ML19207A896
| ML19207A896 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Rancho Seco |
| Issue date: | 06/24/1979 |
| From: | Wrinkle H AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED |
| To: | Gilinsky V, Hendrie J, Kennedy R NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19207A881 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7908220572 | |
| Download: ML19207A896 (3) | |
Text
3315 Turnbrtdy Drive, Sacramento, Calif. 95323, June 24, 1979 U.S. Nuclear Regula tory C onim.,
(Special N.ote:
hashington, D.C.,
20555 Not 5% of s cranentans want Itancho a
Jo s eph M. 11endr,ig, Chairman, Seco shut dorrn----all the flack is Vic tor Glinsky, ucmbar, from college types that don't live Roland T. 1:ennedy, Member, this area Pe t er A. Bradford, Member,
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John F. Ahearne, Member.
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Gentlemen, The members of your important body along with Harold R. De ton, n
Director of The Office Of Nuclear iteactor Regulation, ahould novo swiftly to rule on any problen:s the 72 Nuclear Forcer Plants have--now or may have in the future with a view toward keeping them in full operation in this most critical time. The simple reason is that there is practically nothing to turn to swiftly to get out the kilowatts needed to keep the homes and the businesses of the na-tion operating comfortably than Nuclear Power, it will take up to five years to replace this kind of power with esal and even longer because of the nuts who mai
-up tha environmental groups who go to great lengths to sabotage any efforts to get coal fired plants off the gro.und.
In California, i
de8P te great efforts by Public Utilities such as PG&E-a company which bought coal mines turning out lo.
sulfur coal no coal using electric gcuerating plant has even gotten started.
Great growth in housing and business brought on by legal and illegal immigrants (California has about 1,000 illegals sneaking over its borders every day and the goverrunent ethnic Chinese from Vietnam here this feir) plans to dump thousands more of the use of electricity and natural gas has jumped by leaps and bounds.
Or..e day last month PG&E, since the shutdown of Rancho Seco here, came within 5% of a blackout and the real scorching summer hasn't started yet.
Over 180 major companies were told by PG&E to hurry up stand-by generating equip-ment because if Rancho Seco was held out of service and the Company could not ge the OK to start u and ready to go) p their big Mount Diablo Nuclear Plant (which is all finished they might have to be turned off.
This means great loss of incoce to both the companies and their emplpyees since most probably would not b.
able plants may have to close, at least partially. 6 U V Oto get any kina of fuel or even th
""s"'""d-6 7
SQ 77 Sacramento Municipal Utility District was urged to build Rancho Seco by the Fedenal, S ate and local governuental bodies plus the press and t
TV media. The people of Sacramento County, numbering less than 750,000 people, are on the hook for about One Billion Dollars the district now owes.
It is cos t-ing the District 613,500 a day in salaries to the trained personnel who must be kept on at full pay while the facility is shut down (you can't pick up replace-ment personnel in the streets) and with Guards and other charges it runs about 320,000 per day or $140,000 a week, llight now it is " bo rrowing" power from PGaf (which buys all the surplus power from Rauche Seco) and this " borrow ed" Power ia being made right now from very expensivo cil and SMUD will have to pay through the nose for this power if Raucho Seco is kept closed.
A fair guess wot Nbe that power for household use for air conditioning, etc., would triple or quar.
rupal in cost to the consumer if the go ahead isn't given.
The Dis trict has made all the changes retiuested and will gladly mak.
more at the direction of the Director Harold Denton.
Personnel will be as care-
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ful ss that on the U.S. Nav :'s nuclear powered subs, cruisers and air craft carr.
Q iers.
The groups that are asking for safety hear g are the left wing groups, headed by the so-called " Friends Of The Earth",/ raw their sup1. ort from college h
campuses and in the many meetings called by SMUD af ter the Three Mile Is l. a nd f i.-
Q sco wanted to " shut all cublear plants down permanently" regardless of how safe Q
they were.
