Oroville Dam: Feds and state officials ignored warnings 12 years ago

Re:Oroville Dam: Feds and state officials ignored warnings 1... by gonzo41 on Monday February 13, 2017 @04:55AM (#13634205)

Think of all the shortcuts happening in all those nuclear plants around the country!

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Re:Oroville Dam: Feds and state officials ignored warnings 1... by tristanj on Monday February 13, 2017 @05:45AM (#13634378)

For nuclear incidents, I'm worried the next one will be in China, not in the states. China is building dozens of nuclear power plants, too quickly for the amount of trained technicians, critics say. There is also a disregard for nuclear safety standards. Last year there were 16 publicly reported incidents at Chinese nuclear power stations. According to RadioFreeAsia [1],

> Six [of the 16] incidents involved staff members breaching operational guidelines, and four were caused by a lack of internal communication. More worryingly, six were caused by staff members "pressing the wrong buttons."

which shows a lack of training. Another incident, described by the SCMP, tells how a critical alarm system was accidentally turned off 3 months before anyone noticed [2]

>An alarm system monitoring the radiation of reactor coolant at a nuclear power plant in Shenzhen was accidentally shut down for three months before the mistake was discovered, although a safety committee insisted the incident did not constitute a safety breach.

An official on the "Nuclear Power Station Nuclear Safety Consultative Committee" downplayed the incident saying "There was no harm done.", adding "there is always room for improvement for such a large operation."

[1] China Nuclear Power Plant Incidents Highlight 'Systemic' Safety Concerns http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/concerns-0109201712105...

[2] ‘No harm done’: alarm at Daya Bay nuclear plant accidentally deactivated for three months http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/articl...

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Re:Oroville Dam: Feds and state officials ignored warnings 1... by ZeroGravitas on Monday February 13, 2017 @06:13AM (#13634481)

"More worryingly, six were caused by staff members "pressing the wrong buttons."

I'm sure in one of the classic UI books (maybe Psychology of Everyday Things by Norman) there's a photo from a nuclear power plant, where there's two giant levers right next to each other, and the plant workers have attached a handle from a beer pump to one of them to distinguish it from the other, because as built they were identical and they kept pulling the wrong one.

edit: found a page referencing it, but the actual image has gone:

http://bactra.org/reviews/everyday-things/nukewiser.html

You can see it here:

https://issuu.com/design.nerve/docs/the_design_of_everyday_t...

Page 95 as the book is numbered, but page 111 in the web interface control.

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Re:Oroville Dam: Feds and state officials ignored warnings 1... by gonzo41 on Monday February 13, 2017 @07:12AM (#13634697)

In the context of this Dam and other systems like nuclear power the fact that keeps coming home is that we (humans / our current culture) are generally bad at looking after systems over a long time.

I'd be money once this settles down, people will find and engineer report about this dam where someone recommends spending 100k on some detailed testing and some drilled cement injection to sure up the spill way. And then a week later they will find the minutes from the meeting were the administrators said the risk wasn't there so don't worry. Saved some money.

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Re:Oroville Dam: Feds and state officials ignored warnings 1... by rurban on Monday February 13, 2017 @06:48AM (#13634603)

But nobody else would be so reckless to build nuclear power plants on the ring of fire, or in major hurricane areas. Only Japan and the USA do. (Diablo, Fukushima, South Texas - even a crazy experimental one with overlarge vessels)

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Re:Oroville Dam: Feds and state officials ignored warnings 1... by tristanj on Monday February 13, 2017 @03:03PM (#13638244)

It's clear China has the exact issues you described. About half their nuclear power plants are in major typhoon areas; and plants in fujian and sichuan (totaling a half-dozen) are subject to major earthquakes.

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