ML20237A044

News Article Re Chernobyl Accident & Difference Between Us & Soviet Plants

ML20237A044
Person / Time
Site:	Pilgrim
Issue date:	05/26/1986
From:	Tye L BOSTON GLOBE, BOSTON, MA
To:
References
CON-#487-5054 2.206, PR-860526, NUDOCS 8712140211
Download: ML20237A044 (5)

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Crowley added that it would he'6*guilly Differences' between US and Soviet iAntsS. wrong to overestimate the similarltles be-

' tween Chernobyi and US planta. Us reae-may DC ICSS than first thought, critics ,) say;?'-in.dustry says US

' tors are.far less likely to.have a runaway I m

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reaction like the one at Chernobyl to)x- l i plode or to burn, he said - and they,3re By 1.arry Tye  :, more likely to withstand' accidents, b. I Clobe Staff f.

3 Gilinksy acknowledged that doubts fe-3 ven as the Soviets were serainb!!ng to contain rai!!one. main about similarities between US arid tivity pouring from the crippled Chernobyl reactor, the - , Soviet nuclear plants. But while they are US nuc! car industry was Insts, ting that "' k'ind of aceldent being resolved, he said, the US should err

, on the side of caution. m'Y v'!!ME

-}cannot happen here. ,, .,,,

One tesue that deserves imrnediate at-O But as government and independent '6ctentists'poted . . ,

is 1

'through technleal documents and CIA photographs after the acci- . tention. the former commissioner said, fs'

, dent they. realized that, contrary to industry claims key parts of the

' how the accident started: Soviet of!1cig ,

Soviet reactor were encased in a huge conc:ete and steel shell sting- have said that while they yere testing the

' kr to those surrounding US plants And at Chernobyllthat contain- ,

reactor * !! ourged from 6 percent of.'its ,

ment structure was blown apart.

' * 'l, power production capac!ty to 50 percent in less than 10 seconds. That means the

' Then they learred that the Soviet plant,like many in the Unf ted States, was equipped with a subterranean ool with millions of gal- i REACTORS. Page 50 '

.lons of water to absorb leaking 6 team, an fire walls to protect the cables contro!!!ng the plant's dual safety systems. But fire appar-

, ently engulfed everyth!ng at Chernobyl as radioactive steam spewed FM N -

, from the reactor, according to US gov- .

ernment accounts.

Finally, they found that at Chernobyl.'

', as at trany US reactors, oxygen is pumped

. out of the chamber around the reactor vce-6el to prevent it from mixing with hydro-gen and exploding. But at Chernobyl, hy-drogen formed and exploded anyway. ,

The Industry was too quick in dis-missing this," said James Anselstine, a

' Nuclest Regulatory Commiasion member who made public the sim!!aritica between

• Chernobyl and many US platits. ,

"And, in fact, the NRC was too quick'In

, dismissing this accident as having no im-p!! cations for the US nuclea'r program "he added in a telephone interview. ,,,l.

Victor Clunsk l stoner, agreed: JThey,sena'Ible a former NRC reaction conimis- i after this accident is to check out tiiat -

l

,,we're as good as we think we are. A lo(of

6 mart people worked on the Soviet reactor, '

l

',too, and they thought they had the prol7- 1 lems solved. But they didn t." , l David Crowley, spckesman for Geiilal l lElec'. rte Co., whleh des!gna nuefeafpla ,

~, concedes that the industry - along' '

A'

' everyone else ."overspecula edt-d ately after the accident,'.But 4*lt'-,'

. i S r-(., was just an he' nest attempt to share ! motion as best as it was p;qelyed.Ctb ; . * $

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j Usus9y the reactor building is sustain the nuclear reaction.

5 REACTOR 8 jfilled with nitrogen gas that dis. When graphite is exposed to high Continued from Page 43 temperatures and steam during lwith places hydrogenoxygen, which and cause an ex.couldan react accident,it can release carbon ;I

.plosion. During startup and shut. monoxide and hydrogen - both of the errora delegted by Stewart idown procedures, however, oxy. hi eughly reactive. and both possible prits In the explosions at Cher-

.. and Feder. indeed, the Journal re-  : gen is pumped back in so employ. ,

nobyl Sheron said.

