The Lucknow Sentinel, 1979-05-02, Page 2Page 2—Loclaow Sentinel, Wednesday,, May 2, 1979
"What°ttnS country needs
Bob McKinley, Huron -Bruce MP, the incumbent for the
riding in the May 22 election was in Lucknow last Thursday
to campaign for votes. He . is shown here with John
MacMurchy, centre and Jack Ritchie. [Sentinel Staff Photo]
...is effective leadership."
- Moira Couper, Ed Broadbent NDP '.
COUPER ND
Huron -
Bruce
Bayfield 565-2522 Exeter 229-6223 Seaforth 527-1860
Clinton 482-3208 Goderich 524-2756 • ,Wingham 357-1594
IAulhonxeo by ofbbral agent el Mona Couper. N D P , f3ayNelol
Hydro wanit$.horin...g
to refute secret papers
Ontario Hydro has .demanded'a public
hearing to discuss and. refute secret reports
which claim a serious nuclear accident is
possible at the Bruce Nuclear Power
Development
Lorne McConnell,, Ontario. .Hydro prod-
uction
rod
uction vice-president has said a hearing
will. be held at -Queen's Park.
Secret reports, tabled in they legislature
by Opposition Leader Stuart . Smith last
week showed mishaps at the. Bruce gener-
ating station A are similar to incidents
which led to. a nuclear crisis at the Three
Island. nuclear .plant.. in . Pennsylvania
recently.
The:. report cited a deuterium gas
explosion in. the Bruce reactor at unit 2 on
March 14; 1978 and a major. lealrfrom the
heat transport maintenance cooling system
which required reactor.' shutdown in.
January of this year•
A Bruce nuclear plant.official docum-
ented seven incidents' . of technical or
operator failure' at the Bruce station in a
report he sent to' Liberal MPP Eddie
Sargent.
The incidents at Bruce were.compared ,
with'failures which led. to the': Three Mile '
_.,
Island crisis.
At the U.S. plant the backup supply . of
.feed 'water for the reactor didn't supply.
cooling water 'for several crucial minutes
due to 'operator error. The informant who
calls himself Mr. Schultz said \ the same
incident ;occurred (at Bruce) on July 28,
1977 when the auxiliary pump , failed to
start when required'•.due to. equipment
failure not operator error. •
A• .hydrogen.bubble:such as the one
that caused overheating and threatened an
explosion of the core at Three Mile Island
isn't likely to happen at Bruce. But there
have , -been excessive concentrations of
explosive heavy hydrogen at Bruce and last
year the problem. caused an explosion.
"On many occasions the radioactive
moderator Systems which surround the
uranium -filled pressure tubes in Candu
reactors have had'excessive concentrations
of deuterium. An explosion of deuterium
occured March 14, 1978 when the reactor
was shut. down;" said. the report.
Deuterium is heavy hydrogen and has. the
same explosive characteristics -aS ordinary
hydrogen. The documents noted
chat following the explosion, pressure
release devices operated as they were
designed to do and minor amounts of
radioactive tritium were released into the
containment system.
Under atomic control board regulations,
Candu reactors must start reducing power
if deuterium concentration reaches 4 per
cent and the reactor must shut down if
concentrations amount to 6 per cent. The
informant said concentrations as high as 27
per cent had been measured at the Bruce
Plant.
The official also saidthat rupture discs at
Bruce designed to prevent 'a major
breakdown of the radio -active containment •
system were installed backwards in all: four
reactors, forcing a temporary shutdown for
repairs.
Schultz said -til: Bruce plant suffered
leaks in "steam kenerators resulting in
radio=active heavy water •leaks outside of
the containment' gstem. lie said the leaks
were repaired,. but it was found, that feed
water pre -heaters were subject to severe,
vibrations'. This meant the• pre=heaters,
could fail and the atomic energy control
board demanded ,.:jnodificatiops. Hydro
installed. bypass lines around the pre -heat-
ers which, contained rupture discs: °which.
would ` burst '.at excessive pressures , to.
prevent serious vibrations:.
It was recently discovered. the rupture
discs were installed backwards in all. four
reactors: The reactors were shut down to
make the necessary repairs. Nevertheless,
said Schultz there is still no guarantee that
under severe conditions .pre -heater tubes
will not develop leak's-. Radio-
'active
adio-active leaks inside the containment: build-
ing at Bruce couldbe safely eliminated by
CANDU's unique , vacuum system • said
Schultz. But if there was a 'holein the
containment system, andthere have been
at least six•. at Bruce; ,the vacuum; unit
would be useless and the radioactive
release would be worse -AW at Three Mile
Island the official said.
In all fairness the above failures were
well handled by Hydro, said Schultz..Safe-
ty` defi%iencies were noted and design
changes wore made. Even so, multiple
failures have not been looked at closely
enough.,,
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