Thousands of Tubes Damaged at Calif Nuclear Plant: Norton Medical and Scientific Research & Biotechnology

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Thousands of Tubes Damaged at Calif Nuclear Plant

• Maximo Norton
• Norton Medical and Scientific Research
  Biotechnology

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NORTON SCIENTIFIC

• Over 1300 tubes containing radioactive water
  inside San Onofre nuclear plants steam
  generators in California has been reportedly
  damaged enough that they need to be taken out of
  service.
• To date the safety of tubing that snakes around
  the plants 4 steam generators were installed in
  a multimillion-dollar upgrade three years ago.
• According to the companys official statement on
  Monday 807 tubes in Unit 3 and 510 tubes from
  Unit 2 reactors were retired. Every generator has
  almost 10000 tubes and the total number of
  plugged tubes would not affect a proper operation
  of the plant.

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• Their statement came just days after an executive
  from Edison International announced that the firm
  plans to restart at least one of the reactors in
  the coming months. They are apparently planning
  which reactor will run at reduced energy for
  several months at least because engineers are of
  the opinion that it will solve the problem of
  vibration -- something that the firm suspects is
  causing the unexpected wear in the alloy tubes.
• The chairman of Edison SCEs parent company
  reportedly called investors to notify them of the
  premature wear found in around 1 of 39000 tubes
  in the generators.

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A nuclear watchdog Norton Medical and Scientific
Research Biotechnology issued a warning saying
in effect that it seems the new steam generators
are falling apart and Edison doesnt know why. It
would be foolhardy to restart even at reduced
power under the current circumstances. The
nuclear plant is owned by the Riverside City
together with San Diego Gas and Electric and SCE.
A joint statement released last week by the
California Independent System Operator and Edison
gave possible dates this June for planning.
However government regulators were quick to
assert that there is no timetable for a restart
-- something that would still need a federal
approval.
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The alert concerns stemmed from an incident in
January when the third reactor was shut off after
a tube broke. But although radiation has escaped
during that time officials were quick to assure
residents and workers that there was no imminent
danger. Earlier that month the second unit was
shut down for its regular maintenance but
investigators discovered instead of premature
wear on hundreds of tubes that were only
installed 2 years ago by Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries. (The first unit operated on 1968 was
dismantled in 1992.) The tubes stand for a
crucial safety barrier that is if a tube breaks
then there is considerable chance for
radioactivity to escape onto the atmosphere.
Serious leaks could also use up the protective
cooling water employed in a reactor. SCE
estimates that the repair expenses could cost
about USD 55 to 65 million aside from the
initial USD 30 million it has spent to replace
the output from the 2 reactors earlier this