Pegasus Research Consortium

The Living Moon => Thorfourwinds Section => The Challenges and Solutions Associated With Nuclear Energy => Topic started by: thorfourwinds on August 04, 2012, 09:09:01 am

Title: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: thorfourwinds on August 04, 2012, 09:09:01 am
America's Been Nuked Report
17 months after 3/11




San Onofre


(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/ILLUMINATI%20CARTOON%202012/san-onofre-at-night.jpg)


America's Fukushima?



(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/ILLUMINATI%20CARTOON%202012/san-onofre-air.jpg)


A report released last week by one of the nation’s leading independent nuclear engineers revealed serious unresolved safety problems with the steam generators at San Onofre’s two aging nuclear reactors and warned the problems could lead to accidents and significant radiation releases if the reactors are allowed to restart.


8 Million Lives Threatened By California San Onofre Reactor Problems (http://enformable.com/2012/04/new-california-ad-campaign-targets-san-onofre-reactor-problems/)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0ViQqCHIeE


Friends of the Earth launched a new television ad campaign today targeting the utility Southern California Edison, the operator of the troubled San Onofre nuclear reactors, which are currently closed due to serious safety problems.

"The plan is to get people to tell their friends and family members and get them involved in raising awareness about the issue so they can combat the power and influence the nuclear industry has over our regulators."       


"This needs to reach critical mass so the public can demand in a voice of solidarity that the issue is properly addressed

before the people in the Los Angeles and San Diego area find themselves living in the same level of radioactive nuclear fallout that the 20 million people in the Tokyo metropolitan area are living in now."

(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/ILLUMINATI%20CARTOON%202012/ux4f7b25fa.jpg)


Is anyone paying attention?


"The paper also documented that Edison misled the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission about changes made to the reactors,

failing to disclose differences between old and new steam generators that could seriously compromise the safety of the reactors."


“The Nuclear Regulatory Commission knows
these reactors need to stay offline,


and Southern California families know it too,”


said Damon Moglen, climate and energy project director at Friends of the Earth.


“But Southern California Edison is pushing ahead.

That’s unacceptable, especially after it was its deception that led to this dangerous situation."



Quote
The ad was paid for by Friends of the Earth. It was endorsed by Citizens Oversight Projects, Committee to Bridge the Gap, Physicians for Social Responsibility — Los Angeles, Residents Organized for a Safe Environment (ROSE), San Clemente Green, SanOnofreSafety.org, and the Peace Resource Center of San Diego, all groups representing local residents endangered by the San Onofre reactors.

Nuclear watchdog Friends of the Earth has been campaigning on the dangers of nuclear power since its founding in 1969.


People deserve better than to have their power company racing to restart dangerous nuclear reactors after one sprang a radioactive leak and when both threaten much worse.”


The "much worse" is something that is not acceptable to Citizens of Planet Earth.



(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/ILLUMINATI%20CARTOON%202012/cz4f7b2dc4.jpg)



”As man attempts
to become God-like,
we release potential forces
that can,
and probably will,
destroy us.”



(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/ILLUMINATI%20CARTOON%202012/eq4f79db79.jpg)



But wait!

A glowing, wriggling tentacle waves from the back of a spent fuel pool ... it's the MSM:

Fallout: From Fukushima to San Onofre (http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/commentary/fallout-fukushima-san-onofre-31456.html)


(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/FRIDAY%20THE%2013TH%20of%20July%202012/san_onofre_nuclear_california.jpg)
The San Onofre nuclear power plant in San Diego County, California


Quote
The radiation that blew out of the Fukushima nuclear-power plants, particles of which the jet stream swept across the Pacific, barely left a trace on sensitive monitoring equipment in California.


Yet its minute presence also registered loud and clear: this is one planet.


What the above MSM conveniently forgot to add to the story that almost 25% of those 'sensitive monitors' were off-line for various reasons in the two months immediately following the triple melt-throughs before the EPA shut down the monitoring program on 3 May 2011, "because there is no need to monitor..."    :o


Let’s look at a few tidbits from our friends over at USA Radiation News Today™ for possible enlightenment.


7 February 2012
Highest level of radioactive cesium in San Francisco-area milk since August 2011 — Now at 150% of EPA’s maximum contaminant limit (http://x)


Quote
2/6/2012 (2:31pm): A new milk sample has been measured, this one with a best-by date of 2/16/2012. The results are posted to the milk sample page. Low levels of both Cs-134 and Cs-137 were still detected in the sample.

Best Buy Date of 02/16/2012:
Cs-134 @ 0.052 Bq/L
Cs-137 @ 0.115 Bq/L

0.167 Bq/L of radioactive cesium = 4.526 picocuries/L (1 Bq = 27.1 picocuries)

The EPA Maximum Contaminant Level for radioactive cesium in milk is 3 picocuries/L:

“EPA lumps these gamma and beta emitters together under one collective MCL (Maximum Contaminant Level), so if you’re seeing cesium-137 in your milk or water, the MCL is 3.0 picocuries per liter; if you’re seeing iodine-131, the MCL is 3.0; if you’re seeing cesium-137 and iodine-131, the MCL is still 3.0.” -Forbes.com

These are the highest cesium levels detected by UCB since at least August 2011 (As the MDA was higher over the summer, it’s hard to be sure of the exact levels at that time).


(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/FRIDAY%20THE%2013TH%20of%20July%202012/yc4f346dee.jpg)
(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/FRIDAY%20THE%2013TH%20of%20July%202012/ur4f346c9f.jpg)



BTW, remember way back when we pondered the question of Napa Valley wine being affected?

And the story got buried and never saw the light of day, let alone have any of the grapes or wine tested.

Crazy we are, you say?

Check this out, mate.


7 September 2011
Alpha radiation detected in imported Japanese Sake (http://www.enviroreporter.com/2011/09/sake-september-7-2011/)

Quote
10-minute interior average Japanese Sake #1 Liquid in Test Dish bought in Southern California Japanese market = 45.6 CPM which is 22.3% higher than previous background average.

When detecting with the Inspector, the sake in its unopened bottle, there was little ionization above background radiation.

That makes this significant reading all the more troublesome because

it indicates the presence of alpha radiation which is up to a thousand times more dangerous than beta and gamma radiation.


(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/FRIDAY%20THE%2013TH%20of%20July%202012/zs4f34709f.jpg)
(Image for illustration only. Identity of radioactive sake withheld)
 

16 January 2012
Over EPA limit:
Cesium levels in San Francisco area milk now higher than 6 months ago (http://enenews.com/over-epa-limit-cesium-levels-in-san-francisco-area-milk-now-higher-than-6-months-ago)


Pasteurized, Homogenized Milk from the San Francisco Bay Area with Best By Date of 12/29/2011

Cs-134: 0.068 Becquerels/liter (Bq/l) ±0.011 [MDA=0.044]
Cs-137: 0.075 Bq/l ±0.015 [MDA=0.052]
Total cesium is .143 Bq/l, or 3.87 picocuries/l (pCi/l) (1 Bq = 27.1 pCi).

The EPA Maximum Contaminant Level for radioactive cesium in milk is 3 pCi/l:

“EPA lumps these gamma and beta emitters together under one collective MCL [Maximum Contaminant Level], so if you’re seeing cesium-137 in your milk or water, the MCL is 3.0 picocuries per liter; if you’re seeing iodine-131, the MCL is 3.0; if you’re seeing cesium-137 and iodine-131, the MCL is still 3.0.” -Forbes.com


Current levels are about 40% higher than what was detected 6 months ago:


Pasteurized, Homogenized Milk from the San Francisco Bay Area with Best By Date of 8/22/2011

Cs-134: 0.047 Bq/l ±0.010 [MDA=0.041]
Cs-137: 0.052 Bq/l ±0.013 [MDA=0.044]



(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/FRIDAY%20THE%2013TH%20of%20July%202012/ucb011412a.jpg)(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/FRIDAY%20THE%2013TH%20of%20July%202012/ucb011412.jpg)



(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/FRIDAY%20THE%2013TH%20of%20July%202012/ml4f347771.jpg)



20 October 2011
220 days later: Radiation levels in San Francisco-area milk remain above EPA's Max Contaminant Level -- Cesium-137 continues steady increase that began in August (http://enenews.com/224-days-later-radiation-levels-in-san-fransciso-area-milk-remain-above-epas-max-contaminant-level-cesium-137-continues-steady-increase-that-began-in-august)

Quote
BERKELEY, Oct. 18 — The Nuclear Engineering Department at the University of California, Berkeley has posted new test results for store-bought milk from the San Francisco Bay Area.

