Find UFOs, The Apocalypse, New World Order, Political Analysis,
Alternative Health, Armageddon, Conspiracies, Prophecies,
Spirituality, Home Schooling, Home Mortgages and more, in:
According to the April 18, 2003 NY Times, the South Texas Nuclear Project found residues indicating that the cooling water was leaking. Managers told the NRC that they do not know what caused the leak. Thirteen months ago, the Davis-Besse nuclear reactor in Ohio sustained similar, albeit much greater, damage. However, there has never been a leak found in the instrument-carrying tubes such as appears to be the case in Texas (Oakland Tribune, 4/20/03). A spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said, "This is the first time it's been seen, either here or abroad." This has serious implications nationwide, because such leaks, if large enough, could preclude emergency pumping to cool radioactive fuel.
The Times also wrote: "At plants around the country, cracks of some metal parts have been traced to stresses created in construction. Others have been caused by a phenomenon called intragranular stress corrosion cracking, which occurs in some metals when they are under stress at high temperature."
The Texas plant is one of the youngest in the country, being completed in 1988.
These leaks are not isolated. Twenty-three cracks were found in a plant in South Carolina in 2001, which led to a nationwide inspection of reactors. Leaks were also found in four of the 6" lids at the Surry Power Station in Virginia. And in Tennessee, a leak was found ten years ago in a TVA reactor.
Another underreported problem is the rupture of steam generator tubes. According to the NRC, such ruptures are "unavoidable" because of poor detection methods. Each rupture allows the release of radioactive steam into the atmosphere. Nationwide, there has been one tube failure/year due to such leakage.
Other Recent Steel Failures
In the continuing trend of poorly reported steel failures nationwide, in the last six months or so three transmission towers have inexplicably failed, killing two workers and injuring three. On September 24, 2002, a 1,965' transmission tower in Nebraska fell, killing two and injuring three people. The repair company, Structural Systems Technology (SST) of McLean, Va. (and wouldn't transmission towers be a perfect means for survellience by a government front?), is being sued for incomplete insurance. This was not the first such case. SST was successfully sued by an insurance company when one of its towers collapsed due to inferior steel rods used in construction.
On February 20, 2003, a 1500' tower fell in West Virginia and across the Ohio River, a 660' tower fell onto a second tower, bringing both down. These failures occured while being coated with ice during storms, which are not unusual events in WV/Ohio and a factor that would have been considered in the design. Inasmuch as all of the above structures were under normal design stresses, the most likely culprit of the failures is the use of inferior construction materials.
