Hi all,
I came across an official decommissioning web site for Connecticut Yankee, which I toured while it was still operating, many, many years ago.
It's the blueprint for what they want to do at San Onofre and other closed nuclear reactors. They want the public to ignore the hazardous waste site they have created.
Below (top item) are three paragraphs from the CY web site about how successful their decommissioning was. At the very end, one little sentence about reducing their footprint down to five acres (from approximately 530 acres) for their Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (known in the industry as an ISFSI as if that's anything more special or complicated than a thick slab of concrete out in the open, on which nuclear waste is piled).
I do not believe the radiological portion of San Onofre should be touched for at least 60 years and really, forever. Leave the domes there. Let artists use them for a canvas to document man's stupidity. Put some of the fuel inside them as long as they're sturdy and there's fuel on site, since, supposedly that would provide protection from even large airplane strikes. (It would not all fit there, the domes just aren't that big, and I do not believe they are strong enough to survive a jumbo jet strike, but certainly they can protect against smaller aircraft.)
Connecticut Yankee claims it was environmentally better to release all that "low-level" radiation out to the environment and poison the workers with 20 times the collective dose they would have gotten if they had waited half a century to decommission the radiological portion. (I'm all for destroying enough of the reactor controls so it cannot possibly be restarted without spending billions of dollars (we've been assured it already would need a complete new license from the NRC...).)
The Connecticut Yankee web page shown below also states the real reasons they wanted to decommission the plant right away: Jobs, jobs, jobs -- they talk about jobs for the current staff, but I wonder how much of that actually happened: demolition work and building things are pretty different job categories. And most of SanO's staff has already been let go. I'd say that's a poor excuse for immediate decommissioning.
As to doing the decommissioning now because there are low-level waste dumps available now that might not be available in 50 years -- that would be hard to argue with: Those dumps do close up and become unavailable (that's why some states have already made special agreements with other states (Connecticut and Texas, if I'm not mistaking). Except that, as I've stated, since the radiation levels would be substantially lower, perhaps MORE places would actually be available that might actually accept the waste, not the other way around. I think SCE already has contracts for that with the dump in Clive, Utah. They should just make sure it stays available and wait.
Connecticut Yankee was still in operation when we toured it, back when citizens could actually tour operating nuclear power plants, many, many years ago. And, just like Jane Fonda and Michael Douglass did in The China Syndrome, we got to look down at the control room from a viewing area. We also went into the turbine room, and were given a little black box about 2 inches on a side, which they said was a single family's lifetime little pile of nuclear waste (they did not mention that it was enough waste to cause the complete and permanent evacuation of ALL of southern California -- just my little black box, let alone yours and everyone else's!). (I even wrote a song about it, called, not surprisingly, "My Little Black Box." (Sorry, I can't remember all the lyrics anymore, but I hopefully have it on reel-to-reel tape...somewhere...))
ISFSIs scare the quap out of me, while the industry wants to pretend they don't even exist and the public can forget about them.
But of course, an ISFSI is a lot less risky than what we used to have: A pair of operating nuclear reactors, two spent fuel pools, AND a growing ISFSI! (And that's why America needs to get rid of Diablo Canyon, Palo Verde, and all the rest.)
Ace Hoffman
Carlsbad, CA
========================================================
From:
http://www.connyankee.com/html/decommissioning.html
From 1968 until permanent shutdown in 1996, Connecticut Yankee operated a 619 megawatt pressurized water reactor at the Haddam Neck site. The nuclear power plant underwent a successful decommissioning from 1998-2007 with all plant structures removed and the site restored to stringent state and federal clean-up standards.
The Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Company Board of Directors voted to permanently close the CY plant in December 1996. The decision was based on an economic study that concluded that due to changing market conditions, electric customers would save money if the plant were closed.
CY chose immediate dismantlement (the DECON method) because it was the most practical and environmentally responsible option for the plant. Other considerations included the use of current plant employees who were trained and knowledgeable about the facility, prevention of long-term maintenance costs, and the availability of low-level waste disposal facilities. Significant decommissioning activities began at CY in May 1998, and were successfully completed in November 2007 with NRC approval to reduce the land under the NRC license to the approximately 5 acre Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation.
========================================================
At 07:54 AM 9/20/2014 -0700, Donna Gilmore wrote:
>This is something we'll need people to show up for with handouts. Looks like Edison is ramping up their PR Campaign
>
>4-7 pm San Juan Capistrano Community Center, 25925 Camino del Avion, San Juan Capistrano
>
>
>
>
>-------- Original message --------
>From: Gene Stone
>Date:09/19/2014 5:43 PM (GMT-08:00)
>To: Decommission San Onofre
>Subject: San Onofre learning tours
>
>Public opportunities:
>As part of our broader public engagement and education effort for San Onofre, we have a couple of new opportunities coming up that you can help promote as you see fit. These are (1) public walking tours of the plant and (2) a Decommissioning Education Fair.
>
>Public Walking Tours
>We are starting walking tours of the plant that will be available to members of the public. Folks will have an opportunity to participate in a guided tour of what is called the Owner Controlled Area of the plant. After we have conducted the first two tours we will assess our approach in the spirit of continuous improvement. Learning will be applied to future such tours. We also will build a regular, recurring schedule of public tours. Requirements and other detailed are spelled out on the SONGScommunity website. Here is the URL to request a tour:
>
>http://www.songscommunity.com/tour.asp#.VByx-_ldWiw
>
>Decommissioning Education Fair
>On Sept. 29, we will host the first in a series of Education Fairs focused on San Onofre decommissioning. We will have a range of staff on hand to address everything from emergency planning to marine mitigation efforts. Dates for additional Education Fairs are to be announced. Here is the flyer for the first one:
>Please feel free to forward this information to people in your personal networks.