'L tracted Darsee's papers in 1963. jces can service the reactor."But those are thethe Also, times when l at Cher-containment I ' editorializing that even careful ,*

scrutin cannot always, uncover {an accident is most likely because ', nobyl"is not in any way, shape or eleverl one fraud, people are manipulating the eye. form what is put on Western style "We thought we dealt with this- ', tem. start!ng and stopping i reactors." he said. While the Sovt-et reactor core was enclosed some 16 'a . but now we should - ,

I looht lt w h a fresh eye to make lrunning pumps." Follard at steady said.is"If state nobody youpipesareand otHEFRTety equipment '

were "open to the environment, so I sbre we're not vulnerable to very }doing anything where they can di accelerating accidents of ,make a mistake. If you had a fa!!ure of pressure '

$fs sort." Olltr. sky said. "The accident [and the h dro- tubes. steam from the core would j

!alists say there al-  ; gen esploaton) at Chernoby sp- have a direct path to the environ- '

Other. s ;parently happened when hey ment. i rdadyis ev nec that US reactors; ste vulnerable to problems exper,' ;y;ere shutting the plant down.

kneed at Chernobyl. ;B1m!!ar containment '

.. .NRC safety official, agreed: "Any. l l In 1972, for instance, valves  ! Nuclear scientists also are con. one who says there is a striking '

! controlling the flow of steam from '

! resemblance between Chernobyl the reactor building to the coolin and USof plants cerned about the destruction l is just etretching Chernobyl's conta!nment, which pool at the Quad Cities plant in l }. . w a reportedly ab!c to withstand .j the truth to make a point. or just

, Jinois were stuck partl open, aj . 57 ounds of pressure per square not looking at it." ,

at is r y I" b ut the same as those at Problems highlighted t y re o .

'la n the kind of equipment falfure that US[ven before the Soviet acct- Asselsline takes a middle (pperts say could disable sa ety dent. NRC had launched a review .

kround. saying Chernobyl has '

l utpment - and allow steam o of the adequacy of containments I !ghlighted problems at US plants I** at US plants, and it probably will but insisting they can.be solved -

(uring an accid t ke 11 e one at irecommend " building in more provided NRC and the industry pernoby!, a e

.. safety than what we've got now." take.three steps.

Ith Three years later, a :said Herbert Kouts, director of First; they must systematically

• "" review each plant for design weak-tiestro)ed c ! ntrolling pri- ,ithat rey!cw Department and chairman of Nuclear Energy at of thenesses. The industry also should ste m

$Drookhaven National Laboratory. Improve inanagement equipment

- just as t appatently did at Cher' i One possibt!!! , Kouts said. !s and training. And desfgns must nobyl. ,,_. . -  ? adding an outer ering to allow be up raded to reduce the chance And in 1970. In t!.e worst US the slow release o steam during of rne downs and other accidents.

puclear power lant accident, hy- 'an accident: radioactive gases Without those changes the

• ",8[ree* 1and p ant w uld be filtered out and the chance of Chernob l type acci-

, [' steam would be vented to the air, dents is disturbing! large, said pad caused what government ofTI- ,;This system, already in use in Daniel Ford, former frector of the

. gple say was a minor explosion...,, Union of Concerned Scientists.

Sweden and France. offers further A 1981 study by two top gov-

' ocidents are possible .

emmen safety ometals concluded h.fore."

Wesaid have had Robert a lota for-Pollard, of problems N h ves ressu e t a e . that nch US reactor currently puncture the containment, mer NRC safety off)ctal now with . faces a 1 in 2.000 chance of a sert-Most special!sts s ee that So. ous accident every year. Ford said.

' the Union of Concerned Scientists. viet reactors have peatures that ' . "That means the United States A p critical of nuclear power.

we have gotten away with make them more dan faces a SO percent chance of hav.

that the Soviets progerous, ably have and a

k"hr em, but their frequency and na,

'hre suggests if we don't do some.

less rigorous safety regulations than the United States, Ing a Chernoby"l or something like it this decade. he added. "And ,

liitng, we're going to have a major , worldwide, there would ,be on,e j a eldent."

'"a But Brian Sheron, NRC's depu. meltdown escr three years. It a

!,p' US plants are susceptible to hy- ty director of t,afety review and not,, prophecy, it y 's just arithme-dr,. ogen explosions. Pollard said, oversight, goes a step further - ar- llc-

'The hydrogen is released when guing that Chernobyl confirms - . . .

prater in the core heats to twice its some safety deciaione made in the i n,ormal temperature following an " United States.

