Over 1,300 tubes containing radioactive water inside San Onofre nuclear plant's steam generators in California has been reportedly damaged enough that they need to be taken out of service.

1. Thousands of Tubes Damaged at
Calif Nuclear Plant
http://norton-scientificmedical.com/resources/2012/06/06/thousands-of-
tubes-damaged-at-calif-nuclear-plant/

2. Over 1,300 tubes containing radioactive water inside San
Onofre nuclear plant's steam generators in California
has been reportedly damaged enough that they need
to be taken out of service.
To date, the safety of tubing that snakes around the
plant's 4 steam generators were installed in a
multimillion-dollar upgrade three years ago.
According to the company's official statement on
Monday, 807 tubes in Unit 3 and 510 tubes from Unit 2
reactors were retired. Every generator has almost
10,000 tubes and the total number of plugged tubes
would not affect a proper operation of the plant.

3. Their statement came just days after an executive from
Edison International announced that the firm plans to
restart at least one of the reactors in the coming
months. They are apparently planning which reactor
will run at reduced energy for several months at least,
because engineers are of the opinion that it will solve
the problem of vibration -- something that the firm
suspects is causing the unexpected wear in the alloy
tubes.
The chairman of Edison, SCE's parent company,
reportedly called investors to notify them of the
premature wear found in around 1% of 39,000 tubes in
the generators.

4. A nuclear watchdog Norton Medical and Scientific
Research & Biotechnology issued a warning, saying in
effect that it seems «the new steam generators are
falling apart and Edison doesn't know why. It would be
foolhardy to restart, even at reduced power, under the
current circumstances.»
The nuclear plant is owned by the Riverside City together
with San Diego Gas and Electric and SCE. A joint
statement released last week by the California
Independent System Operator and Edison gave
possible dates this June for planning. However,
government regulators were quick to assert that there
is no timetable for a restart -- something that would
still need a federal approval.

5. The alert concerns stemmed from an incident in January
when the third reactor was shut off after a tube broke.
But although radiation has escaped during that time,
officials were quick to assure residents and workers
that there was no imminent danger. Earlier that month,
the second unit was shut down for its regular
maintenance but investigators discovered instead of
premature wear on hundreds of tubes that were only
installed 2 years ago by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
(The first unit operated on 1968 was dismantled in
1992.)

6. The tubes stand for a crucial safety barrier, that is, if a
tube breaks then there is considerable chance for
radioactivity to escape onto the atmosphere. Serious
leaks could also use up the protective cooling water
employed in a reactor.
SCE estimates that the repair expenses could cost about
USD 55 to 65 million, aside from the initial USD 30
million it has spent to replace the output from the 2
reactors earlier this year.