From: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
Subject: Eugene Wigner, Ed Siegel & Mark Hetherington and others identified it, now it's happening!
FYI -- URGENT:

This letter was sent to several "world-renowned experts" in alloys, embrittlement, Wigner's disease, etc. This is part 1 of a 3-part email.)   Please forward it to politicians, media, etc.  Thank you in advance) -- Russell D. Hoffman, Concerned Citizen

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Dear Sir,

From what we can gather from the newspapers (because the NRC doesn't want to talk about it) (see next two emails containing related newspaper articles)

Just like: Eugene Wigner, Howard Richards, Savage & Nippies, Lai, and Dr. Ed Siegel (ref. to his papers will follow in two accompanying emails), and then Mark Hetherington and others long predicted, and you gentlemen, are world-renowned experts in, these alloys suffer THERMAL INstability in fabrication and/or in service, which is additive to radiation embrittlement. , it looks like INCO 182 transition-weld OVERrageing embrittlement spinodal decomposition is still alive and well and infecting our nuclear power plants, both military (see H.M.S. Tire"less") and the French nuclear submarine S.S.N. Emeraude (See ref. to follow) and now Hamaoka Unit 1 BWR (Toshiba/GE; see Japan Times, Nov. 11th, 17th, and Dec. 5th, 2001 articles to follow, also go to www.japantimes.com, to find Chubo Electric Company's actual photos of their piping failures and weld failures, the recent Davis-Besse [see sequential articles to follow].  Notice what seem to Dr. Seigel as nearly-unbelievably claims of dilute boric acid creating a crevice excavation with root cracking through six inches of Carbon-Manganese Pressure Vessel Steel, which had never been non-destructive tested, relegating 2200 to 2500 PSI super-heated (Beelzebub! ~"666" degrees Fahrenheit water!!!) protection from explosion to austenitic stainless steel (first reported as 3/8s of an inch thick, but then it swelled to 1/2 by the next day (in the reports, that is, having been stretched and thinned in reality).  The liner was blistered / extruded into the opening at the crack tip when it hit the interface when it was discovered on March 11th, 2002.

It seems to Dr. Siegel that that 3/8ths inch of steel was all that protected Sandusky, Cleveland, Columbus, the rest of Ohio, PA, WV, etc. from exposure to massive doses of radioisotopes with no core "meltdown" (a core blowout instead) -- worse than Chernobyl, causing long-term radiological diseases (cancer, leukemia, birth defects) for many generations to come for people living downwind, including as far as Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, etc..  Your families and mine.

Interestingly, the NRC attempted to cover this up from national media, because upon Siegel and myself contacting the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post at the highest levels, no one knew about this "accident waiting to happen".

Siegel's thinking is as follows (and/or):  One is thermal hydrolysis of boric acid breaking up borate anion (BO3) releasing elemental Boron which could replace the carbon in the Fe3C cementite and Mn23C6 carbides in the Pressure Vessel Steel (PVS), converting them to Carbo-borides (Fe3BC) or completely to borides and/or Mn23(B,C)6 or completely to borides (Fe3B) and/or Mn23B6 (with presumably different specific precipitate volumes and/or different precipitate thermal expansion coefficients, slowly wedging crack tip open to propagate crack completely through PVS outer shell (much like water cracking and spalling in cement).  And/or concomitantly boric acid thermal hydrolysis liberated hydrogen diffusing laterally and radially into the PVS, forming either H2 bubbles and/or CH4 and/or gettering carbon from Fe3C to form methane (CH4) bubbles under, again, huge pressures, both cooperating to propagate cracking through ferritic PVS.  If the latter happens, the diffusion of the hydrogen should be as well parallel to PV surface so that hydrogen and/or methane bubbles at quite some distance laterally from initial boric acid drip zone trench.  This could be readily detectable via ultra-sonic pulse-echo NDE at significant distances from boric-acid drip zone trench.

Would appreciate your comments on these two scenarios.

This is of course a lay person's summary of my conversation with Dr. Siegel, who has asked me to alert you to this incident, and who suggests you look at this material with great deliberation and depth, and we would appreciate your making your conclusions known to senator Ed Markey, via his Chief of Staff David Moulton.  Here is his email address:

"David Moulton" <David.Moulton@mail.house.gov>

Please give him your opinions about how boric acid could possibly thermally degrade (etch) a crevice or crack through this ferritic steel, and whether that could be connected with the ubiquitous INCO 182 transition weld "SUPER" alloy, and Inconel-600 control rod sleeves' extensive Wigner's Disease/Ostwald Ripening / OVERageing Embrittlement / Spinodal-Decomposition/Thermal-leading-to-mechanical INstability/"Sensitization" (not hugging trees!)

(Local former workers and current workers at San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant in San Clemente, CA (near Ed and nearer me) have a theory that the crack might have propagated outwards.)

Just in conclusion the fact that the companies won't even look is pretty scary and the NRC isn't requiring immediate nationwide crack testing of similar Pressurized Water Reactors (about 69 of our ~100 reactors are PWRs).

I'm not a metallurgist; however Ed and I have spoken about these issues for scores of hours. We spoke over the phone for several hours about Hamaoka when our conversations on those were interrupted and Davis-Besse became the main concern.  Please spread this around so that others are aware of this incident.

Here is Dr. Siegel's current email address:
"Dr.Ed. Siegel" <tat@tnl-online.com>

The NRC refuses to give Siegel additional information and instead, they have lots of PR and Spin Doctoring, but according to Dr. Siegel, who has spoken to upper, middle, and lower level personnel at the agency, "they haven't technically a clue".  (See article stating "we never envisioned this in our wildest dreams".)  Siegel's gut feeling is that this could be sabotage.  Mine is that it's stupidity, criminal negligence, and/or carelessness, which in the end has nearly amounted to the exact same thing.  But Davis-Besse is just one of many, and none have been looked at properly with NDE.

See Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey's web site for information on infiltration of nuclear power plants, contractors, and possibly the DOE and NRC by Muslim extremists, if not outright terrorists, many with nuclear engineering credentials.

Please forward this to all the people you can, especially politicians and media.

Sincerely,

Russell D. Hoffman
A Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA