SAN ONOFRE - BACKWARDS INSTALLATION EFFECT ON RESPONSE TO SEISMIC EVENTS San Onofre - Backwards Installation Effect On Response To Seismic Events

Pratap Chatterjee (investigative reporter based in Berkeley, California), "Bechtel's Nuclear Nightmares", CorpWatch, May 1, 2003

And Don May, the president of California Earth Corp who has been fighting the plants since the 1960s, says that the future cost could be much higher because there is a major fault line about two miles away that is overdue for an earthquake. What worries him most is the fact that Bechtel installed one of the reactors backwards.

"The way the reactor has been installed at the site means that the seismic braces will exacerbate the impact of an earthquake rather than reduce it. In addition the reactor walls have been worn down to half their original thickness from constant bombardment." May explained. "If there is an earthquake, Lord help us."

Bechtel admits that the reactor was installed backwards but that's about it.

"There was not and is not any increased seismic risk," says Jeff Berger, a spokesman for Bechtel. "Bechtel, as the original constructor, would not be aware of reactor wall thinning problems. In-service inspections are typically conducted by the utility or subcontracted to the reactor supplier," he added.

[note: this excerpt was also in article that Chatterjee wrote a few years prior: The earth wrecker: The company that won the contract to oversee the rebuilding of S.F.'s water system has a disastrous record worldwide. , San Francisco Bay Guardian, May 31, 2000].

nuclear.com note: Mr. Chatterjee hosts the Terra Verde show on Friday afternoons on KPFA radio - Berkeley. Hear it live on the station's streaming MP3 broadcast over the net.