N-reactors must close

Press, 16 July 1983, Page 10

N-reactors must close

NZPA Washington The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday ordered five nuclear reactors temporarily shut down within 30 days so officials can inspect cooling pipes for cracks. A source who demanded anonymity said that the order came after repeated commission reqests to the operators of the five plants to shut them down voluntarily. The requests were all turned down, said the source.

The commission order came after a warning by Harold Denton, the commission’s director of reactor regulations, that inspections at other, similar plants had detected cracks running all

the way around and halfway through 50cm pipes used to keep reactor cores cool.

Ruptures that could develop from pipe cracks could cause a loss of the water used to cool a reactor core and lead to a big accident.

Cracks have been found in the piping systems at 11 General Electric-manufac-tured boiling water reactors around the country. Four other similar reactors have been inspected and no big cracks were found.

In 1982, the commission ordered inspections at 24 G.E.-manufactured reactors after severe cracking was detected in large cooling pipes at a plant in western New York State.