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"Watchdog group questions safety of nuclear plant"
There have been many SG tube ruptures. I wonder why the NRC officials
supposedly said the following. "A panel of Nuclear Regulatory
Commission officials admitted that they don't know whether a single
broken steam tube in a Salem nuclear generator could lead to multiple
beaks and ultimately a core meltdown." Is anyone familiar with what
was actually said, and who were these 10 NRC officials?
---------------------------
"Watchdog group questions safety of nuclear plant"
Jack Kaskey
"Unplug Salem's concerns ceneter on cracking of alloy tubes
in generators inside Salem Unit 2. The tubes are bearly identical to
one that burst 18 months ago at a New York plant".
PENNSVILLE TOWNSHIP- A panel of Nuclear Regulartory Commission
officials admitted tht they don;t know whether a single broken steam
tube in a Salem nuclear generator could lead to multiple beaks and
ultimately a core meltdown. About 10 NRC officials gathered Thursday
night at the Hampton Inn here from headquarters in Maryland, the
region office in King of Prussia and the nuclear plants in Salem
County to address concerns raised by Unplug Salem, a Linwood-based
group. The group's concerns center on corrosion and cracking of 1300
alloy tubes contained in four generators inside the containment
vessel of Salem Unit 2. The generator tubes are nearly identical to
one that burst 18 months ago at a plant in Indian Point, N.Y.,
leaking radioactive steam into the atmosphere. NRC officeials said
nuclear plants are designed to safely shut themselves down when such
a leak occurs. "The plant is designed to acccomodate the failure of a
tube," said Glenn Meyer, NRC branch chief for the Salem plants.
Thursday's meeting, however, focused on a new NRC committee report on
steam generators that raises the question of whether a single rupture
could cause a chain reaction of broken tubes. In the event of "gross
failure' of multiple steam generator tubes, more water could escape
through steam vents than the plant is designed to replace, said Dave
Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Union of Concerned
Scientists in Washington, DC. Without sufficient water, the nuclear
reactor would melt down, Lochbaum said. Such a meltdown would pollute
much of southern New Jersey with radiation. Meyer said such a
scenario is only a hypothesis that NRC staff members are evaluating.
"That's not to say it absolutely can't happen," Meyer said. "Multiple
tube failures:Can they happen? We can't definetly say 'no'. That's
what we are pursuing." In the meantime, there is no safety risk with
continued operation of the nuclear plant, said Rick Ennis, the NRC
project manager in charge of responding to the steam-generator
report. NRC officials said a single tube failure is unlikely, because
plant operator Public Service Electric and Gas plugs tubes when they
are corroded 40 percent of the way through. The pencil-thin tubes are
tested for cracks using radio waves. Although current testing methods
don't typically discover a tube that is only 40% cracked, tubes in a
high-pressure generator can withstand a crack 85 percent of the way
through, said Joseph Muscara, an NRC senior metallurigical engineer.
To date, 871 tubes have been plugged at Salem Unit 2. Meyer said PSEG
has a strong financial incentive to make sure they plug any tubes
during refueling outages. If a tube breaks when the plant is
operating, power production has to stop for weeks, he said.
Generators in Indian Point Unit 2 and Salem Unit 2 both use the same
size and type of nickel-alloy tubing. But NRC officials have told
Unplug Salem coordinator Norm Cohen that a direct comparison between
the two generators is inappropriate because the Salem tubes have been
heat-treated. On Thursday, Cohen asked the NRC panel to rpovide
certification of the heat treatment. But the nuclear officials said
only PSEG has that information. Cohen and Lochbaum questioned whether
it was worth the risk to keep the plant running while the NRC
resolves the question of tube failures in older nuclear steam
generators.
--
Coalition for Peace and Justice and the UNPLUG Salem Campaign; 321
Barr Ave., Linwood, NJ 08221; 609-601-8537 or 609-601-8583 (8583:
fax,
answer machine); ncohen12@home.com UNPLUG SALEM WEBSITE:
http://www.unplugsalem.org/ COALITION FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE WEBSITE:
http:/www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org The Coalition for Peace
and Justice is a chapter of Peace Action. "First they ignore you;
Then
they laugh at you; Then they fight you; Then you win. (Gandhi) "Why
walk when you can fly?" (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
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Director, Technical Extension 2306
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