The total amount of radioactive cesium increased slightly since the last test, and has risen steadily since the minimum detectable amount was lowered in August.

Results:

Bay Area store-bought milk sample with best buy date of October 10, 2011

Cs-134 @ 0.056 Becquerel per kilogram (Bq/kg)
Cs-137 @ 0.088 Bq/kg

SOURCE: UC Berkeley
Conversion: 27.1 picocuries (pCi) in a Becquerel

The sample has 3.888 pCi/l of radioactive cesium, compared with the EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level of 3.0 pCi/l.

“EPA lumps these gamma and beta emitters together under one collective MCL [Maximum Contaminant Level], so if you’re seeing cesium-137 in your milk or water, the MCL is 3.0 picocuries per liter; if you’re seeing iodine-131, the MCL is 3.0; if you’re seeing cesium-137 and iodine-131, the MCL is still 3.0.” -Forbes.com


And this from contributer mothra 1 year ago:

Quote
http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/UCBAirSampling

Milk is just one good indicator of food chain exposure across many categories, being a concentrator, somewhat localized to area grazing animals AND a highly regulated industry. I’m not certain the general public understands the implication of that measure?

To demonstrate, a person may see in the link above, how a “minute” fluctuating radiation air and precipitation sample can manifest in soil, tap water, grass, milk and produce etc.

I just don’t see why the EPA expectation and blanket statements about “decrease in levels” are logical right now when:

1.) Fukushima emissions are increasing.

2.) It’s ongoing, levels are rising.

3.) Milk is the indicator of food chain exposure in most categories.

4.) Radiation concentrates as you go up the food chain – not the opposite. Humans and breast milk are at the chain top.

5.) I-131 alone takes 80 days to dissipate when exposure stops, and that’s not including cesium.

6.) Not all exposures are the same. Ingested alpha and beta particles are very different from external gamma (airline flights, suntans et al).

7.) This developing radiation situation is in addition to prior exposure levels.

8.) Not everyone’s risk is the same – as in children and high risk individuals like immuno-supressed et al. By that I mean we aren’t all 30 year old men from 40 year old studies when these “acceptable low dose/safe dose thresholds” were set.

9.) Even “low dose” exposure by multiple pathways has aggregate risk (1 in 39,000 cancer alone) by the CDC’s own conservative Hiroshima model (under 200 ton load. Fukushima is 1,900 tons and 900 miles closer to US): http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/fallout/feasibilitystudy/Technical_Vol_1_Chapter_4.pdf

I just want to be clear and out my bias that individuals should have access to all open data and be allowed to make their own choices based on that. I agree with Scotland’s take on that score.

Thanks for reading and being patient with me in advance.

Best wishes to you all.

I hope I’m wrong.


And the beat goes on:


Japan Nuclear Radiation In Hawaii Milk 2033% Above Federal
Drinking Water Limits (http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/04/11/japan-nuclear-radiation-hawaii-milk-2033-percent-federal-drinking-water-limits-16130/)


Radiation Detected In Drinking Water In 13 More US Cities,
Cesium-137 In Vermont Milk - Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2011/04/09/radiation-detected-in-drinking-water-in-13-more-us-cities-cesium-137-in-vermont-milk/)


California Cows Threaten Strike If Forced to Eat Radiated Grass (http://www.freezedriedsurvivalfood.com/5426/california-cows-threaten-strike-if-forced-to-eat-radiated-grass/)



(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/ILLUMINATI%20CARTOON%202012/eo4f7a3cc4.jpg)

Clarabelle Clovenhoofer – Spokecow for Bovine Union Local #238


“The attitude of those happy cows in California will turn very sour if they are forced to eat radiated grass.”


Quote
Bovine News Today is reporting that the persnickety bovines will strike if fallout from the Japanese nuclear meltdown continues to rain on their beloved California grasslands.


Clarabelle Clovenhoofer, local union spokesbovine, had this to say,

“It’ll be a cold day in the pasture before we eat radiated grass.”


One must understand
that fallout
from the Fukushima disaster
is threatening world food supplies.


CNN, Reuters, and Russia Today are all reporting that radioactive material is being carried by minute moisture droplets in the air. It can then be directly inhaled into the lungs, get washed down by rain into the sea and onto the soil, and eventually contaminate crops, marine life and drinking water.

Cow’s milk is especially vulnerable, experts say, when cows graze on grass exposed to radiation.

Here in Rio Linda, we call that stuff fallout.   :P


This is one more huge blow to the already fragile world food supply.

If you are relying solely on supermarkets and the government to feed you in a disaster, you are gambling with your family’s future.

But, then again, if you hoard more than a week's worth of food, you are classified as a terrorist.    :o

And if you have a 'victory garden' or something similar for a sustainable food supply for your family, it is subject to government intervention and subsequent destruction.  :o


(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/thetruthisoutthere.jpg)


In any case, truth-seekers must not fall for the old cabal tactic of getting their opponents to fight each other.

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/04images/animations/Dove0011.gif)


We all agree we want to end poverty,
stop environmental destruction,
have world peace
and enter a new age of
discovery, abundance, wonder and freedom.


So please, let's concentrate on that positive vision and avoid negativity whenever possible.

 
(http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/ps4f22c267.jpg)



"Even when children plea for help
directly to the government
their cries are ignored,
which can be interpreted
as nothing less than the government
telling the population to go Fukushima themselves
because the agenda
of the globalist corpocracy
is more important


than something
as insignificant as
the value of human life."



(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/ILLUMINATI%20CARTOON%202012/Fukushima_Enfants_Sacrifies.jpg)



(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/ILLUMINATI%20CARTOON%202012/vh4f3d7a52.jpg)



Peace Love Light

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Bluebird/lg50aa500a.gif)
tf
Liberty & Equality or Revolution
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: SarK0Y on August 04, 2012, 12:53:18 pm
Matter of FucT is, effective decommissioning needs new techs & modern ones been too expensive+ too long to take'em seriously. so regular protests are useless to solve trouble.
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: Amaterasu on August 04, 2012, 03:58:55 pm
Sar, ALL the excellent (free energy) solutions have been hidden and suppressed.  Many are relatively cheap to build and maintain.  Compared to nuke power, they're practically free themselves.
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: SarK0Y on August 04, 2012, 04:07:29 pm
Sar, ALL the excellent (free energy) solutions have been hidden and suppressed.  Many are relatively cheap to build and maintain.  Compared to nuke power, they're practically free themselves.
Amy, most problem to R&D any HES (high energy source) always been not suppressing from bad or "bad" guys, but safety issues per se. 
Title: San Onofre nuclear power plant: More dangerous than imagined
Post by: thorfourwinds on August 04, 2012, 05:20:15 pm
13 July, 2012, 22:29


(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/AUGUST%202012/generating-plant-nuclear-onofren-1.jpg)
The San Onofre Nuclear Generating plant (Reuters/Mike Blake)


San Onofre nuclear power plant: More dangerous than imagined (http://rt.com/usa/news/onofre-nuclear-plant-san-150/)


More than six months after regulators ordered an intense probe of a California power plant, authorities say that conditions at the San Onofre nuclear facility are actually much worse than ever thought.

“This reveals a far greater problem than has been previously disclosed, and raises serious questions about whether it is safe to restart either unit,”

Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear expert at the University of California, Santa Cruz, tells the AFP of the latest news regarding an investigation into problematic reactors at the site.


What were originally just minor concerns caused the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to order an investigation in January, closing one reactor at the San Onorfre site between San Diego and Los Angeles in the interim.

More than half a year later, though, the publishing of their latest findings suggest that the problems with the plant are more than just a few frayed wires.

Initially, Gil Alexander of Southern California Edison, the plant’s owners, told the Los Angeles Times that the problems brought up at the beginning of this year “wouldn’t even qualify as the least severe.” Nonetheless, a single reactor responsible for churning out around 1,100 megawatts of electricity has been put on ice ever since. Upon the NRC’s latest findings, Alexander’s assumptions seem anything but accurate.

