San Onofre: Pressed by Calif. regulators, Edison forced to release another damning letter | Friends of the Earth

Friends of the Earth: More proof utility sought to mislead NRC

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Under pressure from the California Public Utility Commission, Southern California Edison has released to Friends of the Earth another suppressed and highly incriminating internal document, showing that the utility knew eight years ago of serious flaws in the design of replacement steam generators for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. The letter directly contradicts written testimony Edison gave in January to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The 2005 letter from then-Edison Vice President Dwight Nunn was released Tuesday, after the state PUC sharply questioned why Edison had not provided it as part of the PUC’s investigation of failure of the San Onofre reactors, shut down since January 2012 after a leak of radioactive steam. The day before, Boxer released a 2004 letter from Nunn proving that Edison knew that the flawed generators were not “like-for-like” with the ones they replaced, but failed to reveal that to the NRC in order to expedite approval from the NRC. 

“This new letter shows conclusively that in 2005 Edison was aware that its defective design could lead to vibration and cracking of steam generator tubes,” said Damon Moglen, Friends of the Earth’s climate and energy program director. “While Edison knew this could lead to what the earlier letter calls ‘a disastrous outcome,’ they didn’t fix the problem, they didn’t tell the NRC then and denied it again in testimony this year. This is a scandal of the highest order: Edison prioritized its construction schedule and profits and endangered the lives and livelihoods of millions of Southern Californians.”

In the June 16, 2005 letter, Nunn writes to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which manufactured the replacement steam generators to Edison’s specifications, about the “probability” that the design could cause the tubes to vibrate and crack. Despite later suggestions from a joint Mitsubishi/Edison design team to fix the problem prior to construction, the contractors rejected such changes because they would have triggered a lengthy NRC license amendment review, including public hearings. In January, in written testimony to the NRC in a case brought by Friends of the Earth, Edison claimed that the problem “was not known at the time.” 

S. David Freeman, former head of the Tennessee Valley Authority and of several nuclear utilities, said Edison knew it was taking a risk.

“With these revelations, it’s clear that Edison was conducting an experiment all along,” said Freeman, senior advisor to Friends of the Earth. “They were operating reactors with equipment that they knew had major problems. That’s unforgivable. 

“Edison gambled that additional safety measures were not needed when they gave the highest priority not to safety but speed of construction. Of course they didn't know for sure that the equipment would fail, but they did know that they were taking a risk and they lost on their gamble. Gambling with the safety of a nuclear plant is not acceptable and an egregious misuse of ratepayer’s money.” 

The mounting revelations of Edison’s deception dash the utility’s request to restart San Onofre rector Unit 2 this summer, said Moglen. “The NRC must make sure these reactors are not restarted with this damaged equipment, and the PUC must make sure no ratepayer money is spent to operate, let alone restart, this failed plant,” he said.

After Senator Boxer released the 2004 letter yesterday, the California PUC issued a statement asking “whether Edison had a duty to disclose the letters earlier.” PUC Executive Director Paul Clanon said the Commission “need(s) to investigate whether Edison took unnecessary risks, or tried to evade regulatory oversight.“ Edison quickly released the 2005 letter, along with other suppressed internal documents (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) that may hold more revelations. Friends of the Earth is currently evaluating the remaining documents. 

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Contact:
Damon Moglen, (202) 222-0708, dmoglen@foe.org
Adam Russell, (202) 222-0722, arussell@foe.org

Updates: news releases and updates - San Onofre: Pressed by Calif. regulators, Edison forced to release another damning letter | Friends of the Earth

San Onofre: Internal letter reveals Edison knew of defects at crippled reactors but misled federal regulators to get expedited license

Friends of the Earth: "Restart is dead"

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. Barbara Boxer has released a private 2004 letter from Southern California Edison that reveals the utility knew of major problems in its radically redesigned replacement steam generators at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station that could lead to a “disastrous outcome,” but the company knowingly misrepresented its failed design as a “like-for-like” replacement to sidestep a more thorough license review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

The leaked letter confirms accusations of the nuclear watchdog group Friends of the Earth. Its release, said the group, means Edison’s restart plan is dead. 

“This letter from Edison management is truly shocking,” said Damon Moglen, climate and energy director for Friends of the Earth. “It shows definitively that Edison was more concerned with keeping to a construction schedule and making money than with assuring safe operation of their reactors. It raises serious questions about their honesty and about the NRC’s handling of the San Onofre license. 