>
>Manuel
>
>________________________________________
>
>Manuel C. Camargo Jr.
>Principal Manager, Decommissioning
>San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station
>O 626.302.7902 (PAX 27902) - M213.361.3661
>manuel.camargo@sce.com
>
>
>www.SONGScommunity.com
>
>
>Gene Stone
------------------------------------------------------
At 10:23 AM 9/20/2014 -0700, Donna Gilmore wrote:
>I don't want my radiation count to go up, so I'll pass on the tour!
>
>-------- Original message --------
>From: Ace Hoffman
>Date:09/20/2014 9:59 AM (GMT-08:00)
>To: Donna Gilmore
>Cc: Gene Stone , Decommission San Onofre
>Subject: Re: March 29 San Juan Capistrano Edison Decom Fair
>
>Hi all,
>
>I agree we need good handouts for that.
>
>Sharon and I already toured a PWR years ago (and have toured many other industrial sites), but others might find the tour interesting, if only to be amazed at how massive everything is.
>
>If any do, they should sign up right away. If we all want to go as a group, I'll be happy to go with other people.
>
>It would be interesting if we all asked to go, and some of us where rejected for some reason. We all have U.S. birth certificates [social security numbers, driver's licenses, passports...?] and can survive a background check, right???
>
>Ace
Re: Fre(ak) tours of SanO!
Hi Donna, all...
I didn't say anyone SHOULD go, but I'm sure if you bring your dosimeter (and they let you carry it around) it will barely register a blip anywhere (daily variance will way exceed anything you'll see on the tour, in all likelihood). But perhaps we should all, as I suggest, just sign up and see if any of us are banned or not (I'd wager money you're not, Donna, and I don't know who among us (if any) would be). But actually go on the tour? I'd only go if about half a dozen of us decided they wanted to go and thought a tour guide from our side would be good to have along! Otherwise...been there, done that.
Ace
=========================================================
========================================
Quotes collected by Ace Hoffman:
========================================
----------------------------------------------
"Nuclear war must be the most carefully avoided topic of general significance in the contemporary world. People are not curious about the details." -- Paul Brians (author; quote is from: Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction)
----------------------------------------------
"When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." -- Sinclair Lewis (first American Nobel Prize winner in Literature, 2.7.1885 - 1.10.1951)
----------------------------------------------
"There is no such thing as a pro-nuclear environmentalist." -- Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa, 1992)
----------------------------------------------
"Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories." -- Sun Tzu (Chinese general b.500 BC)
----------------------------------------------
"Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results." -- Margaret Atwood (Canadian poet/novelest/environmentalist/etc.)
----------------------------------------------
"The most intolerable reactor of all may be one which comes successfully to the end of its planned life having produced mountains of radioactive waste for which there is no disposal safe from earthquake damage or sabotage." -- A. Stanley Thompson (a pioneer nuclear physicist who later realized the whole situation)
----------------------------------------------
"Any dose is an overdose." -- Dr. John W. Gofman (another pioneer nuclear physicist who saw the light (9.21.1918 - 8.15.2007))
----------------------------------------------
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery." -- Octavia Butler (science fiction writer, 7.22.1947 - 2.24.2006)
----------------------------------------------
"If you want real welfare reform, you focus on a good education, good health care, and a good job.
If you want to reduce poverty, you focus on a good education, good healthcare, and a good job.
If you want a stable middle class, you focus on a good education, good health care, and a good job.
If you want to have citizens who can participate in democracy, you focus on a good education, good health care, and a good job.
And if you want to end the violence, you could build a million new prisons and you could fill them up, but you never end this cycle of violence unless you invest in the health and the skill and the intellect and the character of our children. You focus on a good education, good health care and a good job.
And other than that, I don't feel strongly about anything."
-- Paul Wellstone (US Senator, D-Minnesota, 7.21.1944 - 10.25.2002)
----------------------------------------------
"There are no warlike peoples - just warlike leaders." -- Ralph Bunche (8.7.1903 - 12.9.1971)
----------------------------------------------
In the execution room, Troy [Davis] used his last words to proclaim his innocence one final time. He then made a call for his movement -- all of our movement -- to bring about [an] end of the death penalty for good. And then, in his final breath, he asked God's mercy upon those about to kill him.
----------------------------------------------
"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." -- Thomas Jefferson
----------------------------------------------
"Officials from the San Onofre nuclear reactor said the warning siren that went off yesterday was just a malfunction and no one should worry. Hey, I worry, if they can't even get the siren to work right, what the hell are they doing with the reactor??" Jay Leno 1/20/10
----------------------------------------------
"Please send this to everyone you know!" -- Ace Hoffman (original collector of the above quotes)
----------------------------------------------
This email was sent by:
-----------------------------------------
Ace Hoffman
Author, The Code Killers:
An Expose of the Nuclear Industry
Free download: acehoffman.org
Blog: acehoffman.blogspot.com
YouTube: youtube.com/user/AceHoffman
Subscribe to my free newsletter today!
-----------------------------------------