Orange County Register

(Details of May 7 meeting on San Onofre’s safety record below)

Federal regulators will scrutinize San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station more closely over the coming months, since concerns about weaknesses in human performance and problem-solving at the nuclear power plant persist.

“Although SONGS Units 2 and 3 operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety…  the NRC is concerned that continuing performance problems are not being effectively addressed,” says the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual assessment letter to Southern California Edison, the plant’s operator.

This is the third time that these problems have been identified, and that SCE has tried to fix them. San Onofre is among the 17 percent of America’s nuclear reactors requiring more intense attention from federal regulators.

PROBLEMS

San Onofre had 15 green findings (of very low safety significance) and one more serious white finding (of low to moderate safety significance), the NRC said.

That white finding was discovered on March 25, 2008, when SONGS realized that a safety-related battery output breaker - which had been replaced in 2004 - did not have adequate “electrical connection integrity” (and hadn’t had it for four years). Which meant it might not work in an emergency.

The white finding was for ”the failure to establish appropriate instructions for performing maintenance activities,” the NRC said. “The finding is greater than minor.”

A year ago, the NRC identified a “theme” to problems at the plant: SCE failing to provide adequate procedures or work instructions to its employees. SCE’s attempts to correct the problems haven’t done the trick, the NRC said.

A new “theme” emerged this time around: ”ineffective use of human error prevention techniques,” the NRC said, including operator errors involving reactivity management, and failures to follow procedures during surveillance, troubleshooting and nuclear fuel movement activities.

Read the NRC’s assessment letter  here. More performance information for SONGS  2 is available on the NRC web site here.  Details on SONGS 3 are here.

SOLUTIONS ?

The NRC  has asked SCE to provide a written response describing its corrective plans; to support the public meeting in Dana Point May 7; to perform an independent assessment of the safety culture at SONGS; and to prepare for a white-finding inspection from the NRC.

The NRC will also send “a focused problem identification and resolution team” to inspect SONGS in June “to assess your improvement initiatives” with the human performance and with the electrical equipment, the NRC said. These inspections will be performed by the two NRC resident inspectors assigned to the plant, and by specialists from the regional office in Arlington, Texas.

SCE said its new plant management team “shares the commission’s concern that the pace of change needs to increase. We look forward to explaining to the commission and others who attend this meeting the plant’s performance-improvement plan,” it said in a written statement.

IN PERSPECTIVE, NATIONWIDE

The NRC ’s annual assessment letters went to the nation’s 104 operating commercial nuclear power plants.

• Eighty-three percent of them performed strongly and require no additional inspections.
• The other 17 percent (including SONGS) require more attention:
  • Only one reactor, Unit 3 at Palo Verde (Ariz.), requires the NRC’s highest level of attention. 
  •  Three reactors -  Cooper (Neb.) and Units 1 and 2 at Palo Verde (Ariz.), require “significant” NRC attention.
  • Another 14 - including SONGS 2 - “will get some additional attention beyond the basic level.” 

HASHING IT ALL OUT

The NRC will hold public meetings on San Onofre’s performance on Thursday, May 7.  That’ll be in the Trestles Room at the Doubletree Guest Suites Doheny Beach, 34402 Pacific Coast Highway, Dana Point. Here’s the schedule:

• An “informal open house” will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., where NRC staffers will answer questions on San Onofre’s safety performance and the NRC’s role in ensuring safe operation.
• From 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., NRC staff will meet with SCE staff to discuss the 2008 safety assessment of San Onofre. The NRC will answer questions from the public after the formal portion of the meeting is concluded.

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