San Onofre nuclear plant problem worse than thought: report

[Playinghardball]

Source: Raw Story

LOS ANGELES — US nuclear regulators published an update on California’s troubled San Onofre power plant Thursday, sparking an expert warning that the problem is more serious than first thought.

A reactor at the nuclear power plant near San Diego was shut down in January after a radiation leak, although the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said there was no danger to the public.

Investigations found unexpected erosion on tubes that carry radioactive water, and the entire plant was shut down, forcing Californian authorities to fire up alternative power generation facilities.

On Thursday, an update on the tube erosion, posted on an obscure part of the NRC’s website, showed the situation had worsened.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/12/san-onofre-nuclear-plant-problem-worse-than-thought-report/

Read more: Link to source

[bananas]

1. k&r nt

[liberalmike27]

5. Why No

This isn't possible. You mean the government and MSM actually were trying to say the situation was better than it actually was?? Why they never do that, do they? (sarcasm)

Why do we keep fooling around with this incredibly dangerous way of generating power. I swear I think Republicans are trying to purposely destroy the Earth, just so they can claim they were right about religion.

[truedelphi]

10. I mean, why is this even a problem. Ever since Fukushima,

Our various agencies and health officials are saying that radiation is "dispersed" once in the air. (Implication apparently being that once "dispersed," the radioactive particles lose any ability to hurt a person, animal or plant.)

And several months after Fukushima, Time Magazine joined in with a few paragraphs stating that we do not even know if there is any data supporting radioactivity being very dangerous.

I am now waiting to find out how many vitamins and minerals my body will be saturated with, to help me live to a ripe old age, should San Onofre continue to vent radioactive stuff on a day like yesterday when the prevailing winds were from the south. It's all good, ain't it?



<sarcasm alert for any that don't know me.)

[bananas]

2. Also, a new report from FOE, and a leaked Southern California Edison document

http://www.foe.org/news/news-releases/2012-07-down-the-tubes-san-onofres-steam-generators-in-worst-shape-us-nuclear-plants

Down the tubes: San Onofre's steam generators in worst shape of all U.S. nuclear plants

Posted Jul. 12, 2012

Leaked Edison document says 1,000s of tubes in both reactors damaged

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The problems with the steam generators at the San Onofre nuclear reactors are the most severe found in comparable generators across the U.S. nuclear industry, according to a new report commissioned by Friends of the Earth. The report by Fairewinds Associates also analyzes a leaked Southern California Edison document, which shows that despite assertions by Edison and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, thousands of tubes inside both San Onofre reactors are severely damaged and both reactors should remain shut down.

<snip>

In addition to the unprecedented scale of plugging at San Onofre, Fairewinds’ analysis of the leaked data from Edison shows that more than 4,000 tubes are showing significant wear, while only 1,317 have been plugged. Fairewinds concludes that plugging the tubes will not eliminate the cause of damage. In fact, operating the reactors with the remaining unplugged but worn tubes could create cascading tube failures, leading to domino-like catastrophic failure that would release significant radiation to a large area of Southern California.

“Edison and the NRC have admitted that the problems with San Onofre’s steam tubes are an anomaly, but they haven’t been forthcoming about just how historically off-the-charts the damage is in comparison to the rest of the nuclear industry,” said Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer at Fairewinds and co-author of the report.

<snip>

A May 7, 2012 condition report from Edison, which has not been made public but was obtained by Friends of the Earth, confirms that Unit 2 is identical to Unit 3 and shares the same problems. Analyzing the findings of the condition report, Gundersen concluded:

<snip>

Dave Freeman, former head of the federal Tennessee Valley Authority and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said the condition report shows clearly that the picture Edison and the NRC are painting -- that Unit 2 is in better shape than Unit 3 -- is false.

<snip>

Download the report as a pdf.

View the leaked document analyzed in the report.

Find more information on the report and the unprecedented steam generator problems at San Onofre.

Contact:
Bill Walker, [phone], [e-mail]
Damon Moglen, [phone], [e-mail]

[bananas]

3. FOE report mentioned in an AP news article

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/apnewsbreak-tube-wear-detailed-ca-nuke-plant-16764320#.UABWkHXRxIG

APNewsBreak: Tube Wear Detailed at CA Nuke Plant

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD Associated Press
LOS ANGELES July 12, 2012 (AP)


Federal regulators Thursday disclosed the most detailed information to date on damage at California's idled San Onofre nuclear power plant, where scores of tubes that carry radioactive water have eroded at an alarming rate.

The detailed data, posted obscurely on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission website, has implications for the future of the seaside plant that has been offline since a tube break in January released traces of radiation.

<snip>

Also on Thursday, Friends of the Earth, a group critical of the nuclear industry, released a report saying the tube damage at San Onofre far exceeded anything witnessed in the industry. The report, written by Vermont-based nuclear consultants Fairewinds Associates, said the plant has retired four times as many tubes as the combined total at other U.S. nuclear power plants where generators have been replaced.

<snip>

[xtraxritical]

4. I live close by and this is very scary shit for me. How come the MSM says nothing? Wow.

[AtheistCrusader]

6. Not a danger to you.

Well, it's a danger to your power bill, I suppose.

A very expensive, possibly plant-killing fuckup, that's for sure. Not otherwise a danger to you.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. So far Fairewinds has been accurate re: fukishima problems

months ahead of when TEPCO admitted them.
"how come MSM says nothing"????

I think you know the answer to that.

[truedelphi]

11. M$M has a few masters that they need to answer to:

Including the MIC, (notice how they rarely are opposed to any new wars, but find all wars as being absolutely patriotic, necessary etc) Then the M$M has to show their loyalty to Big Oil and Big Coal, Big Nukes, Big Agriculture, And Big Financial Firms.

Let someone at a business like Solyandra screw up, and its headline news for months. But other than that solar company, things are so bright that in the future we will all need shades. (And don't forget, GE outright owns NBC.)

[bananas]

8. I think these are the NRC reports

at the NRC website.

I think it's these three pdfs, the files are time-stamped July 12, 2012:

http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactor/songs/tube-degradation.html#data

Special NRC Oversight at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station: Steam Generator Tube Degradation

<snip>

Steam Generator Tube Wear Data

The following data is provided to help interested parties understand the observed wear in the u-tubes of all four steam generators. A diagram showing the internal construction of the steam generator has also been provided to help readers understand the components of concern.

• SONGS Steam Generator Internal Diagram
  
  
• SONGS Unit 2 Steam Generator Tube Wear Data
  
  
• SONGS Unit 3 Steam Generator Tube Wear Data
  

Publicly Available Documents

The following table lists the publicly available documents that the NRC has issued in connection with the special oversight of SONGS.

<snip>

For some reason, they aren't listed in the "Publicly Available Documents" section,
just the "Steam Generator Tube Wear Data" section,

I think that's why the news articles say they were in an "obscure" section of the NRC website,
if you didn't look at the file time-stamp you wouldn't know they were new files,

the most recent document in the "Publicly Available Documents" section is dated 06/26/2012,
there's no indication at all that these new documents have been released.

[flamingdem]

9. Where is Daryl Issa now?

He was so sure it should go back on line! I kept my potassium iodide around once I heard he was involved!