Hirsch adds to AFP that the just published findings show that more than 3,400 steam generator tubes in the new steam generators at San Onofre have undergone some sort of damage — as well as about 1,800 in Unit 3 and 1,600 in Unit 2.

Those tubes are instrumental in keeping the site’s 65 foot tall, 1.3 million pound generators up and running. And although some wear and tear is expected, the Associated Press recalls that the generators were replaced in a $670 million overhaul with some components not finished until last April.

Despite these upgrades, though, in some sections like the facility’s Unit 3 reactor, more than 50 percent of the tube wall that lines the generators has experienced significant wear.

Alexander originally told the Times that the incident would be handled appropriately in just a matter of hours. That was January. This week, Hirsch says, “Edison had been talking about trying to get Unit 2 back on line at end of summer; now we know to do so they would have to run with a large number of damaged tubes.”


"The problem is vastly larger
than has been disclosed to date,”


he adds to the AP.

In an AP investigation last year, it was revealed that nation’s nuclear facilities have prompted around 113 alerts since only 2005 that can be blamed, at least in part, on aging. The vast majority of plants in the US, including San Onofore, are older than a quarter of a century.

“I think we need nuclear power, but we can’t compromise on safety. I think the vulnerability is on these older plants,”

engineer Richard T. Lahey Jr., formerly with General Electric Co, told the AP during the investigation. Although San Onofre has seen a fair share of upgrades and additions over the years, it was first set up all the way in 1968, making it among some of the oldest American facilities of its kind.

“They're … trying to get more and more out of these plants,” nuclear safety scientist Dana Powers added to the AP.
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: Amaterasu on August 04, 2012, 05:22:49 pm
Amy, most problem to R&D any HES (high energy source) always been not suppressing from bad or "bad" guys, but safety issues per se. 

I've told this story before here but will tell it again.  A friend of Mine used to work as a "roadie" for an inventor.  This inventor had come up with a way to tap the earth's magnetic field and was traveling around trying to drum up investors.  My friend's job was to set up and take down the demonstration.

According to My friend:

1.  The device worked - outputting more usable energy than input to operate the machine
2.  It had no safety issues beyond normal safety issues with electricity
3.  The inventor had invented it on His own
4.  It was fairly inexpensive to build.  Maybe $500-$1,000 ish

My friend lost His job there because one day the FBI showed up and arrested the inventor, confiscating all equipment, on charges of...

Patent infringement!

To My knowledge, the inventor is still imprisoned after being railroaded thought the court system.  So.  If it has a patent (which was not easily available in a prior art search - the inventor did do a search) W(here)TF is this invention?

So...  No.  They have been ACTIVELY suppressing inventions, some "dangerous," no doubt, but clearly some not really.
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: SarK0Y on August 04, 2012, 05:43:40 pm
I've told this story before here but will tell it again.  A friend of Mine used to work as a "roadie" for an inventor.  This inventor had come up with a way to tap the earth's magnetic field and was traveling around trying to drum up investors.  My friend's job was to set up and take down the demonstration.

According to My friend:

1.  The device worked - outputting more usable energy than input to operate the machine
2.  It had no safety issues beyond normal safety issues with electricity
3.  The inventor had invented it on His own
4.  It was fairly inexpensive to build.  Maybe $500-$1,000 ish

My friend lost His job there because one day the FBI showed up and arrested the inventor, confiscating all equipment, on charges of...

Patent infringement!

To My knowledge, the inventor is still imprisoned after being railroaded thought the court system.  So.  If it has a patent (which was not easily available in a prior art search - the inventor did do a search) W(here)TF is this invention?

So...  No.  They have been ACTIVELY suppressing inventions, some "dangerous," no doubt, but clearly some not really.
Amy, what is the least reason, ye've, to call that invention safe?? to play with Earth's m-field has some funny side-effects & applications. i don't think it's good idea to put megaton-(or greater)class toys 4 free using.  :)
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: Amaterasu on August 04, 2012, 07:30:46 pm
Sar, Amicus, it was an example.  To illustrate that They SUPPRESS things.  If They feared repercussions from the drawing on the EM field of the planet, They would NOT have railroaded Him in court on patent infringement charges and left Him to rot in jail.  They would have discussed with Him the issues inherent in His invention.  Tried to talk sense to Him.  Something other than bursting in, collecting all apparati, arresting Him, and ruining His life.

They would have behaved far differently.
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: SarK0Y on August 04, 2012, 07:59:08 pm
Sar, Amicus, it was an example.  To illustrate that They SUPPRESS things.  If They feared repercussions from the drawing on the EM field of the planet, They would NOT have railroaded Him in court on patent infringement charges and left Him to rot in jail.  They would have discussed with Him the issues inherent in His invention.  Tried to talk sense to Him.  Something other than bursting in, collecting all apparati, arresting Him, and ruining His life.

They would have behaved far differently.
Amica, Just look at the 20th century: humans got there so many nice techs & what a mess was done with! i guess you know many examples how human suppresses common sense
(http://cache.lifehacker.com/assets/images/17/2011/04/1100-common-sense.jpg)
in short, i'd like to not judge Elder Brothers 4 their methods so fast  :)
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: Amaterasu on August 04, 2012, 08:03:25 pm
Amica, Just look at the 20th century: humans got there so many nice techs & what a mess was done with! i guess you know many examples how human suppresses common sense

in short, i'd like to not judge Elder Brothers 4 their methods so fast  :)

That was not the common Human, but driven by the war profiteers.  They provoked war; They built the war machines and bombs, They profited.

If You want peace, take the profit out of war.
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: SarK0Y on August 05, 2012, 02:51:55 pm
That was not the common Human, but driven by the war profiteers.  They provoked war; They built the war machines and bombs, They profited.

If You want peace, take the profit out of war.
They & only They are to blame 4 any $hit has happened around, but we're so small abused people & can change absolutely Nothing.
if human looks at 'self as a slave, then (s)he is the slave.
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: zorgon on August 05, 2012, 05:13:58 pm
They would NOT have railroaded Him in court on patent infringement charges and left Him to rot in jail. 

Does this inventor have a name?
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: Amaterasu on August 05, 2012, 07:01:08 pm
They & only They are to blame 4 any $hit has happened around, but we're so small abused people & can change absolutely Nothing.
if human looks at 'self as a slave, then (s)he is the slave.

Oh, Sar, Amicus, We are not slaves, but there IS a group that would believe We are, and They are trying to put Us down to a manageable level.  They enslave Us in many devious ways, though We are Beings and therefore, by rights, not slaves.  (I also believe We carry EA's DNA and are therefore royalty in the ASA-RRR bloodline...  But One has to accept The Terra Papers to go that far, I suppose.)

And We CAN change things, starting by bringing the solution I offer to the tipping point in awareness. 
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: Amaterasu on August 05, 2012, 07:07:40 pm
Does this inventor have a name?

No z, and I admit this is anecdotal.  My friend was reasonably close, though I lost track of him when He left Ithaca.  Spidy sense says He told the truth.  But You have good probability of disregarding My story of My friend's story and I accept that.  I have been talking to new friends here and some of Them know someone who was in hiding because of a free energy invention...

I stand some chance of getting that name - but it might not be wise to announce it publicly, for the sake of that Person, and Those who know that Person
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: SarK0Y on August 06, 2012, 12:02:10 pm
Oh, Sar, Amicus, We are not slaves, but there IS a group that would believe We are, and They are trying to put Us down to a manageable level.  They enslave Us in many devious ways, though We are Beings and therefore, by rights, not slaves.  (I also believe We carry EA's DNA and are therefore royalty in the ASA-RRR bloodline...  But One has to accept The Terra Papers to go that far, I suppose.)

And We CAN change things, starting by bringing the solution I offer to the tipping point in awareness.
Amica, i Just can repeat to you: most problem of HES always been safety issues. safety means not only technological troubles, but social Ones as well too. ye cannot & have no rights to bring so-called free energy to every idiot on the Holy Earth! :(
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: Amaterasu on August 13, 2012, 12:46:16 pm
Sar, Why not - if it is built with safety in mind.  The same could be said for the electric gadgets when electricity was first discovered.  What of a box that One can plug in One's appliances, electronics, heaters, etc?  Where is the issue with that?
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: thorfourwinds on August 13, 2012, 01:03:22 pm
Matter of FucT is, effective decommissioning needs new techs & modern ones been too expensive + too long to take'em seriously, so regular protests are useless to solve trouble.

