Bob Leyse at Hanford Works, August 1950

So, it was my first job as a brand new Chemical Engineer out of the University of Wisconsin. The canyon building is 800 feet long.

Below is the graphite moderated reactor and supporting facilities. It was a great game. I worked at these reactors for most of my almost three years at Hanford Works.

"Xenon got us now." GETR

GETR, the great General Electric Test Reactor.

It was a great test reactor and it operated from about 1959 for over 10 years before it was permanently shut down based on some seismic games.

Anyway, in the course of operating, questions arose on the need for rapid shutdown in the case of loss of secondary water flow. (To keep stuff brief, I'm not going into the plant hydraulics.) Just prior to the planned shutdown for refueling, the staff settled the questions on the need for fast response to loss of secondary flow as follows:
1. Secondary flow was turned off with GETR at full power.
2. The reactor operator observed the game, but otherwise did nothing.
3. With secondary flow off, the primary system temperatures increased and the power level decreased.
4. After a while the reactor operator announced, "Xenon got us now."
5. At that point, the six control rods were inserted and the scheduled shutdown activities began.

Aside from the above, following are two photos of plant engineer, Don Hughes, in action during the construction of GETR during 1958.

Meltdown at Fukushima

Here is my letter to the Wall Street Journal.

Meltdown in Japan

The reactor core meltdown in Japan, WORLD NEWS, WSJ, December 1, is covered very well. However, the U. S. Nuclear Reactor Commission (NRC) gets into the act with its deceptive remarks. NRC is quoted, “This was not all unexpected. It really does nothing to change our assumptions – because we based our decisions on very pessimistic scenarios.” The NRC does not license our nuclear power plants on the basis of very pessimistic scenarios. The NRC believes that hydrogen production begins when reactor core temperatures exceed 2200 degrees Fahrenheit. In fact, hydrogen production begins well below 2200, and the rate of hydrogen production speeds up rapidly as the core temperatures soar to meltdown.

Maybe the NRC could open up and tell us what they have really produced prior to the WSJ disclosures. Tell us Mr. Chairman of the NRC, at what temperature of the Fukushima reactor core did hydrogen production begin? And how fast was hydrogen produced? And what was the time-pressure history in the Fukushima reactor pressure vessel? And what was the pressure in the Fukushima reactor pressure vessel when the pressure vessel was breached? And when the molten reactor core breached the reactor pressure vessel, how fast was the molten core squirted out?

Robert H. Leyse
Sun Valley, Idaho

June 1955, Shipping Bolts in Expansion Joints at 105-C

Yeah: R, P, L, K, C at the Savannah River Plant, Aiken, South Carolina. The feds owned it and duPont provided the brains.

First I found those shipping bolts in the main piping of the heavy water reactor, 105-C.

Then I nosed around a bit and I found several more in the 36 inch cooling water piping in the pipe tunnels. One was stretched.

So I wrote a memo and Marvin said it was great work. I referred to the need for evaluating the "... stresses in the affected pipe runs ... ."

Fukushima: Hydrogen Detonation & Destructive Missiles

Click on the following and then click on download and you will have the report by the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO).

http://www.nei.org/resourcesandstats/documentlibrary/safetyandsecurity/reports/special-report-on-the-nuclear-accident-at-the-Fukushima-Daiichi-nuclear-power-station

After you download the INPO report, you may do a search on "missile" or "missiles" but you need not do that because you will have zero finds. However, next do a search on "debris" and you will have 35 hits. The hits include debris from the tsunami and also debris from the hydrogen detonations.

A search on "explosion" yields 51 hits, a search on "detonation" yields 0 hits.

A search on "hydrogen explosion" yields 8 hits.

The search on "debris" yields the following paragraph on page 13 of 104:

At 1536, an explosion occurred in the Unit 1 reactor building. This explosion was most likely caused by the buildup of hydrogen that had been generated in the Unit 1 reactor core and leaked into the reactor building. The explosion injured five workers, and debris from the explosion struck and damaged the cables and mobile generator that had been installed to provide power to the standby liquid control pumps. The debris also damaged the hoses that had been staged to inject seawater into Unit 1 and Unit 2. Fieldwork was suspended as workers were evacuated to the Emergency Response Center for accountability. Some of the debris was also highly contaminated, resulting in elevated dose rates and contamination levels around the site. As a result, workers were now required to wear additional protective clothing, and stay times in the field were limited. The explosion significantly altered the response to the event and contributed to complications in stabilizing the units.

