Loose Nuts: Edison Reveals Huge Gap in Safety at San Onofre

Work crews transferring radioactive spent fuel (nuclear waste) at the San Onofre nuclear plant from cooling pools into dry storage discovered a loose bolt inside one of the canisters, prompting Southern California Edison to temporarily halt the relocation effort. — Los Angeles Times

nuclear waste, San Onofre — Edison’s San Ononfre Nuke Plant rattled itself to death in 2013 after a long history of mechanical screw-ups. 5-years later, the nut jobs overseeing SONGS closure decided to bury its lethally hot nuclear remains on the beach at water’s edge in potentially leaky casks, in a tsunami zone, frequented by earthquakes, next to a busy state beach park, yards from Cal’s major north/south highway I-5. Then the beach burial casks’ nuts…came loose.

Loose Nuts, Discovered at SONGS?

Well yeah. There have always been loose nuts
running amok at SONGS
(San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station).
Or, to clarify;
nutcases have always run loose at SONGS.
Creating nuclear anything, is basically,
and literally NUTS!

SONGS, like any nuker, is a trillion miles
of loose nuts, bad bolts, cracked pipes,
wiggly washers, rusting welded seams,
frayed electrical wiring enough to stretch
from Fukushima, to Chernobyl, to 3-Mile
Island and back to SONGS, and then some.
Imagine the craziest / nuttiest / blue sky
Rube Goldberg plumbing contraption and
you’re beginning to grasp the phrase:
nuclear nut-job.

The loose piece of bolt, about 4 inches by half an inch, was discovered in one of 43 freshly manufactured canisters that featured a new design [Holtec HI-STORM UMAX] aimed at improving storage capability. The bolt was part of a redesigned system called a shim that aims to improve the balance and storage of the spent fuel assemblies. Edison, which already filled four of the newly designed canisters with radioactive waste, is unable to check whether those casks have the same flaw.

Ever talk to a PhD nuclear scientist?
More than a tad nutty. What do SONGS,
Fukushima, 3-Mile Island and Chernobyl
have in common? They’re all loose nuts!
And we know where they’ve gotten us.
Duck & Cover neighbor, because the
loose nuts at SONGS are burying
gazillion-year-radioactive rods in leaky
metal casks in beach sand, feet from
the ocean, steps from a busy state
beach park, in a designated tsunami
zone, frequented by earthquakes,
yards from I-5…is beyond nuts.
It’s nuclear lunacy (again).

STORY: San Onofre: Beachfront Leaky Nuclear Waste Facility Underway

This Google Earth image shows how close the expanded dry storage area for spent nuclear waste will be to the shoreline at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. (Image courtesy of Google Earth)

The plant, which has been in the decommissioning process since 2013, generated some 3.6 million pounds of spent nuclear fuel that remains on the property just north of Oceanside.

Current plans call for Edison to transfer the fuel assemblies from cooling pools on the grounds of the abandoned power plant into steel-lined canisters that will be placed in a concrete encasement just over 100 feet from the shoreline.

Donna Gilmore from San Onofre Safety and others worry that the canisters could leak or become weakened by saltwater intrusion or other factors, threatening the 8 million people who live within 50 miles of the plant. Utility executives say the storage is safe.

“Safety is our top priority,” Tom Palmisano, the Edison vice president and chief nuclear officer, said in a statement. “Our first step was to confirm this fabrication change poses no safety risk to workers or the public.”