Group Wants to Keep California Nuclear Plant Offline
18th June 2012
Of course they do.
An environmental group wants the ailing San Onofre nuclear power plant to remain offline because it says Southern California Edison sidestepped regulatory rules when it installed new equipment.
Not a safety issue, but one of pure pettifoggery — they have no rational reason to oppose it, they just want to cancel the 20th century, so bureaucratic nitpicking is all they have.
June 19th, 2012 at 06:37
“Not a safety issue, but one of pure pettifoggery”
But that’s how it starts. ‘Sidestep’ this regulation here, ‘sidestep’ that regulation there…and call it mere ‘bureaucratic nitpicking’ if anyone objects. Then later you can ‘sidestep’ a few other of those other pesky regulations–eventually including the safety ones, because they just cost extra money and really, what could happen? Everything is perfectly safe…so they tell us.
Until it isn’t.
Then there’s hand-wringing, finger-pointing, weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth over who’s really at fault. As evidence, I submit “Deepwater Horizon” and the three-ring legal circus that blossomed after the oil spill in the Gulf.
No, much better some ‘bureaucratic nitpicking’ at the beginning to counter the constant pressure to cut corners. A stitch in time, and all that.
June 19th, 2012 at 12:16
I deal with EHS regulations every day and very, very few of them actually spell out any requirements that protect safety or the environment. It’s very easy to do things right but still have regulatory issues. Refineries faced the wrath of the EPA a few years ago because EPA decided that improved catalysts used in cracking petroleum constituted physical changes in the plant that required federal applications. It was stupid; the environment wasn’t in danger because the unit ran more efficiently.
As for BP’s mess in the Gulf, they followed all the regulatory requirements. The problem had to do with BP’s insane way of doing business. Government regulations cannot prevent someone from being stupid. BP had similar problems at their refinery in Texas City. The company just put no value in utilizing experience. It was that classic “anyone with an MBA outranks everyone else” situation.
June 19th, 2012 at 12:42
“Government regulations cannot prevent someone from being stupid.” Granted. But maybe some of the more egregious stupidity can be bridled if the right regulations, properly enforced, are adhered to.
The regulations in question are not EHS or EPA, but rather NRC, so whatever experience you have had may be valuable but not really applicable in this case.
BP’s mess in the Gulf was the result of a confluence of circumstances, but the one that stands out for me is that the blowout preventer–which was touted as ‘fool-proof’–had 260 different failure modes which would require removal/replacement. This from an internal Transocean report from 2001.
Much as I love engineering, a lot of what happened on the Deepwater Horizon can be chalked up to bad or inadequate design having all the earmarks of ‘hurry up and ship it; we’ll clean up the details later’. And of course ‘later’ never comes. What leads us to believe that the same ‘hurry-up’ mindset isn’t operating at this and other nuclear plants?
No, I think bureaucratic nit-picking is JUST what we need. And maybe a little more of it. ‘Sidestepping’ and ‘shortcutting’ just leads to trouble later down the road.
June 19th, 2012 at 15:38
NRC, EPA, DHS, doesn’t matter, you still have the same disconnected bureaucrats making up rules that are designed around their auditing abilities and not how best to get anything done. I have had some experience with nukes and quite honestly the corporations and the government regulators scare the hell out of me.
I’ve seen permit engineers (with degrees in engineering) that didn’t know how a turbine works. One permit writer was worried that we might pump too much water out of the Houston Ship Channel (which is connected to the Gulf of Mexico) and not leave enough for other users. One wanted to issue a fine because we constructed 2 units and not the 3 in the original permit. (In his defense, that particular state’s central office didn’t bother to tell them that we pulled that permit.) Inspectors that showed up with beards and wearing sandals.
These people are NEVER going to add a margin of safety to any company’s operations.
The only gov’t group that I will say is worth every penny is the U.S. Coast Guard. They are very pro-active in working with companies to reduce risks and environmental hazards. When it comes to inspections, they are extremely knowledgeable and when it comes to fines, they are strict but fair. (Not surprising, they hate the EPA and other gov’t agencies more than most companies – and for the same basic reasons: bureaucracy and incompetence.)