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AP article regarding Indian Point 2 Alert
The following article appears today in the Bergen (NJ) Record.
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Corrosion blamed for radiation leak
Friday, March 3, 2000
The Associated Press
BUCHANAN, N.Y. -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday that last month's accident at the Indian Point 2 power plant was probably caused by superheated, highly pressurized water corroding a nickel-alloy tube from the inside.
NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan emphasized that an official finding is weeks away and "there are other pieces of that puzzle that we still have to look at." But based on a videotape from a remote-controlled camera sent into the tube, "it's probable that this was stress corrosion cracking," he said.
On Feb. 15, radioactive water heated in the reactor leaked from one of the generator's 32,000 tubes into the clean water that surrounds them. As a result, there was a small discharge of radioactive steam into the atmosphere. There were no injuries and the increase in radioactivity was too small to be measured, officials said. Still, it was the worst accident in the plant's 26-year history.
If corrosion does turn out to be the cause, it could draw into question the industry's inspection practices. Con Edison, which operates the plant less than 30 miles north of New York City, said its last inspection in 1997 showed no suggestion of a crack in the tube that leaked. The plant has had less than two years of operating time since then, and the NRC granted Con Ed's request for a year's postponement of an inspection scheduled for June 1999.
NRC investigators suggested at a Wednesday night meeting with Con Ed that if the crack could appear, deepen, and break open between inspections, the inspection schedule might have to be tightened.
"If necessary, we will reevaluate our own standards," said Brian Sheron, the NRC's associate director for project licensing.
"The lesson clearly is that it doesn't make sense to relax the inspections. They should be more stringent," said Edwin Lyman, scientific director of the Nuclear Control Institute in Washington.
Jim Hardeman, Manager
Environmental Radiation Program
Environmental Protection Division
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
4244 International Parkway, Suite 114
Atlanta, GA 30354
(404) 362-2675 fax: (404) 362-2653
Jim_Hardeman@mail.dnr.state.ga.us
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