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

[William Lipton]

The issue is NOT repairing the tubes - they know how to do that.  The real
problem is determining why they failed so quickly, and, as Sandy points
out, whether more will fail:  manufacturing defects?  faulty installation?
inadequate design?  isolated events? systemic problem?  Stayed tuned - film
at 11.

Bill Lipton
It's not about dose, it's about trust.



On Sun, Apr 8, 2012 at 5:27 PM, Perle, Sandy <sperle at mirion.com> wrote:

> 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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