More flaws in new N-plant

Press, 28 October 1981, Page 9

More flaws in new N-plant

NZPA Los Angeles Newly discovered design errors at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant north of Los Angeles are “potentially more significant” than those found earlier, says a Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman. “The new design errors, which were discovered on Thursday and Friday, involve steel support braces that could fail, in a major earthquake, allowing tonnes of equipment to fall to the reactor floor,” a spokesman for the commission, Jim Hanchett, has said. Mr Hanchett said further delay in beginning operations at the $2.8 billion plant, located on the Pacific coast half-way between Los Angeles and Sah Francisco, appears inevitable. The facility is already years behind its original start-up date. Pacific Gas and Electric Company, the plant’s owners,, has been ordered to prove the accuracy of its seismicrelated calculations, he said. The errors involved an under-estimation of the weight of safety-related equipment located above the floor of the reactor building and the misplacement of some supports, Mr Hanchett said.

The strength of the supports is regarded as crucial since the plant is only 4km from an offshore fault that geologists have said could trigger a serious earthquake. A Pacific Gas spokesman said it was premature to assess the significance of the problem. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the errors cast suspicion on other design work as well. On September 22, a junior analyst at Pacific Gas found diagrams used to design earlier earthquake supports had been reversed for units one and two of the plant. The discovery was made shortly after the end of a two-week mass demonstration at the plant during which 1901 arrests were made.

“If a young engineer can usually discover one (error), what do you think an army of highly trained experts will find when they really start looking?” Mr Hanchett said.