Note that "... debris from the explosion struck and damaged ..." . It would be more precise to report that missiles from the hydrogen detonation struck and disabled robust equipment including the cables and a mobile generator that had been installed to provide power to the standby liquid control pumps.

A search on "hydrogen explosion" yields the following paragraph on page 36 0f 104:

A large hydrogen explosion occurred in the Unit 3 reactor building at 1101 on March 14. The explosion destroyed the secondary containment and injured 11 workers. The large amount of flying debris from the explosion damaged multiple portable generators and the temporary power supply cables. Damage to the fire engines and hoses from the debris resulted in a loss of seawater injection. Debris on the ground near the unit was extremely radioactive, preventing further use of the main condenser backwash valve pit as a source of water. With the exception of the control room operators, all work stopped and workers evacuated to the Emergency Response Center for accountability.

Again, it would be precise to substitute "hydrogen detonation" for "hydrogen explosion" and "energetic missiles from the hydrogen detonation" for "flying debris from the explosion." Energetic missiles will disable robust equipment including multiple portable generators and fire engines and hoses, flying debris may not.

PRM-50-76: MAYDAY 2002 ML022240009

It is not difficult to petition the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It is useless.
So, Click on the blue link to view the original PRM-50-76. The battling continues.

[PDF] Petition of Robert H. Leyse re: changes to 10 CFR Part 50 ...
Page 1. 20B6227740 JAN LEYSE DOCKET NUMBER DOCKETED PETITIONRULE USNRC Secre y((oFRS g3 May 8,2002 (3:15PM) ... pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML0222/ML022240009.pdf - 2010-09-18

And here is NRC's defective Technical Analysis. Click on the following blue link to read that.

[PDF] Memo to Matthews/Black-Technical Safety Analysis of PRM ...
... OAR in ADAMS? (Y or N) Y ADAMS ACCESSION NO.: ML041210109TEMPLATE NO. ... C:\ORPCheckout\FileNET\ML041210109.wpd Page 3. ... pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML0412/ML041210109.pdf - 2010-09-22

The above technical analysis is substantially flawed, and after a while I e-mailed the following to the Chairman NRC. Click on the blue link below and go to page 2.

[PDF] LTR-06-0529 - E-mail Robert H. Leyse re: PRM-50-76, A ...

I never heard back from the NRC, so I told my Senator Larry Craig to get after the NRC. The NRC responded to Senator Craig about 6 months later and that response was over four years ago. Senator Craig never told me about the NRC response, however, I ran across it on ADAMS a few weeks ago, ADAMS ML070540103. Click on the blue link below to view that.

[PDF] G20070046/LTR-07-0040 - Sen. Larry Craig Ltr. re Appendix ...



And today, November 16, 2011, I am adding to this set of documents. Below is an e-mail that I sent to Idaho Senator Risch, requesting that he get after the NRC to respond to my needs for assorted details relevant to PRM-50-76.












So today, January 14, 2012, I am again adding to this entry. NRC responded (unsatisfactorily)and the NRC response is below, a cover letter and the response follow.

You may also read an enlarged access to the following via ADAMS:



[PDF] G20110784/LTR-11-0597/EDATS: SECY-2011-0582 ...
Page 1. Enclosure Response to Constituent Questions from SenatorJames E. Risch Letter of November 3, 2011 1. The ... pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1133/ML11336A055.pdf - 2011-12-30




Among the deficiencies in the NRC response is the disclosure that the two NRU tests have also been discarded by the NRC. So, I wrote a straightforward letter to Senator Risch requesting further action on that: WHAT IS THE BASIS FOR THAT REJECTION? I'll have to again request action by the Senator.

Total Hydrogen: PRM-50-103

Click on the blue to study the well-documented facts.

Search Results
Results 1 - 1 of about 1 for ML11301A094. Search took 0.01 seconds.
[PDF] NRDC's Petition for Rulemaking PRM-50-103 from C. Jordan ...
Page 1. PRM-50-103 DOCKETED USNRC NRDC October 27, 2011 (8:53am) THE EARMIS BEST DEFENSE OFFICE OF SECRETARY ... pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1130/ML11301A094.pdf - 2011-11-07