Ohi Nuclear Power Plant and Upper Head Injection

Fukushima led to the shutdown of all nuclear power plants in Japan.  Recently, the two nuclear power plants, the Ohi Units 3 and 4, operated by Kansai Electric Power Company have been allowed to resume operation.  However, Ohi Units 1 and 2 remain shut down.

Following is an excerpt from a document from November 1990 that I have kept on file:

On October 3, 1984, I documented threats from the Upper Head Injection System, UHI, that is referred to as "upper core spray system" in the Ohi plants.  Following is the two page memorandum.

The above memorandum of October 3, 1984, led to substantial turmoil within the Nuclear Safety Analysis Center (NSAC), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and elsewhere. UHI systems were removed from all installations in the USA, (Duke Power Company and the Tennessee Valley Authority). However, in spite of all of the international programs at NRC, EPRI, INPO, and WANO, the word obviously never got to Kansai Electric Power Company until very much later, six years following my memorandum. 

Somewhat as an aside, the above copy is the copy that J. J. Taylor, the boss of the EPRI Nuclear Power Division routed to A. D. Rossin who was running NSAC.  The yellow highlighting is Taylor's as are also the two handwritten notes in the margins, "nothing wrong with this approach" and "speculation."

I have loads of documents in my file.  Maybe I'll write a book.  I worked at EPRI for another 10 years, until late 1994, but I was not in NSAC following my reporting of threats from UHI. My new assignment was in the Coal Combustion Systems Division where I managed to get EPRI to fund my  exploratory research in microscale heat transfer to pressurized water at ultra high heat fluxes. 

As I left EPRI about ten years following my UHI work,I negotiated the release of the files of my exploratory research and the apparatus. As an aside, I then I had time to reduce and report the fantastic results:

http://www.millpress.nl/shop/abooks/THERMES/THERMES/195.pdf

And, I took my ideas and apparatus to UCLA where my results were confirmed:

http://boiling.seas.ucla.edu/BOILING/Publications/Conf_LMWD2003