This is what you need to know: If this radiation leak had not been discovered by a railroad worker, and witnessed by local Hazmat responders, we would probably never know about it.
This is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) report on the recent leak of radioactive water from the failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in a San Bernardino railroad yard. The junked nuclear equipment is owned by Southern California Edison (Edison), which failed to provide a radiation-proof “package” for a 100-ton, 37-foot long pressurizer. Scroll down for illustrations and photos of the pressurizer.
The leak is mentioned as point no. 5 in the report. Full url: NRCRailLEAKviolationsReportSCE-ML24215A313
Description of failure from Page 2 of the Report:
The NRC’s Description of Violation One: “The first violation involved the licensee’s offering of a package for shipment which was not leakproof and properly closed and sealed to prevent release of radioactive content, …”
What Violation One means in plain language:
“Edison threw a 100 ton pressurizer that once handled highly radioactive water from the “hot leg” or “primary loop” of a nuclear reactor onto a flatbed rail car without providing any type of radiation shielding. The walls of the pressurizer are made of six-inch thick steel, and may not have been radioactive, but the device was left out in the open air. Furthermore, Edison did not seal up several small and large holes at the bottom of the pressurizer to prevent the release of radioactive content (i.e. water).”
The NRC’s Description of Violation Two:
“… the second violation involved the licensee not ensuring, by examination or appropriate tests, that the packaging for the Unit 2 pressurizer was proper for the contents being shipped.”
What Violation Two means in plain language: In violation of NRC rules and Department of Energy (DOE) law, Edison shipped a radioactive piece of equipment without “packaging” it. That’s bad, but the fact that there was no packaging means that Edison did not test “the package” for radiation. In fact, they did not bother to examine “the packaging” because there was no packaging to examine.
What the violations mean to Edison:
The NRC has issued a very gentle wrist slap to Edison. There will be no fines. None of Edison’s care-free staff of happy-go-lucky workers will be disciplined or fired.
It is the opinion of Public Watchdogs that the so-called NRC “violations report” is actually a love-letter to the nuclear industry. It is a green light from the NRC that will allow Edison to continue the decommissioning of SONGS in a reckless and cavalier manner.
And that is the way of it.