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Tubes at San Onofre nuclear plant show wear, regulators say

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Nuclear regulators said Thursday that extensive wear had been found on the tubes inside a unit at the San Onofre nuclear plant, where another unit was placed off-line after a leak earlier this week.

Dozens of tubes that carry radioactive water in a steam generator showed “many, many years” worth of wear, even though the tubing is only 22 months old, said Victor Dricks, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Nearly 70 tubes, made from a metal alloy and formed into a U-shape, had 20% of their interior lining worn off, while hundreds more had 10% of the lining deteriorated. More than 9,000 tubes are in the generator.

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Some of the tubes will require repair, Dricks said, while others will probably have to be replaced.

But officials for Southern California Edison, which operates the facility and is a majority owner, said that it was too premature to make any determination and that testing would continue.

The unit was off-line for a scheduled maintenance period of several months for technology upgrades and fuel replacement, said Gil Alexander, an Edison spokesman.

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It is unclear why the tubes were showing so much wear.

The commission’s findings follow a leak in a tube Tuesday, prompting operators to shut down a reactor. However, officials said the minuscule amount of radiation that leaked did not endanger the public.

rick.rojas@latimes.com

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