March 17, 2014

CONTRACTOR REPORTS ISSUE WITH PIPING BOUGHT FOR MOX FACILITY

By ExchangeMonitor

Some of the piping acquired for construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility has failed required safety tests, according to contractor Shaw AREVA MOX Services. Some of the one-half inch “SS” pipe to be used in the aqueous polishing portion of the plant under construction at the Savannah River Site is “thermally sensitized” and fails required tests to “to intergranular corrosion if utilized in an environment with electrolytic potential,” according to a July 12 letter from MOX Services President Kelly Trice to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Trice has noted in the past that the project has faced difficulty in finding qualified vendors for components for the plant, which is undergoing a rebaselining that is expected to result in increased project. The piping issue impacts at least one “heat” of the 170 heats of piping manufactured by Spanish vendor Tubacex. The letter does not note whether the piping has already been installed in the facility. MOX Services is in the process of testing the remaining Tubacex piping. “Continued evaluation is required to determine the impact of using thermally sensitized pipe which is not in accordance with MOX Services’ procurement specification,” Trice wrote.

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NEW: Via public records request, I’ve been able to confirm reporting today that a warrant has been issued for DOE deputy asst. secretary of spent fuel and waste disposition Sam Brinton for another luggage theft, this time at Las Vegas’s Harry Reid airport. (cc: @EMPublications)

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