Oil and Natural Gas are out for making power and solar is still far Q
off where quantity production is concerned.
Attached is copy of a letter I sent to ifarold I(.}De #* * "" '
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PG&E pledges studies to assure safety of Diablo Canyon
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(Thefollowing is based on re-mission, the Nuclear Regulatory in the design of our Diab o Canyon marks made by PG&E President Commission,the Advis'ory Com-plant and the Three Niile Island John F. Bonner at the company's mittee on Reactor Safeguards, the plant. Based on the information we y
annual neering April 18.)
Electric Power Research Institute, have to date, we believe that these other utilities, equipment suppliers, differences would prevent the Bree p
f Ot:R 2.MH.t. ION kilowatt Diablo and, of course, ourown experts are hiile Islar.d se uence of events from ff e
s Canyon Nuclear Plant is moving intensively investigating it as it re-occurring at Diablo Canyon.
E.-
closer to operation. Hearings before lates to Diablo C.nyon.
Although it does not now appear the Nuclear Regulatory Commis-
. He company is committed to that any substantial changes in de-f M b[
sion's Atomic Safety and Licensing assuring the safety of any nuclear sign or operating procedures for the Board for issuance of an operating.
power plantit operates. We do not.
Diablo plant are necessary,if ad-
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license concluded in February. -
- intend to operate any nuclear plant ditional facts show that changes in -
E It is still too early to tell what ef-unless we are satisfied with its the Diablo plant or its operating r
fect the Bree Mile Island accident safety features. Diablo Canyon has crocedures are necessary, we will I
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- in Pennsyls ania will have on the been subjected to the most rigorous make them.
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licensing procedure's for Diablo design review in history, and its ne Three Mile Island accident.
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Canyon. De facts on the accident operators have been intensively
' was serious and regrettable, but we i
are still not completely known.
trained for severalyears and tested willlearn from what happened there They are being thcroughly investi-repeatedly.
and even further improve the safety
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4
, gated now by a Presidential Com-There are substantial differences of nuclear power plant operations.
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F.rienc's,OY EarMlanning Suit J
To Wack Rancho Seco Restar' O6 restart of the plant as early as
. dissiden* members of the govern-
[j d Tuesday.This means Rancho Seco ing board of the Sacramento Mu-7, BL R r.
see W n Bureau Chief could be back m business long be-me: pal Utility District to deter-WASHINGTON -Friends of the fcre critics would get a chance to mineif dey w;iljoinin the lawsuit.
mM Jarth plans to go into federal court question at a public bearing wheth,-
The two directcrs also had filed a next week in an attempt to pievent er safety measures have been suffi ' petition with the commission seek-m/
he reopening of the Rancho Seco.
ciently tightened at the 900,000-kilo-ing a public hearing on the safety cN nuclear plant near Sacramento.
watt facility in light,of the Three question befcre restart is permit-Mile Island acc: dent m Pennsylva-ted.
7pm.
J The Bee tearnedFriday.
%N nm Rancho Seco has been closed
, The environmental group asked I
filing an injunction,. contemplating We're definitely Andrew BaI-since April:3 when the commission ne U.3.
St. clear Regulatory g
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'ommiss:on !ast month to hold a gg r to of Friends ari:c hearmg on 2e piant's safety dwm. :egal same reactor design as Three Mile c:cre anewmg cperations to re-g g g, p
the r.ar w., to e ee.
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e' comm;ssicn Thursday res rt Rarch Seco an en t
YNM NG rened t!.c c;cr :cr a public hear-have a hearing later on whede.
modifications
- ce ; but re;cctec 13e.equest that that was a proper move m 2e first yg~, -,p$by y e
the commissien staff n, as con-ym:q *;,
'b""'
ancno 5:ca be kept cicsed in de place."
ciuced inat SMUD has ccmpliec t ru-A,M$@fM ggW
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Baidwin declined to give further
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details about his group's Iecal with mese cccc: cons and that "N
bmng ::cbd.y would be lngrg;(p.wfig*g y?;,
enta.n a few weeks strategv. He hinted. however, that.
