ML13155A431

Comment (433) of Vinod Arora Opposing Restart of San Onofre Unit 2 Until NRC Completes Comprehensive Investigation

ML13155A431
Person / Time
Site:	San Onofre
Issue date:	04/24/2013
From:	Arora V - No Known Affiliation
To:	Brian Benney, Leeds E, Macfarlane A Rules, Announcements, and Directives Branch, NRC/Chairman, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
References
NRC-2013-0070, 78FR22576 00433
Download: ML13155A431 (10)

Text

I UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555-0001 c3L-O Ni

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VI Joosten, Sandy From:

Vinod Arora [vinnie48in@gmail.com]

Sent:

Wednesday, April 24, 2013 11:44 PM To:

CHAIRMAN Resource; Leeds, Eric; Benney, Brian; Lantz, Ryan; Hall, Randy; Borchardt, Bill

Subject:

Safety Over Production - "Enron-style" power shortages throughout SCal this summer, with SONGS Unit 2 down are exaggerated.

Attachments:

BriefingSummer20l3-Presentation-Mar2Ol3.pdf NRC can take its sweet time to review all San Onofre Documents. No compromise over safety. SCE will keeping making money with SONGS Unit 2 down for years, until Units 2 & 3 are repaired or replaced by Westinghouse.

MHI simply does not have the tools, technology, testing facilities, and learning/research skills personnel to repair or replace these complex CE Units. New Anti-vibration Bar Testing in Japan will not resolve the problems. SONGS Units need to be operated at high pressures >950 psi and high circulation ratios >4.5 @85%

power to stay within Dr. Pettigrew's Comfort Zone and prevent the adverse effects of fluid elastic instability, flow-induced vibrations and high cycle fatigue. See for yourself, new facts based articles after MHI Root Cause published In Union Tribune, San Diego.

Contact:

Morgan Lee, I U-T San Diego newspaper 1619 293-1251 Present, SCE Management does not know how to manage, maintain and operate a Nuclear power Plant. Not my words, But the Words of San Onofre Shift Managers, Corporate and Station Emergency Directors.

Unit 3 was destroyed in a Testing Mode (due to extra power production) of the new anti-vibration bars. FEI did not happen in Unit 2, not due to double the contact forces and better supports, but due to operation at high pressure and less steam flows compared with Unit 3. NRC needs to investigate the operational differences between Units 2 & 3 to find the Real Root Cause (Hardware, Process and Human Performance Errors)

Despite reports in the press that the continuing outage of the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant will cause "Enron-style" power shortages throughout Southern California this summer, one expert on the electrical grid says such fears are exaggerated.

A report in Bloomberg News claims that the combination of the offline plant at San Onofre and a bleak forecast for hydroelectric generation in the state due to drought means that the state could face power shortages unrivaled since the Enron scandal in the early 2000s. In their story, Bloomberg reporters Naureen S. Malik and Lynn Doan quote Pennsylvania energy consultant Stephen Schork as saying "California may see the biggest test since Enron manipulated the market. If you have a reactor down and you don't have as much hydro, your fuel for air conditioning is going to have to come from gas."

Malik and Doan also spoke with Michael Blaha at Wood Mackenzie Ltd. in Houston, who credited hydro for fulling the gap as San Onofre stayed offline through the summer of 2012.

But according to engineer and frequent ReWire tipster Bill Powers, an expert on power generation and transmission issues, enough new gas-fired capacity in Southern California is scheduled to come online by the peak power consumption season this summer to nearly make up for San Onofre being offline even without any power from hydroelectric power plants. In the Los Angeles Basin load area alone, Powers tells ReWire, 1,900 megawatts of gas-fired plants are scheduled to come online in the first half of 2013. San Onofre's capacity?

2,150 megawatts.

Powers points out that it's not just him saying so: he directs our attention to a briefing-document on San Onofre's downtime composed by the California Independent System Operator (CaISO), which runs the power 1

grid for 80 percent of the state, including the Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric service areas, which are the portions of the grid most affected by San Onofre's outage.

According to CaISO, while there is room for concern about running low on power reserves as a result of San Onofre being down, the grid operator characterizes those concerns as applying mainly to San Diego County and southern Orange County rather than the entire southern section of the state. If this summer's heat hits a ten-year high, CaISO runs the chance of having to engage in "load shedding" -- a method of reducing demand more commonly known as rolling blackouts.

But, says CaISO, a combination of upgrading transmission lines near Long Beach, adding capacitors to regulate transmission line voltage, and increasing funding for the agency's Flex Alert program should address the reliability issues on the grid without needing to add more generation capacity over the summer.

And given that the state is likely to have a gigawatt or more of new solar power coming into the grid compared to last summer -- much of that in Southern California -- those peak demand hours may not be all that scary this year, even without San Onofre.

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.I ý1 9, PEl i9 California ISO Shaping a Renewed Future Briefing on Summer 2013 Outlook &

Update on SONGS Mitigation Planning Neil Millar Executive Director, Infrastructure Development Board of Governors Meeting General Session March 20-21, 2013

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• Summer assessment deferred to May Board meeting to incorporate evolving hydro situation

° Preliminary results indicate ample summer supply margins for the overall system and in northern California

• Summer supply margins over the entire southern California region are also ample but reliability concerns remain for South Orange County and San Diego due to continued outage of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station 1 California ISO Slide 2

Preliminary hydro situation showing below-average expectations, as observed by the north conditions California Snow Water Content - Percent of April I Average For: 12.Mar-2013 250 "iaJ r-eicenif of AptI wv Otwg;D Percent of Noimal: 69%

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Overall reserve margins in northern and southern California remain healthy ISO, SP26 and NP26 Operating Reserve Margins (%)

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EISO 21.4% 21.3%

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I Normal Scenario Notes:

,::Demand based on 1-in-2, or 1-in-10 Weather.

cýOutages include Generation and Transmission curtailments.

=*All Demand Response and Interruptible Load has been utilized.

c:>At Stage 3 Emergency firm load is shed to maintain 3% Operating Reserve (Operating Reserve cannot drop below the red line).

Extreme Scenario 0Calfornia IO Slide 4

Supply into southern Orange County and San Diego with SONGS off-line remain the primary concern Focus is on non-generation alternatives to shed risk for multiple-contingency events mitigate load

1. 2 Barre-Ellis 220 kV Configuration issue

1. 3 South of Lugo MW resource issue

1. 1 South Orange County & San Diego MVAR resource issue Safety Net refinements California 150 Sh-i.g. R-d Fft.

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_ M 71 M_. r*- -:7 The solutions address 2013 reliability needs without excessive reliance on load-dropping schemes:

1) Convert Huntington Beach units 3 & 4 into synchronous condensers

2) Install capacitors (80 MVAR each at Santiago and Johanna, 160 MVAR at Viejo)

3) Split Barre-Ellis 220 kV circuits (from 2 to 4 lines)

4) Confirm new resources South of Lugo

5) Support adequate funding for Flex Alerts and continue to explore applicable demand response 0

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Next Steps

" Continue to press forward with 2013 mitigation plan

• Seek Board approval later today for additional mid-term mitigation:

- South Orange County Dynamic Reactive Support

- Talega area Dynamic Reactive Support

- Sycamore - Penasquitos 230 kV transmission line

" Continue analysis on additional longer-term needs SCalifornia ISO Slide 7