nuclear-news

Southern California Edison getting jittery about media coverage of San Onofre Nuclear Plant

Leaked Email: Nuclear operator warns against leaking documents, specifically mentions Fairewinds Associates http://enenews.com/leaked-email-nuclear-operator-warns-against-leaking-documents-specifically-mentions-fairewinds-associates August 3rd, 2012 By ENENews  Title: Shhh… don’t tell! Source: Fairewinds Energy Education Author: Patrick’s Blog
Fairewinds Associates was sent a leaked Southern California Edison email informing San Onofre employees it is against company policy to leak documents to Fairewinds.
Subject: Fw: CLARIFICATION REGARDING RECENT NEWS COVERAGE OF OUR PLANT STATUS
To: All SONGS Employees and Contractors
Yesterday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) posted additional data on its website regarding our steam generator tubes for Units 2 and 3. This has generated an additional news cycle regarding our plant’s status. Specifically, the data reflects the type and amount of tube wear we have found on the steam generator tubes. The request for more information about the tube wear came from the public at our June 18 Augmented Inspection Team exit meeting with the NRC.

The data includes various types of wear, and shows that most of the wear was less than 20 percent, which is far below the required plugging limit of 35 percent, and the majority of the wear is related to support structures.

While this is the first time this data has been released to the
general public, it is the exact same data we have been providing to
the NRC and our industry experts all along as we have conducted our
inspections, analyses and our root cause evaluations. It provides the
basis for our conservative decision-making and our approach moving
forward for the repair plans.

Also yesterday, Friends of the Earth (FOE) released another study by
Fairewinds Associates regarding issues with our steam generator tubes
as compared to the industry. It is disheartening to see they are using
“a leaked Southern California Edison document” as part of their source
data, which is our first root cause evaluation for the Unit 3 steam
generators. It is unfortunate, as this document is a critical piece of
our return-to-service plans that are still being evaluated and
challenged. As a reminder, it is against our company policy to release
company documents to the media or other third-party stakeholders.

August 4, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general