Rancho Seco can be safely re-C v.
- ay approve a discussiens are under way with two opened.
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Summer power supplies will be tight,
\\everyone's help saving energy neede
$gi THEREWtu,probably be times to be counted on for this summer,
- Began contacting mdmbe of b7 this summer when you will be PG&E began negotiating to buy all. the Westem Systems Coordinating asked to use less electricity than available power from neighboring Council, a voluntary league of 46 f
you'd like.
utilities, principally in Southem utilities in 14 westem states and
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PG&Eis doing everything it can California.
British Columbia, to explore *pos-i to see that you have allyou really In April, with the possibility of a sibilities for assistance.
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need, but as this was written in Rancho Seco shutdown, PG&E
- Stressed again to regulatory
~mid-hidy there were a' great many" took ne'w' steps:"' '
agencies the n'eed forTpfrovals'of-
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question marks, and only one thing
- Arranged with the Bonneville new generating capacity so dat the
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seemed really clear:
Power Administration to get a summertime energy-emergency l
Power supply this summerwill major block of Northwest power pattern of recent years will not q
f be tight, and everyone's help in capacityin hiay, a month earlier continue.
saving energy will be necessary. (It t
will also help hold down summer Question marks remam:
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g,gy@yd PG&E's incoming president and
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utility bills, the highest of the year
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chief operating officer, Barton W.
for many customers.)
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h Shackelford, warned that many fac-Two important things you can M
g tors could afect the supply of f,'
e do to help:
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$ g,' ",2 3 p?power this summer. The length of
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+ Don't use electric appliances during the hours of peak use be-
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time Rancho Seco would be out of a
n i
gg service was a prime question, but n-tv cen noon and 6 p.m. unless
%g o p.2 far from the only one.
' absolutely necessary.
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.y' "As in the past," Shackelford d
- If you feel you need an air con-7
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said, "in face of an emergency, all
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,P ditioner, set the thermostat at 78* or
-Mt utilities have voluntarily gone the
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higher and as far as possible avoid
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extra mile to help each other.
o those hours of noon to 6.
C "The availability of Rancho 4
Some background:
than already planned. In hiay ad-Seco during the summer months
.- The possibility of not having _.ditionalRacific Northwest supplie_s.. wo;uld help a great deal to allevi
,, l enough power to meet summer's became available, as did additional the tight supply picture in Northem i
-E peak demands was raised in earnest capacity from the Castaic pumped California this year. But the picture E."
in late April.'.
storage project of We Los Angeles will depend also on what type of At that time the big Rancho Seco Department of Water and Power.
g.
summer weather we have, the ac-
%d nuclear power plant belonging to With these developments, reserve tion of our customers voluntarily C$
W[5 the Sacramento Niunicipal Utility margins of generating capacity to cunail the use of air conditioners District was shut down in com-should be about 10 percent in June, and other appliances during the f
pliance with instructions from the July and Augt.st-tight but proba-peak time, and the absence of Qdk Nuclear Reguhtory Commission.
bly manageable margins. (Reserve major generating plant failures.
(Rancho Seco poweris an imper-margins are explained later in this "To me maximum extent possi-t [-
- NSM5
-kkhT tant part of We total Northem and story.)
ble, however," he said, "PG&E GQ Central Califemia supply.)
+ Formed an ad-hoc committee and every major Califemia utility
, tid.4 But before iis happer.ed PG&E of chief operating of5cers of the are determined to provide uninter-p?
had already been busy.
dve major Califomia utilities, to rupted elecinc service. "
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Early in the year, when licensing insure fullest coordHtion of con-
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)! PG&E's own Diablo Canyon servation programs aad of all Reserve margins-what and why QC
% er Plant [ story on page 4] did power resources available;p Turbine-generators may mai-QW*
ut cone:ude in time for its output ifomia.
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