San Onofre Nuclear Plant Whistle-Blower: ‘There Is Something Grossly Wrong with the Plant’

by Shepard Ambellas

 
SAN CLAMENTE, CA — The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station has been shut down for about a year now, as one anonymous source (from inside the plant) has came forth saying that the plant is absolutely to dangerous to restart saying, “there is something grossly wrong with the plant”.
The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) is a nuclear power plant located on the Pacific coast of California, in the northwestern corner of San Diego County, south of San Clemente. The site is surrounded by the San Onofre State Park and sits next to Interstate 5. The landmark spherical containment buildings around the reactors are designed to prevent unexpected releases of radiation. The closest tectonic fault line is the Cristianitos fault, which is considered inactive or “dead”. The plant has been the site of many protests by anti-nuclear groups., according to Wikipedia.
The plant itself sits in a low lying tsunami zone and potential earthquake zone not deemed safe by many concerned Americans after what they saw take place during the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. In fact a unanimous vote at a recent city council demonstrates the public concern, as the vote 11-0 was to not reopen the plant this summer during California’s peak energy usage while the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) says otherwise.
The NRC maintains that the plant will be safe to open if it’s only ran at 70% power, reducing the risk of the tubes rubbing causing fatigue, raising more concern amongst the general public.
The recent passage by the city council on April 23, will make sure San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station has “fully reviewed public safety through a prudent, transparent, and precautionary process, has allowed independent experts and the public ample opportunity to comment, and has confirmed that Southern California Edison has completed any resulting mandated repairs, replacements, or other actions necessary to guarantee both short and long-term safe operation of San Onofre.”
Lately the NRC has been on a push to restart the plant after a 2012 radiation leak created by tubes hitting each other in the steam generator which has caused major wear which could lead to a crack or breach resulting in a massive disaster.
The whistle -blower that came forward also stated, “If an accident like this were to happen, San Onofre’s emergency plan is not here to handle it and it could cause a public disaster.”
Mitsubishi, the steam generators designer responded to an ABC news source stating, “the design went through an extensive review process which included the participation of third-party experts.” But others are not so sure. Mitsubishi was contracted to build new steam generation units in 2010 and 2011 that would replace the old offering what was supposed to be clean safe energy for decades to come. However, major flaws in the design have led to problems causing the plant to be shut down 11 moths after the new steam generation installation in 2011.
The whistle-blower (with 25 years experience in the nuclear field) maintains that San Onofre’s units 2 and 3 are simply too dangerous to restart. Tubes that carry water to and from the reactor core operate under very high internal pressure and are hitting eachother creating cracks.
Due to the recent concerns brought forth the public is demanding answers. In fact Harvy Wasserman reported, “California’s largest city thus joins Del Mar, Encinitas, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Mission Viejo, San Clemente, Santa Monica, Solana Beach, Vista, Berkeley, Fairfax and the San Diego Unified School District board in asking the NRC to take all steps necessary to guarantee the public safety. Some resolutions include the demand that the NRC make utility officials testify under oath in public before San Onofre might be allowed to go back on line.
The sentiment has been echoed by U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) who chairs the Senate committee that oversees the NRC. Boxer has been joined by Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) in questioning whether Southern California Edison knew steam generators being installed at San Onofre were faulty.
The new Mitsubishi generators cost some $770,000,000. But critical tubes began banging together and sprang leaks after less than a year of operations. As many as 17 percent of the plant’s 19,400 tubes may have been involved.
The reactors were shut in January, 2012. Edison has since billed ratepayers roughly a billion dollars for them, even though they’ve generated no electricity for more than a year. The utility says it needs the reactors’ power for the coming southern California summer, even though the region operated just fine last summer without them.
ABC News has now broadcast warnings from a 25-year insider at San Onofre. “There is something grossly wrong,” the whistle-blower told a San Diego TV in a carefully disguised appearance.
Edison wants to operate Unit Two for five months on an experimental basis. But there are 8 million people living within a 50-mile radius. “If an accident like this happens, (an) emergency plan is not geared to handle such a public safety devastation,” says ABC’s inside source. “Those things have never been practiced or demonstrated in a drill scenario.”
The Government Accountability Office has recently confirmed the confused state of atomic evacuation planning nationwide, a warning picked up by Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA).
Such warnings echo those of former NRC Chair Gregory Jaczko, who has told the public that none of the 104 reactors currently licensed to operate in the U.S. are safe. The industry, he says, is “just rolling the dice” by continuing to operate these commercial reactors, including San Onofre.
Edison has dismissed Jaczko, the GAO and the whistle-blower’s warnings in demanding a June 1 restart. Boxer and Markey want the NRC to refuse approval until public hearings can be held. But the Commission seems to be rushing ahead with the licensing process.”

 
Sources:
^http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-san-onofre-20130423,0,6476550.story
^http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harvey-wasserman/los-angeles-to-san-onofre_b_3167482.html
^http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Onofre_Nuclear_Generating_Station
^http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1xhjh5uX7TA