San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant- Ammonia Leak (Need Answers FAST!!!)

[bienville]

Here’s an L.A. Times article on what seems to be a complete “Yawn” of an accident.

I live 5 miles away from the power plant.
Some of my loved ones are FREAKING OUT!!!

Any suggestions as to helpful “Calm the fuck down” information that I can share with these people?

From the linked article:

An ammonia leak prompted officials to declare a Level-Two emergency at the San Onofre nuclear power plant and evacuate some workers, officials said.

The leak posed no danger to the public, and no radiation was released during the emergency, said Lauren Bartlett, a spokeswoman for Southern California Edison.
Under federal regulations, there are four emergency levels, depending on the severity of the situation. Level Two involves any “potential substandard degradation in the level of safety of the plant.”

[mac_bolan00]

ammonia is one commercial/industrial product of nuclear power plants. it is not involved in the operation (fission reaction, steam generation, power production.) so an ammonia leak is a bit removed from the usual risks one thinks of in NPPs but still it constitutes a disruption.

i’m not an expert on how the genral public should be informed and directed during various levels of emergency but from my own knwledge, it is a multi-agency effort. contact your police, municipal offices, and federal agencies in the area.

[bienville]

Here’s a quote I like from a Washington Post article I found:
Link

Spokesman Gil Alexander tells the Orange County Register that the alert is the lowest of four possible emergency classifications used by the nuclear industry.

He did not know the size of the ammonia leak, which came from reactor unit 3’s steam system. At San Onofre, the steam that drives turbines, which generate electricity, is separated from radioactive systems

Somehow this is not the least bit reassuring to some people who are still saying “Oh My God! RUN!!!”

[mac_bolan00]

ammonia is produced by hydrogen from electrolysis of water and nitrogen extracted from the air. it is a valuable commodity for fertilizers and even fuel.

http://energyfromthorium.com/2011/10/29/nuclear-ammonia/

[IAmNotSpartacus]

@bienville

Here’s a quote I like from a Washington Post article I found:
Link

Somehow this is not the least bit reassuring to some people who are still saying “Oh My God! RUN!!!”

If there was a risk of danger to life or property you would have heard from the government. You can trust the government.

[Alka_Seltzer]

What mac_bolan00 said. The ammonia is produced on site because electricity is generated there, it has nothing to do with the operation of the reactor and comes no-where near it, so is not radioactive. From the wiki article:

Approximately 83% (as of 2004) of ammonia is used as fertilizers either as its salts or as solutions. When applied to soil, it helps provide increased yields of crops such as corn, wheat and soybeans. Consuming more than 1% of all man-made power, the production of ammonia is a significant component of the world energy budget

Ammonia has a strong pungent smell, your relatives would know if they were breathing it even in very low concentrations.

[bienville]

Thanks for the links and info, everybody.

@IAmNotSpartacus

If there was a risk of danger to life or property you would have heard from the government. You can trust the government.

Although the people I’m dealing with are not quite so nutty as to believe that the government would maliciously poison us or write us off as collateral damage, they do, unfortunately, fall into such nonsense as:
“Yeah, but maybe they think they can get it under control so they prefer not to say anything, but once it gets so bad that they HAVE to say something, then it’s too late for us to evacuate!”
or “Yeah, but how do they know it’s safe. This problem could already be setting off a new problem that they don’t know about yet. Or maybe a different problem set this problem off but they didn’t notice the original problem, they just noticed this effect of that problem thinking that this thing is just its own thing and not even know about the real original problem!”
Basically, their gut tells them there’s reason to worry therefore the word of the experts means nothing.

Personally, when someone has dedicated a life to the study and advancement of knowledge in a deeply complex field of scientific and engineering technology, I tend to give a bit of credit to that person’s expertise.

I give considerably more credit to that person’s expertise that I give to an uneducated or mis-educated person’s gut feeling.
The people I was forced to argue with yesterday are people who live with a distrust of the power plant based on no more education on the matter than the recognition that “Nuclear Power” and “Nuclear Bomb” both have the word “Nuclear”. This, supplemented by fliers and pamphlets handed out by “No Nukes” types- having read reenforcement of their concerns in print they strengthen their resolve: Their concerns must be valid, here it is in print they read about it.

Living with this distrust on a daily basis, any news at all of something wrong at the power plant sets them off in evacuation mode.
The MOST frustrating thing about it is that these are people who scoff at evolution deniers and global warming deniers for being anti-science, for being so ignorant as to hold onto their bullshit beliefs despite the fact that all scientific literature supports the opposite. Yet, on the issue of nuclear power (and, for some of them, the vaccination “controversy”) the word of the experts is meaningless in opposition to their own gut feeling.

[Stranger_On_A_Train]

I used to live near an ice cream plant. They vented large amounts of ammonia on a regular basis. (Ammonia is used in the freezing process to prevent water ice crystals from being formed and keep the lipids in collusion.) Other than the astringent odor, it had no harmful or persistent effects.

Stranger

[Buck_Godot]

@bienville

Basically, their gut tells them there’s reason to worry therefore the word of the experts means nothing.

As someone whose wife is hyper vigilant due to PTSD, I can tell you that there is probably no way to reason your way through to them. The emotional part of their brain is short circuiting the reasoning part. In order to engage them you need to do so at an emotional level. “What is it about nuclear power that makes it so frightening?” In the end they are probably going to evacuate take whatever other steps they deem necessary just so that they can “feel” safe, regardless of it there is rationally any danger.

[TurboNuke]

I asked someone who works there today. A pipe broke spilling about 25 gallons of ammonia. Industrial strength ammonia is very strong. I’ve smelled it before. It is extremely irritating. Therefore some operators had to evacuate the turbine building. Not having operators in some parts of the plant requires the declaration of an Unusual Event. I’m not sure if people had to go in with respirators to isolate the leak or if they just let it dissipate.

The ammonia is used to regenerate ion exchanger resin. The resin is used to make pure water for the plant. It’s not close to the nuclear part of things at all. So no worries.

[Snnipe_70E]

@TurboNuke

I asked someone who works there today. A pipe broke spilling about 25 gallons of ammonia. Industrial strength ammonia is very strong. I’ve smelled it before. It is extremely irritating. Therefore some operators had to evacuate the turbine building. Not having operators in some parts of the plant requires the declaration of an Unusual Event. I’m not sure if people had to go in with respirators to isolate the leak or if they just let it dissipate.

The ammonia is used to regenerate ion exchanger resin. The resin is used to make pure water for the plant. It’s not close to the nuclear part of things at all. So no worries.

Thanks for that info. I have been trying to figure out where the ammonia would have come from.