“The restart of San Onofre reactors is now off the table. No one can possibly argue for the further operation of these crippled reactors when such an experiment places the lives and livelihoods of millions of Southern Californians at risk.”

The letter, which Boxer released to the Associated Press, was sent by Edison Vice President Dwight Nunn to his counterpart, General Manager Akira Sawa, at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which fabricated the replacement steam generators according to Edison’s specifications. The letter states that serious problems with the replacement steam generators could lead to “unacceptable consequences (e.g. tube wear and eventually tube plugging). This would be a disastrous outcome for both of us ...”    

In addition, the letter reveals that Edison was fully aware that the new generators, which failed in less than two years and caused a release of radiation, was not a like-for-like replacement despite their assurances to federal and state regulators. Edison’s Nunn writes:  “Consequently, the design of the new steam generators is currently proceeding using the existing steam generator seismic response based on a like-for-like replacement concept (although the old and new steam generators will be similar in many respects they aren’t like-for-like replacements).”

Sen. Boxer said that she believes “Edison intentionally misled the public and regulators” and is providing the correspondence to “federal and state officials, including the U.S. Department of Justice so they can determine whether Edison engaged in willful wrongdoing.”

Release of the letter follows a May 13 ruling by the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board in which the three-judge panel unanimously ruled that  Edison’s plans to restart the damaged reactors would be  an “experiment” for which they had inadequate experience and which would be outside both their technical specifications and licensing requirements.

“Friends of the Earth accused them, the ASLB judged them and now Edison has confessed,” said Dave Freeman, former head of the federal Tennessee Valley Authority and senior advisor to Friends of the Earth. “The San Onofre restart plan is now deader than a doornail. It’s over.”

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Contact: 
Damon Moglen, (202) 222-0708, dmoglen@foe.org
Shaun Burnie, (202) 701-6962, sburnie@foe.org

News releases: San Onofre: Internal letter reveals Edison knew of defects at crippled reactors but misled federal regulators to get expedited license  | Friends of the Earth

Sen. Boxer suggests Edison 'misled' public on San Onofre plant - latimes.com

A letter sent by a Southern California Edison executive in 2004 shows the company was concerned about the possibility of design flaws in replacement steam generators manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries that could lead to the type of "disastrous" equipment problems that ultimately led to the San Onofre nuclear plant's yearlong shutdown.

The letter was released by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who argued that the letter shows that Edison may have misled federal regulators about the extent of design changes in the new steam generators.

Boxer called for the U.S. Justice Department to investigate whether there was wrongdoing by Edison. TheU.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's office of investigations is already probing whether Edison gave the agency complete and accurate information about the steam generators, and the NRC's office of inspector general is also investigating.

The nuclear facility was shut down more than a year ago after a steam generator tube sprung a leak and released a small amount of radioactive steam.

Boxer pointed to a section in the letter that says, "although the old and new steam generators will be similar in many respects, they aren't like-for-like replacements."

There has been an ongoing dispute between Edison and opponents of the nuclear facility about the extent of the design changes between the new and old steam generators. Environmental group Friends of the Earth has asserted that many of the design changes should have prompted a license amendment, which would potentially involve a lengthy public hearing process, and that Edison deliberately sidestepped that process.

“This correspondence leads me to believe that Edison intentionally misled the public and regulators in order to avoid a full safety review and public hearing in connection with its redesign of the plant," Boxer said in a statement.

"... Given this new information, it is clear to me that in order for this nuclear plant to even be considered for a restart in the future all investigations must be completed and a full license amendment and public hearing process must be required..."

more > Sen. Boxer suggests Edison 'misled' public on San Onofre plant - latimes.com

NRC Chief Makes Statement on San Onofre Hearings

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairwoman Allison Macfarlane issued a statement Monday on the decision to hold court-like license amendment hearings on restarting the troubled San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.

read the statement: NRC Chief Makes Statement on San Onofre Hearings - Top News - San Clemente, CA Patch

Atomic Safety & Licensing Board Issues Decision on San Onofre, Sides with FOE and NRDC

In the ongoing saga of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) and its faulty steam generators, on May 13, 2013 an Atomic Safety & Licensing Board panel of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission delivered answers to a set of questions posed by the Commissioners .Those answers side with the arguments made by petitioner Friends of the Earth (FOE), and NRDC, which filed a separate amicus brief in support of FOE, demanding a public contested license amendment proceeding to weigh restart of either unit with impaired primary cooling.

