Extensive Wear Found in Recently Replaced SONGS Steam Generator

Blog Post: Extensive Wear Found in Recently Replaced SONGS Steam Generator

from Nuclear Power Industry News by Nuclear Street News

Just two years after it was replaced, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has reported significant wear in a steam generator at California’s San Onofre Nuclear Plant.

Earlier in the week, San Onofre unit 3 was taken out of service because of a leaking steam generator tube that resulted in a small release of radioactive steam into an auxiliary building. On Thursday initial reports from NRC inspectors also outlined wear in similar equipment at neighboring unit 2. During a scheduled outage for maintenance and inspections, the NRC found the thickness of two tubes in one of unit 2's two steam generators had been worn away by a third. Of 9,700 tubes in the steam generator, 69 were found to be at least 20 percent worn, and 800 tubes were at least 10 percent worn.