Ace Hoffman Decommissioned San Onofre

http://acehoffman.blogspot.com/

"Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, [those] hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them . . .for this is a righteous war, and the removal of so foul a brood from off the face of the earth is a service God will bless."

"Take care, sir," cried Sancho. "Those over there are not giants, but windmills."
—Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, 160

 We wish these were windmills, read more @OCWeekly

San Onofre Legacy (SOL Part 1, 2 and 3)

The DAB Safety Team released three Media Alerts today!

Together they describe (in technical detail) the current situation at San Onofre, along with what SCE, their experts and other public nuclear watchdogs are now saying about all the NRC RESTART QUESTIONS they have been told to answer:

1. SONGS Unit 2 Fluid Elastic Instability, Thermal-Hydraulic Modeling, Enlightening Dr. Pettigrew, Concerned/Frustrated NRC Commissioners and Main Steam Break (28 Pages)

snip:

The following paper shows that the entire NRC Regulatory Process is underfunded, broken and needs additional funding, oversight and extensive overhaul to ensure public safety.

2. SCE’s Dismal and Unconvincing Performance before NRC Commissioners (13 Pages)

snip:

The presentation by SCE, Mitsubishi and other experts to the NRC was very disappointing and disturbing to 8.4 million Southern Californians.  The presentation did not address U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and Congressman Edward J. Markey’s concerns expressed on February 6, 2013 in her letter to NRC Chairman McFarlane, “Southern California Edison was aware of problems with replacement steam generators at its San Onofre nuclear power plant but chose not to make fixes.

3. Unit 2 Retainer Bars Integrity Unproven and Unsafe During a MSLB  (12 Pages)

snip:

The structural integrity of SONGS degraded retainer bar system to withstand combined loads that result from postulated accident conditions events has not been demonstrated.

Did Edison Submit False Info To NRC?

Did Edison submit false information to NRC?

Friends of the Earth demands release of leaked report

Tonight NRC public meeting
 6 p.m. Pacific time, Tuesday, February 12, at Capo Beach Church, Capistrano Beach, and is accessible via a live webcast at: http://video.nrc.gov.

Southern California Edison, operator of the San Onofre nuclear reactors, appears to have submitted false information to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Friends of the Earth charged today. The nuclear watchdog again demanded the release of a suppressed report that two senior members of Congress say shows Edison had prior knowledge of potential design flaws in replacement steam generators that failed after less than two years of service.

In a letter to the NRC’s Petition Review Board, Friends of the Earth said the report, as described by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.), contradicts Edison’s declarations to the Commission last month. The utility claimed it had no prior knowledge of deficiencies in the design of the generators until they failed in January 2012.

Details of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries report were released last week by Sen. Boxer, Chairwoman of the Committee on Environment and Public Works. She did not release the report, but in a letter to the NRC she and Rep. Markey said Mitsubishi told Edison of potential problems with the new generators, but modifications to correct the design flaws were not adopted, as Edison wanted to avoid triggering an NRC license amendment process. This would have required a more thorough and public review of the replacement program.

Friends of the Earth also demanded that the Petition Review Board must consider the document in proceedings currently underway. The Review Board, in response to a petition from Friends of the Earth, is determining whether Edison improperly failed to apply for a license amendment before installing replacement steam generators of a radically different design than was permitted under the reactors’ operating license.

“The Mitsubishi document appears to confirm our case before the Petition Review Board,” said Kendra Ulrich, nuclear campaigner at Friends of the Earth. “Edison made radical design changes while representing the steam generators as a like for like exchange and then actively chose not to address critical safety issues in order to avoid the license amendment process. Now it appears it also submitted information that is patently false. 

"The Mitsubishi report must be released immediately," said Ulrich. "The public has a right to know what Edison knew and when it knew it.”

Pressure is mounting daily for release of the document. On Friday, the NRC confirmed that it has opened an official investigation into the replacement steam generator case. Still, the Commission maintains that the Mitsubishi report is proprietary. In fact, it won’t even be on the agenda for the public meeting the NRC is holding tonight to discuss the experimental restart proposal. 

"Open disclosure and discussion of this document is critical to the public’s understanding of this controversial restart plan," said Ulrich. "This is the same corporate actor that apparently gambled on safety in the past, and they are asking the NRC to allow them to do so again."

In an editorial Sunday, The Los Angeles Times rebuked the NRC for not releasing information the public needs, and noted that the Mitsubishi report could not only be decisive in the NRC’s proceedings but in the investigation of Edison by the California Public Utilities Board. The Times said: 

Release the report so that ratepayers, who are paying the tab for the purchase of the steam generators, and the public, whose safety depends on responsible operation of the plant, can determine the truth . . . The NRC should make the document public, and soon. It might provide an important description of how Edison makes its safety decisions, and it could become a key aspect of the Public Utility Commission's inquiry into whether ratepayers should be forced to continue paying for the steam generators . . . What the public is entitled to is information about who knew what and when.

Click here to read the Friends of the Earth letter to the NRC Petition Review Board.

