Edison Never Told Federal Regulators Of San Onofre Equipment Design Flaw

As reported by KPBS, a watchdog has called for a federal invetigation into Southern CA Edison's having hidden from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), at a 2006 meeting, its knowledge of flaws in the San Onofre Unit 2 & 3 replacement steam generators. A radioactive steam leak from a failed steam generator tube in January 2012 ultimately led to the permanent shutdown of the two reactors in June 2013. Incredibly, Southern California Edison is seeking to charge ratepayers billions of dollars extra for its "lost profits" and other costs related the permanent shutdown, even though it already charged them for the replacement steam generators, that it knew were defective nine years ago!

NRC grants TVA Watts Bar Unit 2 a 40-year operating license 43-years later

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced the issuance of a 40-year operating license 43 years after the Tennessee Valley Authority first made application for the federal license in January 1973.  The Westinghouse Pressurized Water Reactor and Ice Condenser Containment is another 1960’s vintage technology originally conceptualized but abandoned as floating nuclear power plants in the coastal waters off New Jersey and the Gulf of Mexico. The concept required such a thin concrete containment structure to reduce weight on the floating platform that the controversial system was nicknamed “the eggshell containment.” Watts Bar 2 becomes the 10^th PWR to operate on land with the controversial ice condenser design licensed to operate in the United States; Catawba 1 & 2 (NC), Cook 1 & 2 (MI), McGuire 1 & 2 (NC), Sequoyah 1 & 2 (TN) and Watts Bar 1 (TN).

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy authors Sarah Barzack and Don Safer have illuminated the Watts Bar 2 licensing fiasco in a revealing issue of The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

Beyond Nuclear on Solartopia radio show: DYING NUKES THAT TERRIFY US ALL

Solartopia author and radio show host Harvey WassermanBeyond Nuclear's reactor oversight project director, Paul Gunter, and radioactive waste watchdog, Kevin Kamps, joined with Don't Waste Michigan's Michael Keegan on Harvey Wasserman's (photo, left) Solartopia radio show (named after the title of his book) on the Progressive Radio Network. Listen to the audio recording.

(Please note, there may be a minute or two of echo/feedback midway through the show -- just forward through that part.)

Here is Wasserman's summary:

We visit DYING NUKES THAT TERRIFY US ALL with MICHAEL KEEGAN of Don’t Waste Michigan and PAUL GUNTER and KEVIN KAMPS of Beyond Nuclear.

The debate over atomic energy is over.  FUKUSHIMA has shown the world that nuke reactors will explode and destroy whole sections of a country while contaminating oceans.  Germany’s ENERGIEWIND is showing that the transition to 100% renewables can be done quickly, cleanly and profitably.

But we’re left in the US with 99 dying nukes that truly terrify us all.  Starting in Michigan, at Monroe, we deal with Fermi Unit I, which nearly exploded in 1966;  Fermi 2 which is now falling apart; and Fermi 3, which Detroit Edison wants to build at massive ratepayer expense.

We then shift to the truly horrifying Davis-Besse reactor near Toledo, which operated for years with a massive hole in its head, and which has a shield building that’s literally crumbling.  It’s owner wants a $3 billion public bailout to keep endangering all of the Great Lakes region.

We also visit Pilgrim near Boston, which is officially in violation of both NRC production standards and NRC safety standards.  Paul tells that October 10 we will hear a major announcement from Energy, which owns this dying nuke.

Over the coming weeks we will “tour” the national fleet of reactors that need to shut ASAP.  Let’s hope Pilgrim will now lead the way to the end of this insane industry!!!