San Onofre radiation leak: Inspectors find unusual wear on new tubes carrying radioactive water

From the Washington Post,  Link

The problems at Unit 2 were discovered during inspections of a steam generator, after the plant was taken off-line for maintenance and refueling. That equipment was replaced recently in both units of the twin-reactor plant, which is located about 45 miles north of San Diego.

In two tubes, more than a third of the wall had been worn away, requiring them to be plugged and taken out of service. At least 20 percent of the tube wall was worn away in 69 other tubes, and in more than 800, the thinning was at least 10 percent.

“The amount of wear that we are seeing on these tubes is unusual for a new steam generator,” Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Victor Dricks said.

“If you have that kind of thinning anywhere along the length of the tube, you have a problem because it degrades the integrity of the tube, which can contribute to leaks,” he added. (emphasis added)

***

According to company officials, the new steam generators were manufactured by Japan-based Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The company did not respond to an email sent Wednesday.

Retired NRC engineer and researcher Joram Hopenfeld said the company will have to determine why the tubing is degrading so quickly “before they do anything else.”

“I’ve never heard of anything like that over so short a period of time,” Hopenfeld said.

“The safety implications could be very, very severe,” Hopenfeld added. “Usually the concern is in older steam generators, when they have cracks all over the place.” (emphasis added)

To read more, Link

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Officials say no leaks after explosion at French nuclear waste recycling facility kills one, injures 4

From multiple sources:

San Francisco Chronicle (SF Gate):  Link

The BBC:   Link

Yahoo:  Link

Excerpts from SF Gate

One person was killed and four injured in an explosion Monday at a nuclear waste facility, an accident authorities were quick to downplay but which caused environmentalists to push for rethinking nuclear policy amid worldwide jitters over Japan’s nuclear catastrophe.

The Nuclear Safety Authority said no radioactive leaks were detected after the blast shortly past noon at a furnace in the Centraco site, in the southern Languedoc-Roussillon region, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the city of Avignon. One of the injured suffered severe burns.

The agency quickly pronounced the accident “terminated,” saying the situation had been brought under control in less than an hour. The building that houses the furnace wasn’t damaged, no leaks were reported and residents who live near the site were not evacuated, the agency said in a statement.

The cause of the accident is not known, and an investigation has been opened to see what went wrong, authorities here said.

France is the world’s most nuclear-dependent nation. It relies on the 58 nuclear power plants that dot the country for about three-quarters of its total electricity, and it’s also a major exporter of nuclear technology throughout the world.

While the March meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima plant prompted other countries to re-evaluate their nuclear programs — with neighboring Germany vowing to shut all its plants by 2022 — France has remained steadfast in its support for nuclear energy.

Authorities here downplayed the importance of Monday’s incident.

“It’s an industrial accident and not a nuclear accident,” Industry Minister Eric Besson said on i-Tele television. “There have been no radioactive leaks and there have been no chemical leaks.”

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