University Daily Kansan / Wednesday. November 30,1988
5
Savannah River start-up delayed
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The only U.S. plant that makes a critical component of nuclear weapons won't be able to resume production until at least next spring or summer because of persistent safety concerns, Energy Secretary John S. Herrington said Monday.
Just last month, Energy Department officials said that their Savannah River Plant, near Aiken, S.C. would begin a phased restart of its K in December, and that it could result in the tritium in January. None of the things at Savannah River has produced weapons material since last April.
"We are hoping to start (the K reactor) in the spring, summer," Herrington said in an interview with Associated Press. "We are not going to start up or operate a reactor that we are not satisfied is totally safe."
Since October, engineers with the Energy Department and the operating contractor, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., have been developing much more stringent operating and safety criteria.
"We're not slipping. We are using more caution, OK?" Herrington said in the interview.
"I am satisfied with the progress. I think our start-up criteria, our modification and our upgrade are proceeding well." predicted data on the start-up," said
Nuclear plant operators told to check for faulty breakers
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said yesterday that it has ordered operators of all commercial nuclear facilities to use systems for counterfeit and possibly faulty circuit breakers.
Spokesman Frank Ingram said the order, issued Nov. 22 to the 110 plants, noted that recent inspections "indicate a potential safety concern." But he said there have been cases where there was a counter-or faulty break-in claimed for an accident of any kind at a nuclear plant.
The order for inspections, which must be carried out by March 1, called for nine Southern allegations that four Southern California firms had sold counterfeit breakers to nuclear plants.
Pacific Gas & Electric reported in July that it had found 30 counter-breakers its inventory at the campus nuclear plant near San Luis Obispo.
Southern California Edison Co. found in the same month that it had bought 16 potentially counterfeit breakers for its San Onofre plant, 55 miles south of Los Angeles.
The NRC said in the bulletin that the inspections were necessary "to provide reasonable assurance that nuclear power plants can be operated without undue risk to the public health and safety."
The NRC has found "numerous failures" of certain types of circuit breakers during preliminary commission-supervised tests.
Herrington.
"As we proceed toward start-up, we want to make sure that everything is right. I don't want to have an arbitrary date of December and then take a day off or not in place. I am now saying spring because I now think that is a reasona-
The three reactors at Savannah River are the only operational facilities in the United States capable of producing two critical nuclear weap
bile date. It may be that when we get to spring that it won't be till summer. I don't see it going much farther than that." he said.
ons materials, tritium and plutonium. Herrington has told Congress that the United States is "awash" in plutonium.
Tritium decays at the rate of 5.5 percent per year and administration and congressional sources say stockpiles will be depleted badly within six months to two years, although the exact numbers are classified. Tritium is the isotope of hydrogen, is used to boost the yield of nuclear weapons.
Asked when tritium would be in critical short supply, Herrington said; I think we are OK with spring oxide but declined to give an exact date.
Both DuPont and the Energy Department are beeing up their management and oversight of the Savannah River Plant, officials say. For the first time, federal officials will be stationed directly at each reactor rather than at the regional headquarters, which is located at one edge of the sprawling 300-square-mile complex.
DuPont, which agreed to run Savannah River in 1950 at the personal request of President Harry S. Truman, is turning the operating contract over to the Westinghouse Electric Corp. starting April 1.
DuPont has reissigned the senior official in charge of reactor operations to Savannah River from companies in Wilmington, Del. 500 miles away.
Air in Los Angeles creates a dilemma for EPA standards
The Associated Press
Such an action would be catastrophic, the agency said.
WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday asked the public to comment on the "crural dilemma" of whether it really is required to shut down Los Angeles auto use to meet clean air standards, as some interpretations of the law seem to require.
Though framed in terms of Los Angeles, the legal issue could some day be applied to many of the 107 counties in the country to meet federal air pollution standards.
The agency is under court order to announce an air pollution control plan for the Los Angeles area.
Los Angeles failed to meet federal pollution standards for ozone and carbon monoxide, and it is the only state establishing standards for nitrogen oxides.
In recent years, peak ozone concentrations have been almost three times the standard, which typically is exceeded on 145 occasions annually. The mean concentration has risen than 75 percent above the standard or more than 35 violations per year.
Ozone, which damages the lungs in high concentrations, is formed in sunlight by the reaction of nitrogen oxides, a combustion product, with certain hydrocarbon compounds such as gasoline vapor or solvents. The South Coast Air Quality Manager manages an 80 to 90 percent reduction in hydrocarbon emissions, half of which come from transportation fuels, would be needed to meet the ozone standard in the Los Angeles area.
After several postponements, all cities were supposed to meet the standards by Dec. 31, 1987, but Conners had to decide to decide what would happen next.
The EPA has announced, but not formally adopted, plans generally requiring 3 percent annual reductions in emissions of the relevant pollutants beyond whatever reductions result from federal programs
Though the EPA is involved in several court cases, Los Angeles is the only area where the EPA is under orders to fulfill the legal mandate to control town plans in places where it has found local plans inadequate.
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