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Bond In Investing Savings The second of two Salem nuclear plants will soon be inspected to see whether it faces the same corrosion problem that nearly ate through a similarly designed nuclear plant in Ohio, Salem officials said Tuesday.

The groups concerns center on corrosion and cracking of 1, 300 alloy tubes contained in four generators inside the containment vessel of Salem Unit 2. The generator tubes are nearly identical to one that burst 18 months ago at a plant in Indian Point, N.Y., leaking radioactive steam into the atmosphere. NRC officials said nuclear plants are designed to safely shut themselves down when such a leak occurs.

Bond Investment Toledo Toledo But because Salem Units 1 and 2 are regularly inspected and were made by a different company than the Davis-Besse plant in Ohio, similar problems are unlikely, plant spokesman Skip Sindoni said.

Authorities are investigating a leak of radioactive water at the Salem I nuclear power plant, the state's environmental commissioner said Monday. The elevated level of tritium in groundwater at the Salem County plant poses "no immediate threat to public health and safety, " said Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell. But, he added, "we continue to have concerns about contamination of our water resources from this leak."

James Bond Trading Card Inspectors at Davis-Besse, near Toledo, recently found a football-sized hole had eaten nearly through the plant's 6-inch-thick steel reactor head. A three-eighths-inch stainless steel liner inside the reactor head was all that contained the plant's pressurized cooling water.

The plant is designed to accommodate the failure of a tube, said Glenn Meyer, NRC branch chief for the Salem plants. Thursdays meeting, however, focused on a new NRC committee report on steam generators that raises the question of whether a single rupture could cause a chain reaction of broken tubes. In the event of gross failure of multiple generator tubes, more water could escape through steam vents than the plant is designed to replace, said Dave Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, D.C.

Bond In Investing Stock Even if the stainless steel liner had ruptured, the plant is designed to contain the radiated water and shut down safely, said Dave Lochbaum, a nuclear-safety engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, D.C.

To date, 871 tubes have been plugged at Salem Unit 2. Meyer said PSE&G has a strong financial incentive to make sure they plug any tubes during refueling outages. If a tube breaks when the plant is operating, power production has to stop for weeks, he said. alloy tubing. But NRC officials have told Unplug Salem coordinator Norm Cohen that a direct comparison between the two generators is inappropriate, treated.

Municipal Bonds Investment Still, the discovery alarmed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Bond Terms Trading Last week, the agency ordered the operators of 68 similarly designed nuclear reactors to immediately evaluate whether corrosion could be affecting their facilities, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said.

Bond Debt High In Inside "If they can't assure us they have a program to check for this type of corrosion, they have to tell us how they are going to shut down so they can check," Sheehan said. "The problem of plants aging is a concern across the nation."

Bond Greenville Greenville The corrosion was caused by boric acid, which is added to reactor cooling water but is not supposed to be on the outside of the reactor. The acid escaped through minor leaks and was hidden by insulation atop the reactor head, according to the NRC.

Trading Stock And Bonds Sindoni said a key design difference at Salem is that the insulation can be removed during inspections, allowing the vessel head to be examined for corrosion during refueling outages.

Bond Investing Municipal During an outage of Salem Unit 1 last April, no boric acid deposits or corrosion were found, he said. Unit 2 was last inspected in 1999, and no evidence of boric acid or corrosion was found, he said.

Basis Bond Finance Hill Unit 2 will be inspected again for evidence of corrosion during a refueling outage this spring, Sindoni said.

Bond Explained Terms Trading Lochbaum said Davis-Besse operators failed to act on signs of corrosion for years, but most plants in the nation would catch such a problem in their normal inspections.

Bond Business Investing Stock "It sounds like it was a bad job by Davis-Besse rather than a condemnation of the industry," Lochbaum said.

Bond Houston Houston The NRC's order applies to pressurized water reactors, one of two major plant designs that include the Salem plants on Artificial Island in Lower Alloways Creek Township, Salem County.

Stock Bonds Day Trading The Hope Creek plant at Artificial Island and the Oyster Creek plant in Ocean County are boiling water reactors and not subject to the order.

Bond Corporate Investing The Salem and Hope Creek plants are operated by PSEG Nuclear, a subsidiary of PSEG Power, an affiliate of Public Service Electric and Gas Co.

Investment Bond Uk By Jack Kaskey
The Press of Atlantic City - 3/27/2002

Topic: Nuclear

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