Greetings:

Nice to see passengers on deck... ;)


Quote
so regular protests are useless to solve trouble


As a 4+decade devotee of DENY NUCLEAR, we find the phrase 'regular protests' particularly intriguing.

Care to elucidate further?


(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/Nuclear-Gothic--84154.jpg)


Peace Love Light

tfw   (http://serve.mysmiley.net/animals/animal0028.gif) (http://)

Liberty & Equality or Revolution

Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: zorgon on August 13, 2012, 02:13:47 pm
Sar, Why not - if it is built with safety in mind.  The same could be said for the electric gadgets when electricity was first discovered.

You are too naive and trusting :P

You know those modern fluorescent light bulbs? energy efficient and built with safety in mind?

Those puppies will burn your house down  :o

(see post in light bulb thread :P )
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: SarK0Y on August 13, 2012, 02:54:14 pm
Sar, Why not - if it is built with safety in mind.  The same could be said for the electric gadgets when electricity was first discovered.  What of a box that One can plug in One's appliances, electronics, heaters, etc?  Where is the issue with that?
Amy, hella much "IFs" :( + Zorgon is damned Right on that: safety always been stepchild in this civilization.
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: SarK0Y on August 13, 2012, 03:15:18 pm
Greetings:

Nice to see passengers on deck... ;)



As a 4+decade devotee of DENY NUCLEAR, we find the phrase 'regular protests' particularly intriguing.

Care to elucidate further?


(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/Nuclear-Gothic--84154.jpg)


Peace Love Light

tfw   (http://serve.mysmiley.net/animals/animal0028.gif) (http://)

Liberty & Equality or Revolution
4 example,  i have had Rights to live on the La Luna. but who damned cares a little about? at now, no savvy methods exist to provide my Rights. so why i need to waste Time 4 useless protests? Worldly Wisdom suggests to find needed techs & to go further. in short, more efficient way 4 you is to help me w/ this project (http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=205.0).
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: Amaterasu on August 14, 2012, 11:18:36 am
You are too naive and trusting :P

You know those modern fluorescent light bulbs? energy efficient and built with safety in mind?

Those puppies will burn your house down  :o

(see post in light bulb thread :P )

And You can bet that THEY knew the dangers when They marketed them - made a whole governmental push to convert Us to their use.  Reaks of eugenic purpose what with the mercury, fires, etc.  (Spidy sense says so too...)

Trusting???  No.  But if We understand the goal (no exchange/money needed, follow Our bliss, etc.) then the effort to ensure safety will be part of the deal.  Why risk what will become One's currency (reputation) in an exchangeless, moneyless society?  Better to produce to the BEST of One's ability rather than to some agenda...
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: Amaterasu on August 14, 2012, 11:23:14 am
Amy, hella much "IFs" :( + Zorgon is damned Right on that: safety always been stepchild in this civilization.

Why do We need to be babysat in this society.  Explain the risks, make sure it's as safe as possible, and let Us take care of Ourselves?  If an adult is fully informed and proceeds without caution, causing bodily harm to Self, think of it as evolution in action (thank You, Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle).  If a child or One unaware of what the Other is doing is hurt...lock up the idiot.

I wear a helmet when I ride a motorcycle - but I seethe knowing there is someOne MANDATING that I wear one.  I am NOT a child.  Human adults are NOT children.
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: SarK0Y on August 14, 2012, 02:30:16 pm
Why do We need to be babysat in this society.  Explain the risks, make sure it's as safe as possible, and let Us take care of Ourselves?  If an adult is fully informed and proceeds without caution, causing bodily harm to Self, think of it as evolution in action (thank You, Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle).  If a child or One unaware of what the Other is doing is hurt...lock up the idiot.

I wear a helmet when I ride a motorcycle - but I seethe knowing there is someOne MANDATING that I wear one.  I am NOT a child.  Human adults are NOT children.
Amy, civilization has destructed own Cradle, has no way to the Moon ain't children..... silly children, right?  :)
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: thorfourwinds on September 06, 2012, 07:21:12 pm
(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/77b4e45b5bbce289a32463175b5a96ea.jpg)

Radioactive buckyballs from Fukushima invade California beaches (http://www.naturalnews.com/036204_Fukushima_radiation_California.html#ixzz1y5ZMsoWv)

June 17 June 2012
by: J. D. Heyes

As the fallout - no pun intended - from Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear reactors at its Fukushima complex continues to worsen, scientists are now concerned about another related phenomenon that appears to be invading the U.S. West Coast - buckyballs.

What, exactly, are those?

According to a recent University of California - Davis study, in this case the term refers to

"uranium-filled nano-spheres which were "created from the millions of tons of fresh and salt water used to try to cool down the three molten cores of the stricken reactors,"

said Michael Collins, of EnviroReporter.com - "not the small, magnetic balls that cling to each other."


(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/Buckyball.jpg)


The tiny, stout buckyballs - which resemble soccer balls - are said to have been formed when water hit the super-heated, primarily uranium-oxide, fuel in the damaged reactors at Fukushima.

"In this goo buckyballs are formed, loaded with uranium and able to move quickly through water without disintegrating," said the report.

Quote
"Worse, radiation readings in L.A. and Santa Monica during a 42-day period between December 2011 and January 2012, "strongly suggest that radiation is increasing in the region including along the coast in Ventura County," Collins said, adding that readings both he and the Environmental Protection Agency took appeared to indicate the unnatural presence of radiation.

"Southern California is still getting hit by Fukushima radiation at alarmingly high levels that will inevitably increase as the main bulk of polluted Pacific Ocean water reaches North America over the next two years," he asserted.

Radiation believed to be five times normal levels along parts of West Coast

Read more:
http://www.naturalnews.com/036204_Fukushima_radiation_California.html#ixzz1y5ZMsoWv

Sources:

http://www.vcreporter.com

http://www.naturalnews.com/036022_Fukushima_radiation_food_supply.html

http://www.enviroreporter.com
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: zorgon on September 06, 2012, 09:13:32 pm
If a child or One unaware of what the Other is doing is hurt...lock up the idiot.

I wear a helmet when I ride a motorcycle - but I seethe knowing there is some One MANDATING that I wear one.  I am NOT a child.  Human adults are NOT children.

Well I disagree... based on observations over 30 plus years I would say a good 80% are children or idiots and if left on their own would have us in Chaos in no time

Look around the world where helmets are NOT mandatory... count the number of those wisely waring one on their own compared to those who don't
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: SarK0Y on September 07, 2012, 07:46:39 pm
Well I disagree... based on observations over 30 plus years I would say a good 80% are children or idiots and if left on their own would have us in Chaos in no time

Look around the world where helmets are NOT mandatory... count the number of those wisely waring one on their own compared to those who don't
mostly humans have lived in their own small worlds, day by day is the same. Even Internet cannot extend those tiny peaces by a little bit.  :)
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: thorfourwinds on September 23, 2012, 05:31:55 am
(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/September%2017%202012/r-SAN-ONOFRE-RADIOACTIVE-FUEL-large570.jpg)



San Onofre Power Plant
To Empty Radioactive Fuel
From One Reactor
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/28/san-onofre-radioactive-fuel_n_1836740.html)


27 August 2012

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. -- The operator of the San Onofre nuclear power plant is preparing to empty the radioactive fuel from one of its twin reactors, a federal official said Monday, another sign the plant won't be operating at full capacity anytime soon, if ever.

Tons of fuel inside the disabled Unit 3 reactor will be moved into storage in mid-September, Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector Gregory Warnick told The Associated Press on Monday.


The plant located between Los Angeles and San Diego has been shut down since January, after a break in a tube that carries radioactive water.

Investigators later found unusual wear on scores of tubes inside the plant's four steam generators, and Southern California Edison has been trying for months to determine how to fix it.

Edison has previously said it's focusing on repairing the Unit 2 reactor, which had been taken offline earlier in January for maintenance, and that "the Unit 3 reactor will not be operating for some time."