Click here for the Friends of the Earth petitions case.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 12, 2013

CONTACT: Bill Walker, (510) 759-9911, or Kendra Ulrich, (216) 571-7340

Bill Walker dba Deadline Now Berkeley CA (510) 759-9911 bw.deadline@gmail.com Twitter: @deadlinenow Skype: deadlinenow

Awesome Animation: Dangerous San Onofre Generators

If a picture is worth a thousand words,

 then an animation is worth millions of words...

 Salute to Ace Hoffman for posting this educational SanO animation:

 SanO's Failed Replacement Steam Generators:

 It could have been a lot worse!

His animation will help everyone visualize what is happening at San Onofre and better understand why it should not be restarted at any power level!

Learn more about Ace at his home page where you can even download his free book The Code Killers and/or visit his excellent blog site:

 Ace Hoffman's Nuclear Failures Reports! 

+ Don't forget tomorrow's NRC Public Meeting to discuss San Onofre's failed replacement steam generators that have not run in over a year yet we are all still paying over $54 Million a month to Edison! Note: the meeting will also be webcast (see link):

Tell the NRC what you think before it is too late!

6 -- 9 P.M.

Capo Beach Church

25975 Domingo Avenue

Capistrano Beach, CA 92624

Why should ratepayers pay $1.3 Billion for Edison's design debacle, instead of Edison shareholders?


Nuke Plants On Fault Lines In Tsunami Hazard Zones 
That Have Exceeded Their Usefulness Should Be Closed. 

Any Questions? 

Will you stand up for California Feb 12?

We will be having a Rally/press conf at 4 pm, we hope as many of you that can will join us and stand up for Cal and our children. Rally will be in the parking lot.

Feb 12, next NRC meeting in SoCal (We need you with us)

This meeting the NRC staff is expected to talk about the status of its inspection and technical evaluation of SCE’s response to the NRC Confirmatory Action Letter of March 27, concerning  actions required to be taken by the company to address steam generator tube degradation at the San Onofre nuclear plant. Meeting will be Feb 12 at 6 pm at the CAPO BEACH CHURCH: 25975 Domingo Ave. Capistrano Beach, CA 92624.

We need you with us in large numbers because this maybe the last public meeting before the NRC announces whether they will let SONGS restart unit #2. We need you and two or three of your friends.

 

So Cal Edison San Onofre Lies

Fairewinds' Arnie Gundersen was interviewed on Russia Today to discuss Southern California Edison's "San Onofre" Power Plant. Arnie says, "The worst plant in the U.S. for evacuation plans, is San Onofre. When they built it in the fifties, no one was around it, but Southern California has grown dramatically. So it would be almost impossible to evacuate the area." Later on he discusses why, and what this could mean.

Report: Edison knew of nuclear-plant generator flaws

NRC Reports Incomplete, Inconclusive, Inconsistent and Unacceptable

The REAL CAUSE of San Onofre's Unit 3 massively expensive failure...

It appears that a complacent SCE and the inexperienced Mitsubishi engineers did not perform proper academic research and industry comparisons about the potential adverse consequences of the reducing the pressures in the original steam generators. Lowering the pressures were the primary cause of shortening the life of the Original Generators due to increased tube wear and plugging caused by random vibrations and also caused the destruction of the new Unit 3 Replacement Steam Generators due to the same thing. 

In addition, Edison engineers prepared a defective NRC report and design specifications, which were not challenged by Mitsubishi, the manufacturer, and/or adequately reviewed by NRC Region IV. Mitsubishi then at the direction of SCE engineers made numerous untested and unanalyzed design changes to the steam generators under the pretense of “like for like”, exchange and even NRC Region IV Director Elmo Collins said, “The guts of the machinery look …. Different.”

So based on a review of the AIT Report and some of the World’s Experts, the three potential causes, which were significant contributors to the “fatigue damage” in San Onofre Unit 3 and the tube-to-tube wear resulting in the tube leak are as follows:

A. Insufficient internal supports and differences in manufacturing or fabrication of the tubes and other components between Units 2 & 3.

B. Due to modeling errors, the SONGS replacement generators were not designed with adequate thermal hydraulic margin to preclude the onset of fluid-elastic instability.

C. Differences between Unit 2 and Unit 3’s Operational Factors


CONCLUSIONS: Until the NRC can determine that San Onofre is 100% safe to operate at its approved rated power, granting any Unit 2 Restart testing is unacceptable, because if a nuclear accident occurred during testing who would be held liable, the Nuclear Utilities, the Insurance Carriers, the Federal Government, the State of California, the CPUC, the NRC Commissioners, NRC Region IV, EIX/SCE Shareholders & Employees or just the millions of affected southern Californians?  The DAB Safety Team believes that once the true amount of existing tube fatigue and all other associated damage is KNOWN, anything short of a total steam generator rebuild and/or replacement will be unacceptable prior to any restart being authorized by the NRC.

2013 is the year to Decommission San Onofre

For much more on this read:

Allegation – NRC AIT Report Incomplete, Inconclusive, Inconsistent and Unacceptable