Re: rad leak in upstate NY? -Reply

[David Richards <richardd@myapc.com>]

** High Priority **

I forgot all about Ginna and I went there a couple of days after the
accident to help them recover. Long term memory is going, too, I guess.

You're pretty much right on the mark, Jim. They had a catastrophic failure
of a steam generator tube at full power. The blown tube whipped around
and cut several others and they went solid with reactor coolant all the
way out the atmospheric relief valves. They contaminated some
surrounding apple orchards but it really didn't go very far. They scooped
up a lot of snow, though, and stored it in a new radwaste building they
had just built. I believe that pile of snow lasted all through the summer. We
also frisked a lot ground. There is a little trout stream next to the plant that
empties into Lake Ontario. That probably moved a small amount of
contamination into the lake, but I don't know what the official studies
showed. I'm pretty sure that the utility owned all the property that was
affected.

The failure was caused by loose material dropped into the secondary
side of the generator during a prior modification project. I can remember
fishing out several used welding and gouging rods and at least one
mettalic "rock" about two to three inches in diameter. Seems their foreign
material control wasn't quite up to par and their loose parts monitoring
system apparently didn't give them enough indication. As a matter of fact,
I spent the NEXT outage there covering the crew that was installing a
significant upgrade to the loose parts monitoring system.

As for evacuations, they declared a Site Area Emergency and I believe
that they evacuated the site. I don't think any protective actions were
implemented offsite.

Ginna is my favorite of all the plants I've ever worked. Funny that this
subject should come up now because I was just over there at the plant
this weekend on a fishing trip with a friend. Anyway, I still own a pretty
cool T-shirt from the time that says

"This is NOT a drill..."

David J. (DJ) Richards
Project Manager
Radiological Services, Inc.
richardd@myapc.com
djr@javanet.com

>>> James G. Barnes <mail15077@pop.net> 05/12/97 11:34am >>>
Jeff,

I seem to recall a moderately serious steam generator tube rupture at
Ginna  Station in the early-mid 80's.  Don't recall any evacuations, but I
seem to  remember that it triggered a fairly high emergency response
level, and there  was some offsite release.

Can anyone remember the exact details?

Jim Barnes, CHP
Radiation Safety Officer
Rocketdyne Division; Boeing North American