31 Jul (NucNet): US nuclear regulators are to conduct a special inspection at the San Onofre nuclear power plant in California after problems were discovered with several electrical connections affecting plant safety systems.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said yesterday that the inspection at the twin unit plant, operated by Southern California Edison, will begin on 4 August 2008 and is expected to take several days.

The inspection follows an incident in which maintenance personnel discovered a loose electrical connection on an emergency battery that rendered it inoperable, NRC inspectors identified similar problems that had occurred since 2005. These problems with electrical connections had affected the operability of an emergency diesel generator and batteries that are used to supply power during some accident conditions, the NRC said.

NRC region four administrator Elmo Collins said: �We are concerned about the number of failures and want to take a look at the way the licensee has responded to the issue.�

A three-person team of NRC specialists will review the circumstances related to the problems, the licensee�s root cause evaluation and the effect it had on the availability and reliability of plant safety systems. The team will report on its findings up to 45 days after the inspection.

In January 2008, the NRC ordered changes at San Onofre after the discovery that records relating to fire patrols had been falsified over a five-year period. Although the NRC said the missed patrols had low safety significance because of other fire defence measures, the commission was concerned at the lack of management supervision over fire watches during the midnight shift for five years.

� by John Shepherd

>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)

US San Onofre N-Plant Gets Approval To Replace Steam Generators (News No. 202, 28 December 2005)

Falsification Of Records Prompts Changes At US San Onofre Plant (News in Brief No. 5, 15 January 2008)

Source: NucNet

Editor: editors@worldnuclear.org

31 Jul (NucNet): The cornerstone has been laid for a new dry spent fuel storage facility at Bulgaria�s Kozloduy nuclear power plant.

German consortium Nukem-GNS was awarded the contract to build the facility in May 2004. The facility will store spent fuel assemblies from Kozloduy�s six reactor units. Thirty-four casks are scheduled for delivery in May 2010, which will mark the completion of the project.

The scope of the contract included the design, manufacturing and constructing, testing and commissioning of the facility for 2,800 VVER-440 spent fuel assemblies.

The storage technology is based on cask storage using the CONSTOR-cask type. Nukem Technologies has designed and will construct the storage building including handling and transporting facilities for the casks on site. Partner company GNS is responsible for the supply of the casks.

The project is financed by the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Funds, which are administered by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The facility is designed to safely store spent nuclear fuel for a period of at least 50 years.

>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)

Bulgarian Storage Facility Contract Awarded To German Consortium (Business News No. 31, 7 June 2004)

Nukem Announces Completion Of Major Projects (World Nuclear Review No. 5, 2 February 2007)

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Source: NucNet

Editor: editors@worldnuclear.org