Damage to the tubes in Unit 2 is less widespread, but there's no timetable for its possible restart.

Unit 3 "is clearly not the focus right now in terms of correcting the steam generator issues," said Warnick, the NRC's senior resident inspector at San Onofre. "Unit 3 is going to take more work."

Dave Lochbaum, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' nuclear safety project, said placing the radioactive fuel in storage puts the reactor in a condition "requiring the least amount of safety equipment to be operable, and therefore the fewest number of tests and inspections to be performed."

Coming shortly after Edison announced plans to cut its workforce, "reducing the scope of required work at the job site is a good thing to do before discharging workers," Lochbaum said.

Edison spokeswoman Jennifer Manfre said in a statement that removing fuel from the unit "will best allow us to maintain the unit as testing, analysis and repair planning continue."


(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/September%2017%202012/San_Onofre_Nuclear_Power_Plant_t700.jpg)


Traces of radiation escaped at the time of Unit 3's tube break, but officials said there was no danger to workers or neighbors. A three-month federal probe blamed a botched computer (http://www.hark.com/clips/gycxtkvjxh-foolproof-and-incapable-or-error) analysis for generator design flaws that ultimately resulted in excessive wear to alloy tubes.

About 7.4 million Californians live within 50 miles of San Onofre, which can power 1.4 million homes.
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: thorfourwinds on September 23, 2012, 05:51:41 am
(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/September%2017%202012/San-Onofre-Reactor-Pool.jpg)

Edison to submit SONGS restart
plan to NRC next month
(http://enformable.com/2012/09/edison-to-submit-songs-restart-plan-to-nrc-next-month/)



12 September 2012

Edison International told Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Allison Macfarlane that they would send the agency a letter by the end of the first week of October outlining the root causes of the problems at San Onofre Unit 2 as well as a restart plan.

Reviewing the letter will take “longer than days and weeks. It will be on the order of months to understand whether they have understood well enough the root causes of the problem,” she said, adding,


“We will not let this plant
start up unless we are
absolutely convinced that
it is safe to operate.”


Ms. Macfarlane said the utility would remove fuel from Unit 3 this month and that Unit 2 was the only reactor “in play” to be restarted. She said Unit 3 had “more problems, more significant damage” than Unit 2 and “will likely be shut down for some time, unspecified.”


In a separate report released today, the Committee to Bridge the Gap analyzed data from nuclear power plants nationwide and showed that San Onofre’s Unit 2 reactor has about 400 times as many damaged steam generator tubes as the median number at comparable plants over the same operational period, and Unit 3 has more than 450 times as many.


(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/September%2017%202012/SanOnofreCHART.png)


From the report (http://committeetobridgethegap.org/pdf/CBG-SanOnofreReport.pdf):

Southern California Edison (SCE) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have suggested that the problems experienced in the steam generators of the two San Onofre reactors are fundamentally different and that Unit 2’s difficulties are merely “settling in” wear normal for new replacement steam generators.

No data have been provided to date by SCE or NRC to support these claims, yet SCE has suggested that for these reasons it expects to request permission to

restart Unit 2 and run it at somewhat reduced power, without repairing or replacing the damaged devices.
 

This report assembles national data from inspections of similar replacement steam generators after one cycle of operation.  The conclusion is that both San Onofre Unit 2 and Unit 3 have experienced damage greatly in excess of the typical reactor:
 
• The median number of steam generator tubes nationally showing wear after one cycle of operation is—FOUR.  San Onofre Unit 2 had 1595 damaged tubes,
approximately 400 times the median; San Onofre Unit 3 had 1806.
 
• The median number of indications of wear on steam generator tubes nationally after one cycle of operation is—FOUR.  San Onofre Unit 2 had 4721, greater than a thousand times more.  San Onofre Unit 3 had 10,284.
 
• The median number of steam generator tubes that were plugged after one cycle of operation is—ZERO.  San Onofre Unit 2 had 510; Unit 3 had 807.
 
Additionally, the replacement steam generators at San Onofre Unit 2 and 3 suffer from the same fundamental design errors.  Indeed, the number of damaged tubes in each unit is approximately the same.   
 
The conclusion is clear:


San Onofre Unit 2
and Unit 3 are both
very ill nuclear plants.



Unit 3’s fever is slightly higher, but both are in serious trouble.  What they are experiencing is not just normal wear due to “settling in” purportedly experienced with similar replacement steam generators.  They are far, far outside the norm of national experience.

And Unit 2 cannot be said to be acceptable for restart, any more than Unit 3. 

Unit 2 has hundreds of times more bad tubes and a thousand times more indications of wear on those tubes than the typical reactor in the country with a new steam generator, and nearly five times as many plugged tubes as the rest of the replacement steam generators, over a comparable operating period, in the country combined.

Restarting either San Onofre reactor with crippled steam generators that have not been repaired or replaced would be a questionable undertaking at best.


Each San Onofre reactor has greater than a thousand times as many indications of wear on the tubes than the typical reactor in its first cycle of operation.  And each San Onofre unit has had to plug more tubes than all replacement steam generators nationwide combined.


“San Onofre Unit 2 and 3 are both very ill nuclear plants.
 They are far, far outside the norm of national experience,”


writes Daniel Hirsch, President of the Committee to Bridge the Gap and the reports co-author. 

“Restarting either San Onofre reactor with crippled steam generators that have not been repaired or replaced would be a questionable undertaking at best.”

Source: Committee to Bridge the Gap (http://www.committeetobridgethegap.org/pdf/CBG-SanOnofreReport.pdf)

Source: Dow Jones  (http://www.4-traders.com/EDISON-INTERNATIONAL-12435/news/Edison-International-U-S-Regulator-California-Nuclear-Plant-Will-Be-Offline-for-Months-15194915/)

Source:  San Diego Source (http://www.sddt.com/News/article.cfm?SourceCode=20120912czb&_t=Edison+to+file+restart+plan+for+San+Onofre+unit+in+October)
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: zorgon on December 05, 2012, 02:01:52 pm
So.  If it has a patent (which was not easily available in a prior art search - the inventor did do a search) W(here)TF is this invention?

Well to begin to find that would require knowing WHAT it is/was. Without more detail there is no way to begin a search.

So lets start with the court case... surely there is mention in the case WHICH patent he is being charged with infringing upon?  Court cases are public record..

So give us some names and locations to follow up on and I can search out that patent
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: Amaterasu on December 06, 2012, 10:30:25 am
Well to begin to find that would require knowing WHAT it is/was. Without more detail there is no way to begin a search.

So lets start with the court case... surely there is mention in the case WHICH patent he is being charged with infringing upon?  Court cases are public record..

So give us some names and locations to follow up on and I can search out that patent

Sadly, I have lost touch with My friend - He got fed up and took off for parts unknown.  And I am so bad with names, I don't remember.  Be that as it may, I think it is a fair assessment to say free energy solutions have been hidden and suppressed - actively and aggressively.

So One may presume a fair probability of the truth of My friend's information.
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: thorfourwinds on January 25, 2013, 01:15:27 pm
Nightmare of Nuclear Waste | San Onofre Safety (http://sanonofresafety.org/2013/01/16/nightmare-of-nuclear-waste/)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk5ai0gOQHU

This video was published May 30th 2012 by rumorecurioso.

"This is a good educational video for everyone,
cause it makes you read it, so it sticks in your head,
way better than just listening to it.

For me it does anyway."

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Bluebird/lg50aa500a.gif)

Peace Love Light
tfw
     

Liberty & Equality or Revolution
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: thorfourwinds on May 02, 2013, 10:08:40 am
(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/1-15%20May%202013/SanOnofreInsider.png)



San Onofre Insider Says NRC Should Not Allow Nuclear Restart (Video)  (http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/135560/San_Onofre_insider_says_NRC_should_not_allow_nuclear_restart_10News/)

For the first time, a source from inside the San Onofre nuclear power plant has come forward to warn that restarting the power plant is too dangerous.


“There is something grossly wrong,” said the inside source, a safety engineer who worked at San Onofre and has 25 years in the nuclear field. [...]

Quote
He wants to remain anonymous because he told Team 10 he fears for his safety.

“When they made these changes, they did not look at the academic research nor use critical question and an investigative attitude,”

said the source.

