US nuclear reactor turned off after radiation leak
February 2, 2012
View of the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant in north San Diego County in 2011. A reactor at the San Onofre nuclear power plant near San Diego has been shut down after a radiation leak which was not big enough to cause public harm, the US atomic safety agency said Wednesday.
A reactor at the San Onofre nuclear power plant near San Diego has been shut down after a radiation leak which was not big enough to cause public harm, the US atomic safety agency said Wednesday.
Radioactive gas escaped from a pipe in a building located next to the reactor on Tuesday evening, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said.
Since the equipment-housing building into which the gas leaked is not airtight, it is possible a "very, very low level," of radioactive material escaped into the environment, said NRC spokesman Victor Dricks.
Those traces would be "barely measurable against (existing) background levels," and would pose no danger to the public, he added.
The operator of the California nuclear plant, Southern California Edison Co. (SCE), said it was investigating the exact cause of the incident and that the reactor would not be used for several days.
At the time of the incident the other reactor at the California site was shut down for essential maintenance, but SCE said it had sufficient supplies to service its customers.
San Onofre produces enough energy to power 1.4 million homes, according to SCE.
(c) 2012 AFP
-
Small fire at Japan nuclear lab; no radiation leak
Dec 20, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Officials seek cause of reactor shutdown
Nov 03, 2006 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Small fire stops Swedish nuclear reactor
Oct 23, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
No uncontrolled reaction at Fukushima: operator
Nov 03, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
GE defends nuclear plant design
Mar 18, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Stars containing dark matter should look different from other stars
Feb 20, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (17) |
11
-
Physicists discover evidence of rare hypernucleus, a component of strange matter
Feb 17, 2012 |
4.7 / 5 (38) |
22
-
Fast photon control brings quantum photonic technologies closer
Feb 13, 2012 |
5 / 5 (8) |
1
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (36) |
32
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
Calculating forces involved in seesaw motion
4 hours ago
-
Writing shear and moment equations for a simple beam problem?
5 hours ago
-
Furnace Shell Spray Cooling Design
21 hours ago
-
Ways to measure the speed of a golf ball?
Feb 21, 2012
-
Water Skin Effect in Plastic Pipe
Feb 21, 2012
-
Undergraduate Engineering Physics To Graduate Aerospace Engineering
Feb 21, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - General Engineering
More news stories
Stanford research team cracks animated NuCaptcha
(PhysOrg.com) -- The research team from Stanford University, led by Elie Bursztein, that previously had cracked regular CAPTCHAs and then audio CAPTCHAs, now has also successfully cracked the animated version called NuCapt ...
Technology / Computer Sciences
18 hours ago |
5 / 5 (3) |
6
|
Tiny, implantable medical device can propel itself through bloodstream
Someday, your doctor may turn to you and say, "Take two surgeons and call me in the morning." If that day arrives, you may just have Ada Poon to thank.
17 hours ago |
5 / 5 (9) |
8
|
Italian engineer invents floating solar panels
Rays of the winter sun bounce off gleaming mirrors on the tiny lake of Colignola in Italy, where engineers have built a cost-effective prototype for floating, rotating solar panels.
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
21 hours ago |
4.7 / 5 (6) |
5
Microsoft hits Motorola, Google with EU complaint
Microsoft on Wednesday lodged a formal complaint with the European Union's competition regulator against Motorola Mobility and its soon-to-be owner Google, saying Motorola's aggressive enforcement of patent ...
17 hours ago |
2 / 5 (1) |
2
Calif. pledges better mobile privacy disclosures
(AP) -- Mobile applications seeking to collect personal information will have to forewarn users as part of an agreement reached in California.
9 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Researchers build first physical 'metatronic' circuit
(PhysOrg.com) -- The technological world of the 21st century owes a tremendous amount to advances in electrical engineering, specifically, the ability to finely control the flow of electrical charges using ...
Spitzer finds solid buckyballs in space
(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have, for the first time, discovered buckyballs in a solid form in space. Prior to this discovery, the microscopic carbon spheres ...
Faster than light neutrinos? More like faulty wiring
You can shelf your designs for a warp drive engine (for now) and put the DeLorean back in the garage; it turns out neutrinos may not have broken any cosmic speed limits after all.
Physicists surprised by disappearing and reappearing superconductivity in iron selenium chalcogenides
Superconductivity is a rare physical state in which matter is able to conduct electricity -- maintain a flow of electrons -- without any resistance. This phenomenon can only be found in certain materials at low temperatures, ...
Going up: Japan builder eyes space elevator
A Japanese construction firm claimed Wednesday it could execute an out-of-this-world plan to put tourists in space within 40 years by building an elevator that stretches a quarter of the way to the moon.
Flesh-eating bacteria inspire superglue
(PhysOrg.com) -- A bio-inspired superglue has been developed by Oxford University researchers that can’t be matched for sticking molecules together and not letting go.
