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Human error at San Onofre nuclear plant
July 28th, 2008, 3:00 am · 17 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
The nuclear power plant in your back yard, San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, has some “substantive” issues with human performance.
In 2007, Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors logged:
- nine findings of human performance problems (”failing to provide adequate procedures or work instructions”)
- and another eight findings tied to “problem identification and resolution” (”failing to thoroughly evaluate problems such that the resolutions address causes”).
In a letter to San Onofre’s bigwigs, the NRC said: “To address these problems, we understand your staff has developed a performance improvement plan. However, implementation of these actions has not been effective in addressing this issue.”
All 17 of the NRC’s findings had “very low safety significance,” though, the NRC says. (Feel better?!)
The Watchdog will be detailing San Onofre’s inspection reports in this space in the coming weeks. In the meantime, the NRC will hold a public meeting on San Onofre’s safety record at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 31, at the Country Plaza Inn, 35 Via Pico Plaza, San Clemente.
Not only will NRC staff be there, but reps from Southern California Edison - the company that runs San Onofre - will be there as well. Folks can ask questions and everything.
Read the current performance information on San Onofre here and here.
For highlights from the NRC’s Annual Assessment Letter on San Onofre, keep reading.
- “Overall, San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station…operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety….”
- “The NRC staff has identified a substantive crosscutting issue in the human performance area at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. There were a total of nine Green findings (green is the lowest level finding) with crosscutting aspects in the human performance area….. involving instances of failing to provide adequate procedures or work instructions. Four Green findings were related to this theme, affecting the Mitigating Systems and Barrier Integrity cornerstones. Examples of these included: a failure of operations personnel to address high offsite power voltage on multiple occasions, inadequate procedures to establish temporary ventilation in the safety-related switchgear rooms when the normal ventilation system was out of service, and inadequate procedures for installation of a feedwater isolation valve hydraulic pump discharge filter housing. To address these problems, we understand your staff has developed a performance improvement plan. However, implementation of these actions has not been effective in addressing this issue.”
- “The NRC staff has also identified a substantive crosscutting issue in the problem identification and resolution area at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. There were a total of eight Green findings with crosscutting aspects in the problem identification and resolution area…. involving instances failing to thoroughly evaluate problems such that the resolutions address causes and extent of conditions. Six Green findings were related to this theme, affecting the Mitigating Systems cornerstone. Examples of these included: a failure to promptly identify and correct the formation of gas pockets in the piping of the Units 2 and 3 component cooling water systems, ineffective corrective actions for a failed control room annunciator for actuation of the backup nitrogen supply to the instrument air system, and a failure to prevent recurrence of premature tripping of … thermal overloads used for equipment protection on safety-related equipment. To address these problems, we understand your staff has developed a performance improvement plan. However, full implementation of these actions is not yet complete. “
The NRC will focus its inspections on these “substantive crosscutting issues” until it determines that the problems have been addressed.
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The biggest problem with human performance is that it is reliably unreliable. It is frightening to have the power plant in my back yard but that is the price you have to pay to live in South County. I moved here knowing the risk. I would like to state my fears and perhaps an area that the NRC should address. As a young girl, I had a step father that worked at the power plant. He was involved in supervision and was a welder. He was a full blown alcoholic. I would believe that he would have been under the influence at just about any given day or time. He could mask it well. He was never arrested for a dui. I would guess a lot of people on his crew were big drinkers too. I moved out of state and by the time I returned, he was retired. I felt relieved to know that he would not be working at a nuclear plant. Now I look back and he reminds me of Homer Simpson although this is not funny. He and my mom divorced so I never followed up with his company on it but as an adult I was often contemplating it. What kind of driniking/ drug policy do they have today?
Homer Simpson would be proud
Yet another panicky, the-sky-is-falling story from the Register. This plant is safe and clean and the record shows it. Perhaps the so-called “Watchdog” would rather have a sulfur-and-ash-belching coal burner down at the beach instead? Or even better yet, how about an oil fired plant burning $150 a barrel fuel?
Nice job on the lead photo, BTW. I appreciate how the containment domes in the background echo the symmetry of the surfer girl’s, um, “domes”.
…Duho!
nuclear energy is less safe in the hands of edison who was slapped with a $200 million fine for falsifying records and had to give up $40 million in illegally obtained tax credits in the state of nevada.
The proper expression is; DOH !
And if Californians weren’t so myopic, there would be more clean-power nuclear generating stations. Nobody seems concerned that this station will be shut down in the future if the fuel rods cannot be replenished.
This is so typical of Southern California Edison. They falsified their Customer Satisfaction Surveys, Falsified Health and Safety Records, and out of this plant dump Tritium in the Ocean.
t took twenty years for them to address the intake problems associated with this plant also. John Bryson the SCE CEO should go to jail–and not collect his outlandish bonuses.
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Dear cynical:
the policy is zero tolerance. You’d better not go shopping at lunch time and have beer in your trunk when you come back. And yes, they search your trunk upon entering. If you’re seen indulging at a restaurant on your lunch break, you’re subject to immediate dismissal. Policies are very strict and always have been. Oversight and enforcement have redoubled.
Your father-in-law, had he shown up under the influence, would not have lasted long today.
This place is run like NASA.
San Onofre must be shut down to protect the health of OC residents. OC already has some of the highest cancer rates in the U.S. and these have been attributed to San Onofre.
San Onofre is the most dangerous power plant in the United Sates. If it goes into meltdown, which almost did during the fires, the Register won’t be distributing papers, anymore.
Hmmm… Even if your unlinked comment is true, would that be… SKIN CANCER in the OC?
Onofre is situated 10 miles away from anything in OC. Quit being alarmist.