The anonymous insider and (Dr. Joe Hopenfeld (http://libertariancrier.com/insider-reveals-san-diego-nuclear-plant-is-to-dangerous/), a former employee of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission] said if there is a main steam line break, there is potential for the reactor core to overheat – which could mean a full or partial meltdown. [...]



(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/1-15%20May%202013/SanOnofreBlueBeach.jpg)

Surfers catch waves in the shadows of the San Onofre nuclear plant.
(Photo: digitizedchaos/ Flickr)


Published on Friday, April 26, 2013 by Common Dreams (http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/04/26-1)


San Onofre Whistleblower Cites "Potentially Catastrophic" Design Flaw

Inside source tells local news channel that cracked generator pipes at nuclear power plant could cause a full or partial meltdown

- Lauren McCauley, staff writer

Quote
A former safety engineer with the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is blowing the whistle on a "potentially catastrophic problem" at the currently offline Southern California Edison plan.

According to a report by San Diego's Channel 10 News, the unnamed source—who has 25 years working in the field of nuclear safety—said that a faulty redesign of the plant's steam generators has put the system at risk of a "full or partial meltdown."

"There is something grossly wrong," he told the news station.

Quote
Since Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) undertook a redesign of the generators in 2010 and 2011, the tubes that carry scalding water and steam from the generator have been crashing into one another creating cracks and "unprecedented tube failure."


Of 19,400 tubes, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) report found more than 17 percent were damaged...


"Many tubes, and I don't know how many, have exhausted their fatigue life—they have no fatigue life left,"

Hopenfeld added.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's a very serious risk."

Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: thorfourwinds on May 02, 2013, 11:12:17 am
As The Worm Turns...



(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/1-15%20May%202013/360.png)



San Diego 6 - San Onofre Nuclear Plant Owners May Retire Reactors (http://www.sandiego6.com/story/san-onofre-nuclear-plant-owners-may-retire-reactors-20130430)


SAN DIEGO (CNS) - The majority owner and operator of the idled San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station will consider permanently closing one or both reactors if proposals to restart one of its units are denied by regulators, it was reported Tuesday.

Quote
Southern California Edison made the announcement in regulatory filings and on a conference call with analysts, U-T San Diego reported. The newspaper said SCE executives blamed uncertainties about rising costs linked to a 15-month outage of the plant.

SCE pegged the price of repairs and inspections at $109 million, with replacement power costs of $444 million, according to the newspaper. A decision on retiring the reactors would come by the end of this year.

The utility has asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to restart Unit 2 at 70 percent power.

The reactor was undergoing scheduled maintenance in January 2012 when a small, non-injury leak was discovered from a steam pressure tube in Unit 3, which was subsequently shut down.

Errrr, not actually:

Quote
Issues with the replacement steam generators -- installed in 2010 and 2011 -- led to a shutdown of the plant that has now stretched on for more than a year. The utilities commission launched an investigation in October into the costs of the outage, which could eventually lead to money being refunded to customers.


Quote
Neither reactor has operated since.

A decision from the NRC could come within the next month or so. The commission has promised to hold a public meeting in Southern California first, and said it would only grant approval for a restart if it would be safe.

Anti-nuclear activists and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-San Diego, have blasted the utility's restart plans.

While SCE owns the vast majority of the plant, San Diego Gas & Electric owns 20 percent and receives one-fifth of its power. SDG&E did not immediately comment on the report.
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: Amaterasu on May 03, 2013, 09:11:44 pm
Do We dare approach the possibility that this nuclear nightmare was planned and is being deliberately unsafe?

"Let's run it at only 70% and see what happens." -- The guys who want to restart San Onofre.

Geez.
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: thorfourwinds on June 21, 2013, 05:37:58 pm

Finally: "Inoperative Nuclear Power Plant"


(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/SanOnofreWiki_Inoperative.png)




Southern California's Malfunctioning Nuclear Power Plant to Close Permanently (http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2013/san-onofre-nuclear-plant-06-07-2013.html)

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/CenterForBioDiversityText-700.png)
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: thorfourwinds on June 21, 2013, 06:29:12 pm
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/SanOnofre_Too_Safe_To_Fail.jpg)



FOR THE RECORD


13 June 2013
The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) is an inoperative nuclear power plant located on the Pacific coast of California, in the northwestern corner of San Diego County, south of San Clemente, now planned to be decommissioned. The landmark spherical containment buildings around the reactors are designed to prevent unexpected releases of radiation.

The now-closed facility is owned by Southern California Edison. Edison International, parent of SCE, holds 78.2% ownership in the plant; San Diego Gas & Electric Company, 20%; and the City of Riverside Utilities Department, 1.8%. When fully functional, the plant employed over 2,200 people.[4] The plant is located in Nuclear Regulatory Commission Region IV.

The plant's first unit, Unit 1, operated from 1968 to 1992.[5] Unit 2 was started in 1983 and Unit 3 started in 1984. Upgrades designed to last 20 years were made to the reactor units in 2009 and 2010; however, both reactors had to be shut down in January 2012 due to premature wear found on over 3,000 tubes in the recently replaced steam generators. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is currently investigating the events that led to the closure. In May 2013 Senator Barbara Boxer, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said the modifications had proved to be "unsafe and posed a danger to the eight million people living within 50 miles of the plant,” and she called for a criminal investigation.[6]

Southern California Edison announced on June 7, 2013 that it would "permanently retire" Unit 2 and Unit 3, citing "continuing uncertainty about when or if SONGS might return to service" and noting that ongoing regulatory and "administrative processes and appeals" would likely cause any tentative restart plans to be delayed for "more than a year." The company stated that "Full retirement of the units prior to decommissioning will take some years in accordance with customary practices. Actual decommissioning will take many years until completion."[7]

Unit 1, a first generation Westinghouse pressurized water reactor that operated for 25 years, closed permanently in 1992, and has been dismantled and is used as a storage site for spent fuel.[8] It had a spherical containment of concrete and steel with the smallest wall being 6 feet (1.8 m) thick. It generated 456 MWe gross, and 436 MWe net, when operating at 100% capacity.[9]

Units 2 and 3, Combustion Engineering two-loop pressurized water reactors, generated 1,127 MWe gross, and 1,070 MWe and 1,080 MWe net respectively, when operating at 100% capacity.[9]

In a ten-year project completed in 2011 and costing $671 million, Edison replaced the steam generators in both reactors with improved Mitsubishi steam generators. Because of the reactors' two-loop design, uncommon for large reactors of that era, the steam generators are amongst the largest in the industry.

A common shortcoming of these large steam generators was tube wear, leading to replacement being required earlier than their 40-year design life.[10] The steam generators are the largest components in the reactor, and installing them required cutting a temporary hole in the concrete containment shell. The Unit 2 replacement was completed in 2009 and Unit 3 in 2011. The company estimated that the modernization would save customers $1 billion during the plant's current license period, which ran until 2022.[11][12]

During its operation, SONGS provided about 20% of the power to large portions of Southern California.[13]


Safety issues
The San Onofre station has had technical problems over the years.

In the July 12, 1982 edition of Time states, "The firm Bechtel was ... embarrassed in 1977, when it installed a 420-ton nuclear-reactor vessel backwards" at San Onofre.[14]  :P

In 2008, the San Onofre plant received multiple citations over issues such as failed emergency generators, improperly wired batteries and falsified fire safety data.[15][16] Early in 2011, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued its annual review of the plant, identifying improvements but noting that in the area of human performance, "corrective actions to date have not resulted in sustained and measurable improvement”.[15]

According to the NRC, workers at San Onofre are "afraid they will be retaliated against if they bring up safety problems, something that's against the rules".[17] As of 2011, according to the NRC, there has been progress on the issue. So far, the problems have not threatened the safety of plant workers or the public.[17] In November 2011, there was an ammonia leak, where as a precaution company employees were evacuated from the area where the leak was found; units continued normal operation.[18]

In a mid-cycle inspection report, conducted from July 2011 to June 2012, it revealed a few surprises including three incidents relating to human performance; an additional issue found a failure to develop procedures for a "cyber security analysis of electronic devices" that was later corrected.[19]


Environmental risk and mitigation.
Southern California Edison states the station was "built to withstand a 7.0 magnitude earthquake directly under the plant".[20] Additionally, there is a 25-foot tsunami wall to protect the plant from a rogue wave that could be potentially generated by the active fault 5 miles offshore.[21] The closest tectonic fault line is the Christianitos fault, which is considered inactive or "dead".[22]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at San Onofre was 1 in 58,824, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.[23][24]

S. David Freeman, the former head of the California Power Authority and "a longtime anti-nuclear voice",[25] has described San Onofre (and Diablo Canyon) as "disasters waiting to happen: aging, unreliable reactors sitting near earthquake fault zones on the fragile Pacific Coast, with millions or hundreds of thousands of Californians living nearby".[26]

Unlike many pressurized water reactors, but like some other seaside facilities in Southern California, the San Onofre plant used seawater for cooling, and thus lacks the large cooling towers typically associated with nuclear generating stations. However, changes to water-use regulations may have required construction of such cooling towers in the future to avoid further direct use of seawater.

