  plants  are  expert  on  this… 
b. The  Steam  use  in  BNPP  is  only   Saturated  Steam…  Our  Engineers  are    operating  power  plants  with  High  Pressure  Superheated  steam. 
c.  There  are  less  equiptments  in  BNPP.   In  BNPP  you  have  only  the  fuel, moderator,  control  rods,  coolant.   versus  a  coal fire  thermal power  plants  which  has  so  many  boiler  auxilliaries.

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