What causes 200 pounds of seagulls to die in the first place? This is like the Canary in the Coal mine.
What causes 200 pounds of seagulls to die in the first place? This is like the Canary in the Coal mine. Aren’t they missing the bigger question, besides the impact on a major emergency back up system? There is something wrong with this picture. Next time you drive past the Domes, see how one dome is covered with seagull poo and the other is not. Nobody is out there cleaning the domes. This can be seen over the years in various photos. What is going on with the birds that the NRC has so ineptly pointed out?
EXCERPT:
On Dec. 21, inspectors found water streaming into a building housing a backup diesel generator that provides power to pumps and valves in case of a plant power failure. “Degraded and clogged roof drains” had allowed rainwater to build up during recent storms. However, a plastic tent kept the water from reaching the electrical equipment.
“There were dead birds up on the roof. It was 200 pounds of dead seagulls,” Dricks said, (NRC spokesman Victor Dricks).
FULL STORY:
NRC says San Onofre plant
can withstand quake
BY ROBERT JABLON
Associated Press
512 words
02:34 pm, 05/19/2011
Associated Press Newswires
English
(c) 2011. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The San Onofre
nuclear
generating station on the Southern California coast is at extremely low
risk of a meltdown in an earthquake, federal regulators concluded in
their
first inspection report since the tsunami that badly damaged a nuclear
plant in Japan.
Inspections in March and April
found a few
problems at the plant between Los Angeles and San Diego, including some
manholes leading to tunnels housing electric cables that were not
watertight
because of damaged seals.
However, the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission
inspectors determined the plant is prepared to deal with fires and
flooding
in a major disaster, according to a report issued last week.
“The plant was found to have no
major
deficiencies, is indeed ready to withstand major earthquake and tsunami
threats,” Gil Alexander, a spokesman for plant operator Southern
California
Edison, said Thursday.
Federal regulators inspected all
U.S. nuclear
plants in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan that
caused radiation leaks at the Fukushima nuclear plant, forcing 80,000
people
to leave their homes.
Three problems considered to have
“very
low safety significance” were found at the plant during first-quarter
inspections in 2010 and early this year but they were resolved,
according
to another NRC report released May 5.
A commission report released
earlier mentioned
some problems at the plant, including roof drains clogged with 200
pounds
of dead seagulls.
In September, inspectors discovered
that
employees had hooked up a water tank to a spent-fuel storage pool
cooling
system that was not built to weather an earthquake.
“In doing so, they rendered the
tank
inoperable and in the event of a severe accident, water would not be
available
for a key cooling system,” NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said.
There were other means of supplying
cooling
water to the pool and to the nuclear reactor, but the problem “affected
the operability of a key safety system,” Dricks said.
On Dec. 21, inspectors found water
streaming
into a building housing a backup diesel generator that provides power to
pumps and valves in case of a plant power failure.
“Degraded and clogged roof drains”
had allowed rainwater to build up during recent storms. However, a
plastic
tent kept the water from reaching the electrical equipment.
“There were dead birds up on the
roof.
It was 200 pounds of dead seagulls,” Dricks said.
The drains were finally cleaned the
next
month.
The water didn’t damage the
generator and
the utility had increased drain inspections to prevent a recurrence of
the problem, Alexander said.
In February, workers failed to
report that
an immersion heater used to keep oil for the backup generators fluid was
removed from service and no temporary replacement measures had been
taken.
San Onofre’s first-quarter
performance showed
improvement over previous periods but “we are not satisfied,”
Alexander said.
“Regulators and we are always
looking
for areas where we can enhance safety and there were some ideas … that
we’re already working on,” he said.