Limited available land next to SONGS would likely have required towers to be built on the opposite side of Interstate 5.[27]

Additionally, more than 4,000 tons
of radioactive waste are stored at San Onofre.
[28]


Surrounding population
The NRC defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants: 1) a plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of 10 miles (16 km), concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and 2) an ingestion pathway zone of about 50 miles (80 km), concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity.[29]

The average prevailing westward wind direction at San Onofre blows inland 9 months of the year.[30]

The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of San Onofre was 92,687, an increase of 50.0 percent in a decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data for msnbc.com. The 2010 U.S. population within 50 miles (80 km) was 8,460,508, an increase of 14.9 percent since 2000.[31]

Three of the cities within 20 miles of the facility are San Clemente and Laguna Beach in Orange County and Oceanside in San Diego County.[32][33] San Diego is 45 miles south of the facility, and Los Angeles is 60 miles north of the facility.[34]


Anti-nuclear protests
See also: Anti-nuclear movement in California

On August 6, 1977, about a thousand anti-nuclear protesters marched outside the nuclear generation station, while units 2 & 3 were under construction.[35] On June 22, 1980, about 15,000 people attended a protest near San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.[36]

On March 11, 2012, more than 200 activists protested at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station to mark the one-year anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Speakers included two Japanese residents who lived through the Fukushima meltdowns and Raymond Lutz. The generators had been offline since January 2012, and speakers said they should remain off.[37] Environmental and anti-nuclear activists gathered at Southern California Edison's Irvine headquarters in May 2012 calling for the San Onofre plant to be decommissioned.[38]


2012 shutdown and subsequent closure
Initial shutdown
Unit 2 was shut down in early January 2012 for routine refueling and replacement of the reactor vessel head.[39] On January 31, 2012, Unit 3 suffered a small radioactive leak largely inside the containment shell, with a very small release to the environment below allowable limits, and the reactor was shut down per standard procedure.[40][41]

On investigation, both units were found to show premature wear on over 3,000 tubes, in 15,000 places, in the replacement steam generators installed in 2010 and 2011.[42] Plant officials pledged not to restart the units until the causes of the tube leak and tube degradation were understood.[39]

Neither unit was ever restarted. There were no blackouts due to the lack of SONGS electricity; however, more pollution was caused due to the use of natural gas plants used to make up for the power generation, and the additional cost has led to higher utility bills.[43]

In March 2012, former nuclear power executive Arnold Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates prepared a report that argued that "design modifications in the newly installed steam generators, such as different alloy for the tubes, led to problems at the plant". According to Gundersen's report, the shutdown in 2012 was due to poor design of the replacement steam generators that included many design changes that were not reviewed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.[44]


NRC response
On March 27, 2012, the NRC issued a Confirmatory Action Letter (CAL) forbidding the plant to be reopened until the causes of its equipment problems are thoroughly understood and fixed.[45][46] At the same time, Irvine Councilman Larry Agran called for the plant to be decommissioned, saying it should be decommissioned safely and as soon as possible.[28]

Concerns include “nuclear waste stored at the plant, health hazards from radioactive material, and inadequate evacuation plans”. Agran also said that the plant threatened all of Southern California. Resolutions passed in neighboring cities Laguna Beach and San Clemente called for safer and more secure waste storage. San Clemente voted to request public information about radiation levels near the plant. Bob Steins, spokesman for Edison International, said “the company will work to prepare detailed responses to council and community member questions and concerns”.[28]

In April 2012, in a sign of mounting concern over the shutdown, NRC Chairman, Gregory Jaczko, toured the facility with Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, and U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican.[47]

In May 2012, two retired natural gas electrical generators were brought back online to help replace the lost power generation capacity: the Huntington Beach Power Station, which produces 440MW of power,[48][49] and the Encina Power Station which provides 965MW; coupled with new conservation measures, this has helped keep power available to San Diego and Riverside counties.[50]

Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher declared in May 2012 that San Onofre was safe but outdated and should be replaced with a modern high-tech reactor, "not because of how unsafe it is right now, but because we can be safer and more efficient.”[51]  :P

Responding to the idea of replacing SONGS with solar power, retired physics and astronomy professor Dennis Silverman, of the University of California, Irvine,[52] has calculated it would require a facility that would be 20 square miles large, ten times larger than Orange County Great Park, and would cost $44 billion dollars.[53]

In June 2012 the environmental group Friends of the Earth filed a legal petition with the NRC, asking that any decision to restart SONGS be considered a de-facto license amendment requiring an adjudicatory public hearing, rather than a decision by the NRC commissioners. SCE and NRC Staff filed statements opposing the petition.[54][46]

In July 2012 the NRC issued its final report, identifying ten issues that need followup and stating “the plant will not be permitted to restart until the licensee has developed a plan to prevent further steam generator tube degradation and the NRC independently verifies that it can be operated safely."[55]

As of July 2012, the cost related to the shutdown had reached $165 million, with $117 million of that being the purchasing of power from other sources to replace the output of the plant.[56] As a result, the Chairman of Edison International Ted Craver stated that there is a possibility that reactor 3 might be scrapped as "It is not clear at this time whether Unit 3 will be able to restart without extensive additional repairs".[56]

In August 2012, Southern California Edison announced plans to lay off one-third, or 730, of the plants employees; the company said that the downsizing of the plant staff was planned more than two years ago. Rochelle Becker of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility said that the layoffs showed that the company was not being honest about their plans for the power plant.[4][57] Due to the shutdown, the NRC ended requirements to monitor non-operating systems.[19]

In September 2012, Allison Macfarlane, the NRC Chairwoman, said that plant would be down for a prolonged period, and that the fuel from Unit 3 would be removed in September 2012, due to significant damage to the unit.[58]

On October 3, 2012, SCE submitted a "Unit 2 Return to Service Report" to the NRC. SCE stated it had taken corrective actions, such as plugging worn tubes and preventively plugged additional tubes. SCE proposed a restart while administratively limiting Unit 2 to 70% power, intended to prevent excessive tube vibration, until a mid-cycle inspection within 150 days of operation.[46][59]

SCE reported that most of the excessive wear was in limited areas, due to higher speed and drier steam than computer modeling had predicted, and inadequate tube support at the U-bend. Analysis had concluded operating at 70% power would eliminate the conditions that caused excessive wear.[60]

On November 8, 2012, the NRC decided to refer the Friends of the Earth hearing request to the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.[46] By November 2012, the cost of the outage was over $300 million,[61] and discussion of restarting Unit 2 has been postponed;[62] in December 2012, the last of the four old steam generators were transported to Clive, Utah for disposal.[63]

In February 2013, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission asked the steam generator manufacturer, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, to provide a redacted version of a report on the plant's steam generators for publication. The report described the changes made in the replacement steam generator, which included the removal of a support cylinder and changes to the tube support plates and anti-vibration bars, and the addition of about 400 tubes.[64][65]


Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruling
On May 13, 2013, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board issued its decision on the Friends of the Earth hearing request filed in June 2012.[66][67] It determined the current NRC process on this issue constituted a de-facto license amendment requiring an adjudicatory public hearing, for three independent reasons:[46]

   1.   the SCE proposal to limit unit 2 to 70% power is inconsistent with the license, so constitutes an amendment;

   2.   unit 2 cannot safely operate within the full license scope, so the license needs to be amended;

   3.   restarting the plant with the steam generator tubes in the current degraded state is outside historical experience, and the proposal to operate them at 70% power for a limited duration before re-inspection constituted the regulatory definition of "tests or experiments", requiring a license amendment.