To recap briefly, the San Onofre site installed two steam generators in September 2009 (Unit 2) and October 2010 (Unit 3) to replace the previous generators that operated for nearly thirty years. The generators use thousands of thin metal tubes, containing high-temperature pressurized water that transports heat from the reactor core, to generate the steam that turns the plant’s electricity-producing turbines. As noted by the Board, these tubes “serve critical safety functions” and “are essential for maintaining primary system pressure and coolant inventory.” This also means that they provide a necessary boundary between the radioactive fission products in the coolant and the outside environment.

The new steam generators differed in a number of aspects from those they replaced, but the plant’s operator, Southern California Edison (SCE), convinced the NRC staff that a license amendment was not required because the replacements were a “like-for-like” change. Fast forward to January 2012, when SCE experienced a steam generator tube leak (approximately 82 gallons per day) and subsequently discovered that both steam generators were experiencing unprecedented “tube-to-tube” wear, producing a premature thinning of the tube walls at levels normally expected after decades of operation. As a result, both reactor units were shut down, and in March 2012 SCE submitted a “Steam Generator Return-to-Service Action Plan” to the NRC, describing actions the company committed to take before restarting Units 2 and 3. Later that month, NRC Staff issued a Confirmatory Action Letter (CAL) stating their understanding of the actions SCE was proposing to take prior to restart, which under this plan would require only the approval of NRC staff.

In June of 2012, FOE petitioned the NRC to hold a hearing on NRC Staff’s issuance of the CAL, and a few days later NRDC responded with a brief supporting the petition. FOE asked the Commission to recognize that the CAL process for start-up of Units 2 and 3 constitutes a de facto license amendment. The effect of such a request, if granted, would be that the reactors cannot restart unless Edison first obtains a license amendment pursuant to an adjudicatory public hearing in which FOE and other members of the public may participate. In November, the Commission certified this question to the Board – is the CAL process a de facto license amendment?  The Board heard argument from FOE, Edison, NRC Staff, and received “friend of the court” submissions from NRDC and the Nuclear Energy Institute.

On March 22, 2013, the Board held an oral argument in Rockville, MD, where SCE and FOE presented their cases. In their nearly 40 page decision issued May 13, the Board ruled that for three independent reasons, the CAL process constitutes a de facto license amendment proceeding that is subject to a hearing opportunity under Section 189 (a) of the Atomic Energy Act.

The board further stated that “the parties in interest should be afforded a meaningful opportunity to request a hearing before the NRC Staff takes final action that could result in authorizing SCE to operate in a manner that is beyond the ambit of its existing license.”

To complicate matters further, on April 8, after the oral argument but before the Board’s decision issued, SCE sought to preempt the Board’s ruling by filing a narrow license amendment request establishing a separate—but clearly related—path to restart of Unit 2. What remains to be seen is whether this evolving web of Board rulings, license amendment requests, and ultimately Commission decisions will allow SONGS to restart Unit 2, and whether that action will follow exercise of the public’s right to a hearing that addresses the technical safety and regulatory compliance issues at issue.

See Devra Wang's blog for a look at how California may replace the San Onofre plant without more polluting power plants.

Atomic Safety & Licensing Board Issues Decision on San Onofre, Sides with FOE and NRDC | Jordan Weaver's Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

#SanOnofre: CA officials join Friends of the Earth to demand formal public hearings | nukefree.foe.org

May 16, 2013

New evidence exposes more major safety concerns

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On the heels of a pointed ruling by a panel of judges against Southern California Edison’s scheme to rush the experimental restart of a severely damaged reactor at San Onofre, elected officials have joined Friends of the Earth in demanding that there be no restart decision until the Nuclear Regulatory Commission holds a formal adjudicatory public hearing with testimony from local citizens and expert witnesses. 

On Monday, the Atomic Safety Licensing Board -- in a devastating judgement against Edison and the NRC -- affirmed a petition for such a hearing, filed by Friends of the Earth. But NRC officials since then have said the ruling does not necessarily trigger the hearing.

Elected officials from cities throughout Southern California, including San Diego and Irvine, have submitted letters to the NRC expressing opposition to Edison's license application. The elected officials raised issues such as the increased risk of accident, concerns over the potential release of significant radiation into the environment, and the consequences for human health, including increased radiation dose rates and the ability of emergency services to manage such a crisis.