Isecident. and steam reacts with US power lants, for instance.

Mhc streonium metal wr use water ratker than graphite to

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, 'DATE: 5/26/86 PAGE: ss Pilgrim and Chernobyh some similarities " I p 3 ehPilgrim nuclear power plant in

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clear safety experts.  :

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Like the Soviet reactor, Pil . -l)z grim and 38 other US plants de-signed by General Electric Co. '.-E v:

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have huge ponds of water.- p' i  :

called pressure supression- p#

' pools - under the reactor.

f*.

If the reactor la punctured- l by a broken pipe or other acci. ' .

dent, water used to cool the hot . L .,  ;

radioactive fuel would pour out F i

and turn to steam. Before the  !

steam can reach dangerous . .

pressure, however, safety sys- 1 l

tems are supposed to channelit u  !

to the pool, whert it would con-dense and turn back to water, The Pilgrim plant in Plymo,uth.  !

i As further protection, Pil.

,, grim's reactor ta encased in A rad!oactive leak atso col,ild correct them. It strengthened l

.lightbulb shaped butiding a.Foccur- if too much steam wentW'the e donut like structure {

called a drywell- with three- to the cooling pools or too much around the cooling pool to en-  !

quarterinch steel walls refn . actor, hydrogen collected near the re- sure It would not come loose he wrote. during an accident and " beefed . }

forced with six feet of concrete, {

able to withstand 62 pounds While they also have some up" protection of pipes and oth- i

.per square inch of pressure safety advants es, on balance g er key safety equipment. j from steam or other gases. Con- be!!cve the disadvanta8es are Those changes .do not Im-trary to early reports that Cher. Preponderant.o Hanauer said {.ress Robert Pollard, a former j nobyl had no containment, the of the OE plants containment RC safety official now with  !

Soviet reactor also was protect. ' . and cooling pool. , I recommend the Union of Concerned Scien-4 i

ed by steel and concrete that ' that (the overnment) adopt a can withstand about 57. p hey of tscouragmg further "khe Hanauer memo didn't.

pounds of pressure, use of presa recommend any changes to But safety systems do not al-tamments, ,ure supression con- plants - for the reason that the i ways work as intended, as seen problems are inherent in.the In a response five days later,

.in scares Of accidents at US Joseph M Hendrie, later'NRC design, and nothing can be done about them," he said.

plants - and at Chernobyl. . . chairman, called Hanauer's For years, nuclear critics idet "an attrr.ctive one in some The alternative would have have debated Boston F,dison. ways." But Hendrie had an- been to build larger contain-ment htructures able to with-Co. over the reliability ofits Pil. other concern about banning etand grcuter volumes of grim plant, t.ast week, in the the GE desigmReversalof this-wake of the Chernobyl acci. hallowed polley, partleularly at steam, rather than. relying on dent, the Union of Concerned this time, could well be the end smaller shells equipped with

, Scientists renewed the debate cooling pools, pollard said. GE

. by releasing Internal NuclearHendrie, ' g nuclear .did not do that, he said," purely -

now a power," he wrote.

~ .

consultant, because of economics."

Regulatory Commission docu- astd GE containments "are per- 0.E Wade, a nuclear de- j ments questioning the safety of fectly good devices and the way signer at General Electric.. -

Pilgrim and other GE g! ants. we build them, they have a s In a 1972 letter re,essed by good dea! more leeway than the e,g,earreed inMagazine:

Safety a 1974 article Larger. in Nu , <

i UCS. the NRC's former top safe- attempted containment around dry containments like the ones  !

.ty official, Stephen Hanauer, that Russian graphite reactor." Hanauer preferred "could not .

worried that valves leading to. ' Richard Swanson, Boston be designed which were eco ~

the cooling pool could stick or' Edison's nuclear engineering nomically competitive with other equipment malfunction, manager, said the utilit ~

, causing steam to collect in the agreed with many of Hanauer'y s used pressurized water by GE's malp reactors" competitor, i I

reactor building and break safety concerns and has spent '

through the containment- $19 m!!!!on over 16 years to . Westinghouse Electric Corp.

- La,rry Tye, I

I

'* r

^b BOSTON EDISON COMPANY

/;

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