The Los Angeles Times reported that "Edison has signaled it may shut the plant down for good" should the company not be allowed to restart one of the reactors at 70% of capacity.[68]

On May 28, 2013, Senator Barbara Boxer asked that the United States Justice Department investigate possible malfeasance by Edison officials, and released a 2004 letter by an Edison executive that expressed worries that the new steam generators, though similar, would not be "like for like" replacements and could lead to the same kind of potential "disastrous" issues that in fact led to the plant's shutdown in 2012.

In making the request for a possible criminal investigation, Boxer's statement said

"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."

Edison denied any wrongdoing.[68][69]


Plant closure
On June 7, 2013, Southern California Edison announced it would "permanently retire" Unit 2 and Unit 3, ending their attempt to restart the plant at a reduced capacity. The utility said it would cut the SONGS workforce from about 1,500 to some 400 employees, with most reductions "expected to occur in 2013."

The company also said it would "pursue recovery of damages from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the supplier of the replacement steam generators",[7][70] although the contract limited liability to $138 million and excluded consequential damages.[60] The chief executive of Edison International explained that the current licenses expire in 2022, and with post-Fukushima requirements, which include re-evaluating earthquake vulnerability, it was uncertain renewal would be economic, so it made little sense making costly and politically difficult repairs now that would not make a return on investment before 2022.[71]

California Senator Dianne Feinstein signaled approval of the decision to permanently close the plant, stating "I firmly believe this is the right thing to do for the more than 7 million Californians who live within 50 miles of San Onofre."

However, Representative Darrell Issa, whose voting district includes the nuclear station, was more downbeat, saying "Our communities now face the loss of employment for more than a thousand highly skilled workers and an essential local source of low-cost, clean energy."

Issa also pledged to work to improve the prospects for nuclear power nationwide.

In contrast, Sierra Club Director Kathryn Phillips applauded the move, saying in a statement that

"We hope, especially, that the utilities will take this opportunity to help get more locally generated renewable energy, such as rooftop solar, into their portfolios."[72]


(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Bluebird/lg50aa500a.gif)
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: thorfourwinds on June 23, 2013, 12:44:53 pm
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/AceHoffmanTweet_23june13.png)
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: thorfourwinds on June 23, 2013, 06:04:46 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFJijaAY7Pw

San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant Finally Permanently Shut Down !


Published on Jun 7, 2013
Southern California Edison announced Friday it would shut down the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant.

The move comes 17 months after the San Onofre plant was closed because of problems in steam generator systems. The plant powered about 1.4 million households in Southern California before the outage.

?Until now, Edison had vowed to restart the plant. But the company released a statement Friday saying it would stop the process to fire up the plant.

Q&A: Why is it closing and what will it cost?

"We have concluded that the continuing uncertainty about when or if [the plant] might return to service was not good for our customers, our investors, or the need to plan for our region's long-term electricity needs,"

said Ted Craver, chairman and chief executive of Edison International, parent company of SCE.

SCE President Ron Litzinger said in a statement:

"Looking ahead, we think that our decision to retire the units will eliminate uncertainty and facilitate orderly planning for California's energy future."
Title: Re: San Onofre - America's Fukushima?
Post by: thorfourwinds on June 24, 2013, 08:43:58 am
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/SO_Nuclear-Waste-700.jpg)



San Onofre is Dead, the Nuclear Waste Isn’t | DiaNuke.org (http://www.dianuke.org/san-onofre-is-dead-the-nuclear-waste-isnt/)

8 June 2013

Ace Hoffman | CounterPunch (http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/07/san-onofre-is-dead-the-nuclear-waste-isnt/)

I think Edison deserves credit for making a wise decision to permanently close the San Onofre nuclear plant. I support the decision. It’s good for business, good for California, good for the environment. It’s the correct engineering decision to make. San Onofre was irreparably damaged by vibration.

Unfortunately we are now left with one of the largest, most concentrated nuclear waste piles on the planet. This will be an eternal problem, but thankfully it is no longer a growing problem and is becoming safer by the day. It will take millions of years — not just days — to be safe, but at least we are headed in the right direction.

The employees of San Onofre have been honorable opponents and I hope they all find jobs in the solar and wind technology energy sectors. However, the investigations should proceed, at the state level, at the federal level, and at the personal level, we should all continue to ask why nuclear power is used anywhere?

Diablo Canyon is next on my personal radar.


Note: The letter shown below, from Pete Dietrich this morning to SanO employees, suggests that the real reason SCE is closing San Onofre Nuclear Waste Generating Station is because of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board’s involvement in the case.

The ASLB would not be looking into the problems at San Onofre Nuclear Waste Generating Station if Friends of the Earth (FOE) hadn’t pushed the issue with carefully-planned legal actions.

FOE deserves enormous credit for their role in this event. Southern California narrowly avoided its own Fukushima on January 12th, 2012. Eight tubes in Unit three were worn enough to fail pressure tests, and one tube in Unit two was 90% worn. Unexpected vibration had done them in.

But with bullheaded determination, SCE tried to restart anyway. The 70% plan has been lingering around since nearly the beginning of the outage. Some restart plan, any restart plan.

But first, FOE hired Arnie Gundersen to look into the matter, who is a world-renowned expert in steam generator technology, and then they hired a slew of other experts to confirm his findings. Independent experts, independent, that is, of SCE, NRC, and FOE also confirmed that SanO’s u-tubes were beyond repair. But Arnie did the hard discovery work first. Then he explained it again and again, to activists, reporters, and regulators.

Arnie Gundersen is a hero to science and reason.

?===============================================


Quote
FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

To: SONGS Employees and Supplemental Workers

It is with a heavy heart that I share with you SCE’s decision to permanently retire both Units 2 and 3. I recognize this difficult announcement is something none of us wanted to hear, but our decision is absolutely the right thing to do. The tough reality is that the recent Atomic Safety and Licensing Board decision creates significant additional uncertainty regarding our ability to get to an NRC decision to restart Unit 2 this year. This is not good for our customers, our investors and the region.

I could not be prouder of you, the men and women who have put their hearts and souls into addressing the steam generator and the dual unit outages, all the while working safely every day. Indeed, SONGS has served this region well for more than 40 years and each of you has played a role in it.

I recognize how difficult this news is for everyone at SONGS. Today, we will be conducting a series of All Hands meetings so I can talk face-to-face with you about what this means for us as a station, and for you.
Meeting times are listed below, and I would ask that you please attend the session for your division.

I will do my best to answer your questions, but will tell you up front, I do not yet have all the answers.

More information will be solidified over the next week, but I believe it is important for us to get together and discuss this news. We will work diligently, as we have before, to get answers to your questions. We will treat everyone with dignity and respect, using a process that is fair, legal and ethical.

This morning, Edison International CEO Ted Craver, and other executives, including Ron Litzinger and myself, are holding an investor briefing to inform the financial community and the media of our decision.

Below is the company’s press statement. Indeed, we can all anticipate a robust media cycle to follow.

I want to emphasize some aspects of what today’s decision does not affect. We hold a NRC license that includes many requirements and obligations ­ including our responsibility to protect the health and safety of the public and our employees. As we move forward, we must continue to meet these license requirements as well as all the requirements of our Emergency Plan and Security Plan. I need — and ask for — your continuing support as Nuclear Professionals to ensure we remain as diligent about our responsibilities and obligations as you have demonstrated in the past.

We will have more time to talk in the days ahead, and I look forward to those interactions. But I want to say again how proud I am to be a part of this team, this station. You are the finest employees I have had the privilege to work with and lead. We have important things to accomplish here at SONGS as we prepare for decommissioning, and I know that we will do it together as true Nuclear Professionals. Keep your head up, stay focused on working safely, and never forget our commitment to excellence.

Be proud, but never satisfied!

Pete


Ace Hoffman lives in Carlsbad, California. He is an educational software developer and bladder cancer survivor, as well as a collector of military and nuclear historical documents and books. He is the author and programmer of the award-winning Animated Periodic Table of the Elements. He can be reached at: rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com