“It’s an elected official’s first duty to protect the citizens they represent, and Southern Californians should be proud of their public servants for telling the NRC that Edison’s scheme is dangerous and that it’s unthinkable that the agency is seriously considering allowing restart without a formal license review,” said Kendra Ulrich, nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth. “We join them in telling the NRC that to approve Edison’s request would be to utterly disregard the safety concerns of millions of people.”

Today, the last day for public comments on Edison’s license application, Friends of the Earth and the Natural Resources Defence Council submitted to the NRC a legal analysis, supported by expert declarations, that further demonstrates there is no credible basis for approving restart of San Onofre reactor Unit 2 on Edison’s terms. The utility is ignoring significant and serious safety hazards identified since San Onofre shut down in January 2012 after a leak of radioactive steam. The documents (parts 1, 2 and 3) include a declaration from former NRC Commissioner Victor Gillinsky, new technical evidence from Joe Hopenfeld, a former NRC steam generator specialist with four decades of nuclear industry experience, and international nuclear engineer John Large of London.  

The Friends of the Earth expert analysis includes details on fatigue damage not addressed by Edison or the NRC, such as information on multiple types of wear mechanisms that will lead to further steam generator tube damage and likely rupture. The potential consequences include loss of cooling function for the reactor core and a major release of radioactivity into the environment.

The three-judge ASLB panel -- charged with weighing Friends of the Earth’s contentions by a unanimous vote from the NRC Commissioners  -- agreed that the damage to San Onofre’s team generator tubes is “unprecedented” in the U.S. nuclear industry, and that Edison’s restart scheme is a risky and unproven “experiment.”

The ASLB made clear that Edison’s restart plan violates the terms of San Onofre’s operating license. The process under which the NRC is currently reviewing the utility’s request, including the agency’s preliminary finding of No Significant Hazards, in no way addresses the major safety issues plaguing the nuclear reactor. The ASLB found that the destructive vibrations in the San Onofre steam generators at San Onofre are not taken into account in the reactor’s official safety blueprint. These are not being addressed either in the current license application or Edison’s restart plan.

“Three senior ASLB judges have ruled that Edison’s prediction for future steam tube damage in the reactor ‘is grounded on theory that is not yet supported by actual experience,’ ” said Shaun Burnie, nuclear program director for Friends of the Earth. “This judgement blows apart the NRC's current plan to give Edison a No Significant Hazards ruling and restart approval for San Onofre. The evidence we have filed today further demonstrates that restarting San Onofre carries a major risk of accident.” 

Submissions to the NRC include elected representatives from the cities of San Diego, Laguna Beach Solana Beach, Del Mar, Encinitas, Redondo Beach, Malibu and Irvine, as well as California Assembly Majority Leader Toni Atkins and Assemblymember Shirly Weber. National and local environmental organizations have also submitted comments to the NRC, including the Sierra Club (Los Angeles chapter), Beyond Nuclear, Physicians for Social Responsibility (Los Angeles chapter), San Clemente Green, together with thousands of individual citizens comments opposing Edison's plans and NRC approval.

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Contact:
Kendra Ulrich (216) 571 7340, kulrich@foe.org
Shaun Burnie (202) 251-1862, sburnie@foe.org

California officials join Friends of the Earth to demand formal public hearings

nukefree.foe.org

Why fatigue damage will stop the NRC from allowing Unit 2 to restart | Decommission San Onofre

FATIGUE DAMAGE TO SONGS STEAM GENERATORS

J. Hopenfeld 

Provided to the “DAB Safety Team” as additional explanation of the fatigue damage to SONGS steam generators which was discussed in a report by the author and was submitted to the California Public Utility Commission on March 29, 2013

SCE/MHI made a mistake in their stress analysis, which directly impacts the safety of restarting Unit 2.  When the error is corrected, the result clearly shows that Unit 2 has already used up its allowed fatigue life and is not fit for service any longer.  This means that if Unit 2 is restarted at any power level an abrupt pressure change such as inadvertent closing or opening of a valve or a steam line break could lead to a sudden tube ruptures.   The ASME code and NRC regulations do not permit safety components to operate when their fatigue life has been exhausted

more: Why fatigue damage will stop the NRC from allowing Unit 2 to restart | Decommission San Onofre