[ RadSafe ] More on San Onofre - Engineer's input needed

[Perle, Sandy]

Stu,

Correct. Only a couple of tubes have had issues. The question is will others fail and at what rate. This could be an isolated random issue since the SG is relatively new. I drive by the plant frequently. The NRC may over-react due to public concerns, and the media is giving into the anti-hype, as expected. Count p. this being the scenario whenever any issue arises.

Regards,

Sandy Perle
Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 8, 2012, at 3:22 PM, "Stewart Farber" <SAFarber at optonline.net> wrote:

> The two SG at San Onofre have about 10,000 individual tubes in total.
> Depending on whether all tubes have a manufacturing defect and are likely to
> keep failing regularly, I know in the past it was a routine procedure for a
> plant to weld defective  SG tubes shut so that nothing from the primary side
> can get carried over to the secondary loop. Back some time, Prairie Island
> for example had to plug about 600 SG tubes and continued operations. It's a
> question of how many tubes get welded shut and how much efficiency lost is
> acceptable as a fraction of the approx. 5000 tubes in each SG.
> 
> I would think it all comes down to how many plugs are defective or are
> likely to fail soon and can be repaired before the plant goes back on-line.
> The grid operators, and regulatory agencies involved,  are likely to give
> alternatives like welding defective tubes closed serious consideration when
> they think about the consequences of a shortage of generating capacity by
> taking San Onofre offline. 
> 
> Of course the NRC, may just torpedo the whole idea of SG repair and keep the
> plant offline in their pursuit of what they state is the need for zero risk.
> I guess operating old coal and gas plants with the significant environmental
> and health effects to be realized with certainty is OK with zealous forces
> against nuclear electric generation.
> 
> Stewart Farber
> SAFarber at optonline.net
> ==============
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
> [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Joel C.
> Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2012 1:35 PM
> To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] More on San Onofre - Engineer's input needed
> 
> It sounds like SCE spent $670 million on defective steam gennies.  I'd like
> to hear from a knowledgable engineer about that.
> 
> 
> Joel Cehn
> joelc at alum.wpi.edu
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