To: oshsb@hq.dir.ca.gov
From: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
Subject: Crane safety statistics request /report on accident at San Onofre June 1st, 2001
Cc: graydavis@governor.ca.gov, California Senators
To: California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB)
From: Russell Hoffman
cc: Governor Gray Davis, Senators Feinstein and Boxer
Re:Crane safety statistics request / report on accident at San Onofre June 1st, 2001
Date June 7th, 2001
To the Board:
Here is a report of an incident at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station last Friday in which a 40 ton crane was dropped 40 feet (at least that's how it is being reported in the press now -- I had heard it was a 25 ton crane, dropped 50 feet, but that was an early estimate!).
I spoke to Russ Wiese (I'm not sure of the spelling of the last name; however his email address is rxw@nrc.gov and his phone number is 817.860.8145) at the NRC today who will be participating in an NRC "allegations review board" meeting on Monday in which they will discuss the incident. I asked them to verify when (and if) the licensee notified them about the incident, and also to explain, if this is not a serious incident in the eyes of the NRC (so far there is no incident report that I can find), how the NRC rules on crane usage would have prevented this thing from happening if it had been in the nuclear area or involving nuclear fuel (which was pretty much what Charles Marschall, also at the NRC (817.860.8185), contended in a phone conversation earlier in the week -- that just because this happened is no reason to think it would happen when they are handling nuclear fuel).
I contend it was the same crew who might be handling nuclear fuel in the future, maybe even using the same strap (except that it broke), and probably using the same shop manual and with essentially the same training (my source tells me it is the same crew).
Searching the NRC site, I found another crane "boo boo" at San Onofre from April 21st, 1997 in which a "Control Element Assembly" was bent while being withdrawn from the reactor. "The licensee person watching the load cell apparently became inattentive..." Here's the URL for that report: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/DAILY/970421mr.htm
My report was based on a contact within the plant itself. My allegation is that the plant workers, or the regulations they follow, are not capable of protecting the public and we were LUCKY it was only a crane they were moving and not a dry fuel storage cask or whatnot, and we were LUCKY they didn't drop it in the spent fuel pool or somewhere else catastrophic. All in all, we have been extremely LUCKY that San Onofre has not suffered a serious accident yet, which would have environmental consequences beyond compare for thousands of years affecting the health and well-being of millions of people directly. It has had many other safety violations in the past. The potential for catastrophe is enormous. Yet after this accident, the NRC barely raised an eyebrow (thus far). I hope that the OSHSB will do better. At the very least, please send me as quickly as possible, any statistics you can find on crane safety in California. You can fax them to me at (...).
Thank you in advance and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or wish me to provide such updates as I can on the matter as it unfolds (or as the bottom drops out, as the case may be).
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA
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