Irvine : Edison Official Stresses Safety at Nuclear Plants

Lawrence T. Papay, senior vice president of Southern California Edison Co., told an Irvine gathering Monday that the Soviet nuclear disaster at Chernobyl could not happen in America “because of technical reasons and because our approach to safety is different.”

Papay, a nuclear engineer, was the luncheon speaker at a meeting of Town Hall of California at the Irvine Hilton and Towers hotel. Although he discussed the overall safety of all nuclear power plants in the United States, he focused on the Edison plant at San Onofre, just south of San Clemente.

Papay said that U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission strictness is one reason for the low accident potential at San Onofre and other U.S. nuclear plants.

The commission, in a May 16 report, accused plant officials of three “apparent violations” of federal regulations in detecting problems in safety-related equipment. But the commission added that the alleged violations had not resulted in any danger to the public.

Papay did not elaborate in his speech on the NRC charges, but he stressed that San Onofre and other nuclear plants constantly are trying to improve their safety procedures. He added that all U.S. nuclear plants are more safety-oriented than the Chernobyl plant, which experienced a disastrous meltdown and radiation leak on April 26.

Chernobyl, Papay explained, used graphite to moderate--or slow down--the neutrons within the reactor. Graphite can and, indeed, did burn at Chernobyl, he said. By contrast, San Onofre and virtually all other nuclear plants in the United States use water for both nuclear moderating and cooling.

“Obviously, water can’t burn,” he said.

Papay also said that building designs at San Onofre are very different from the plant at Chernobyl. The Soviet facility, he said, lacked San Onofre’s reinforced dome-like top. The four-foot-thick, concrete-reinforced domes of San Onofre, he added, are especially designed to contain radiation in case of an accident.

In response to questions from the audience, Papay said he could not give “100% assurance” that there would never be any accidents at San Onofre. But he said that safety factors have been built in to protect the public and that radiation from an accident would be held within the plant buildings.