Fire and probably an explosion at San Onofre:
What was thrown onto the road? How big and how many pieces?
-- by Russell Hoffman -- June 25th, 2001
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 12:33:09 -0700
To: Local print media (Gary Robbins, Phil Diehl, Bruce Lieberman)
From: Russell Hoffman, Carlsbad, CA
Re: Explosion and fire at San Onofre Sunday, June 24th, 2001
Sirs,
It seems likely, based on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Event Report shown below, that an explosion of some sort probably occurred in addition to the fire, for it to result in "debris" on "old highway 101". And it must have been a fairly significant blaze, since we know the local fire department tries to respond in force to anything they are called to at San Onofre Nuclear (Waste) Generating Station, and even so, it took more than half an hour before the fire was declared out.
I have a few questions:
1) I wonder if there were any arguments between the fire department and the plant workers this time over how to put out the fire, like there were last February?
2) I wonder how big the pieces of debris were than landed on the public roadway, and how many of them there were, and how far they actually flew? Surely one of you has asked; have any of you reported the facts to the public?
3) Although the Event Report says that plant operations were "unaffected" and that both Unit II and Unit III remained at about full-power output, I still wonder: Did that power get through the switchyard to feed the state power grid, or did we loose SON(W)GS' power output, at least for a while? (It's worth noting that one of Diablo Cyn's reactors was at 50% power this weekend as well, because of a "Potential Condenser Leak", according to the NRC's plant status report.)
4) It is interesting that the power plant only provided the NRC with a "courtesy notification" (same level as what they gave the FBI apparently, as well). Obviously then, they were not required to report this incident to the NRC. I wonder if there was any regulatory agency whom they are required to report this accident to? Also, I can't help but wonder: What prompted the plant to decide to make this "courtesy notification" in the first place?
I hope you have each gone out and looked at the situation for yourselves and want to get some answers to these specific questions.
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
>>>>> CLIP FROM TODAY'S NRC EVENT REPORT (San Onofre portion): >>>>>
From today's NRC event report (June 25th, 2001):
http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/DAILY/der.htm
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Power Reactor |Event Number: 38090 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| FACILITY: SAN ONOFRE REGION: 4 |
NOTIFICATION DATE: 06/24/2001|
| UNIT: [] [2] [3] STATE: CA |NOTIFICATION TIME: 19:40[EDT]|
| RXTYPE: [1] W-3-LP,[2] CE,[3] CE |EVENT DATE: 06/24/2001|
+------------------------------------------------+
EVENT TIME: 11:03[PDT]|
| NRC NOTIFIED BY: CLAY WILLIAMS |LAST UPDATE DATE: 06/24/2001|
| HQ OPS OFFICER: LEIGH TROCINE
+-----------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------+
PERSON ORGANIZATION |
|EMERGENCY CLASS: NON EMERGENCY |DAVE LOVELESS R4 |
|10 CFR SECTION: |JOHN ZWOLINSKI NRR |
|NINF INFORMATION ONLY |SCOTT MORRIS EDO | |
|JOSEPH HOLONICH IRO | | |NRR IAT | |
|NMSS IAT
| +-----+----------+-------+--------+-----------------+--------+-----------------+
|UNIT |SCRAM CODE|RX CRIT|INIT PWR| INIT RX MODE |CURR PWR| CURR RX MODE |
+-----+----------+-------+--------+-----------------+--------+-----------------+ |
| |
|2 N Y 100 Power Operation |100 Power Operation |
|3 N Y 100 Power Operation |100 Power Operation |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ EVENT TEXT +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| COURTESY NOTIFICATION REGARDING FAILURE OF THE 'A' PHASE BUS POTENTIAL |
| DEVICE IN THE SWITCHYARD [outside the Protected Area but inside the Owner |
| Controlled Area] |
| |
| The following text is a portion of an E-mail received from the licensee |
| following a courtesy telephone call to the NRC Operations Center: |
| |
| "On June 24, 2001, at about 1103 PDT, the 'A' Phase Bus Potential Device |
| failed in the southeast section of the San Onofre switchyard. (This device |
| performs a monitoring function only and plant operations were unaffected). |
| The failure resulted in debris on the road adjacent to the switchyard (old |
| Highway 101). The resulting fire was extinguished by 1140 PDT. One |
| individual was in the switchyard at the time of this occurrence but was not |
| injured. No offsite personnel were injured." |
| |
| "As a precautionary measure, the San Onofre Security force notified the San |
| Diego branch of the FBI and the FBI chose to respond to San Onofre. Before |
| arriving onsite, SCE again contacted the FBI indicating they did not need to |
| respond to this event and they did not." |
| |
| "The NRC Resident Inspectors have been notified of this occurrence and will |
| be provided with a copy of this report. At the time of this occurrence, San |
| Onofre Unit 1 remained permanently shutdown; San Onofre Units 2 and 3 were |
| both at about 100 percent power and remain at about 100 percent power." |
| |
| HOO NOTE: The licensee (Ed Scherer and Clay Williams) stated that the |
| notification to the FBI was not required and that it was only a courtesy |
| notification. The FBI serves as local law enforcement. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
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First posted June 25th, 2001.
Webwiz: Russell D. Hoffman