Public Utilities Commission reopens San Onofre case

Don — A good rule of thumb will be if Aguirre & Severson (A&S) actually get to cross examine SCE (and others that worked with them), until that occurs there will be no real "investigation." A&S now have more than enough Techinical information to prove (in a honest court) that: 1. SCE not only knew their in-house Replacement Steam Generator (RSG) design had serious design features that could easily affect their safe operation but SCE also began to eliminate key employees at San Onofre that spoke up early on, in order to warn management that their would be problems with the flawed RSG design. 2. SCE's engineers never even did the required analysts to prove the safety of their RSG design. Later the NRC only slap them on the wrist for that, which also protect their own NRC Region IV employees that were supposed to be overseeing SCE's operation of San Onofre. 3. SCE ran Unit 3 "over it redline" in an unauthorized experiment, which caused the radioactive leak on 01/31/12. In hind sight, it was a lucky thing for everyone in SoCal, since that leak lead to a required major inspections of both Unit 2 (which just happened to be shut down for a scheduled refueling) and Unit 3. The inspections of the almost new RSG's discovered "unprecedented" damage in all of the RSG's which together had more internal tube damage than all the rest of the US Nuclear "Fleet" combined! It is very important to note that SCE still refuses to release its operational data from that day because it will prove that they, not ratepayers are completely at fault! 4. SCE worked with the NRC, the CPUC, their Pro-Utility advocates (like TURN and UCAN) and many elected Leaders that acknowledge SCE and SDG&E's political muscle to downplay what had occurred at San Onofre in an attempt to protect themselves from public scrutiny. 5. SCE decided to decommission San Onofre to end all investigations into it's wrong doings after securing a behind closed door deal with the CPUC, which made ratepayers responsible for almost all costs and even SCE's lost profits!
— May 12, 2016 8:37 a.m.

Public Utilities Commission reopens San Onofre case

Great news since SCE is trying to use poor quality casks that will not last very long which means that ratepayers might very well get stuck paying huge amounts of money in the future (including additional profits for SCE/SDG/E) to deal with leaking radiation from these cheap casks! Also some more good news, Two years of effort has culminated in a decision of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to reopen the San Onofre settlement agreement that saddled utility customers with a $3.3 billion debt. Credit goes largely to the press for their steadfast work to expose the wrongdoing that led to a secret deal struck in Warsaw, Poland to make ratepayers pay for the premature closing of the San Onofre Plant. + The majority of U.S. nuclear power facilities are storing highly radioactive nuclear waste in thin-walled canisters that cannot be inspected, maintained, repaired, and can crack and leak in the short-term, with no approved plan in place to remediate a major radiation release into the environment. Luckily we have local experts that are trying to help us do the job right the first time instead of taking chances with our long term safety in order to make a quick buck now. https://sanonofresafety.org/ + Here is a wonderful free animation that shows what could have happened if San Onofre (aka SanO) Unit 2 was restarted and one or more of its replacement steam generator (RSGs) tubes failed... Note you can move your cursor around the animation and explore many different sub-animations. http://acehoffman.blogspot.com/2013/02/new-animat…
— May 10, 2016 1:15 p.m.

Aguirre sues governor over records

Don — It is one thing to request records but quite another to PROVIDE technical documentation to the AG/investigators which should have allowed them to identify exactly where and when SCE, the CPUC and the NRC failed the public's trust, yet what we get is nothing in return. + If AG Harris's office is really working on SanO (vs sitting this one out), then it is time to provide an update to the public; otherwise what is happening is unacceptable, since it furthers her personally (since she is running for Senators Boxers Office and needs Governor Browns endorsement)!
— May 7, 2016 3:09 a.m.

Aguirre sues governor over records

Don — Salute to Aguirre & Severson for keeping the heat on Gov. Brown and the AG, if they are not careful we might see some surprises in November, since this will sure to be a major topic since it deals with PUBLIC TRUST. Aguirre & Severson might also consider that many of us have also sent the AG lots of detailed SanO info, (with copies sent to the CPUC, Senator Boxer, the NRC and the Public/Media) which are also email dated. Together they illustrate that upon receipt, they were ignored, never answered and/or therefore never investigated properly! An investigation about how the AG dealt with all the information that has been submitted would be very telling since I predict that it will show how the AG "picks & chooses" instead of doing what is best for CA ratepayers!
— May 6, 2016 6:34 p.m.

Where have the sand crabs gone?

RE: "Pacific Ocean sea life is under attack, especially to those that are are the bottom of the food chain, like coral, filter feeders and of course all those that live off of them." Many point to Climate Change/Global Warming (the catch all explanation that implies that we can't solve it any time soon) but I believe another factor is helping to create this massive die off that we can do something about. I'm referring to all the radioactive pollution that has and continues to come from Fukushima's triple meltdowns. Japan has decided that it is OK for them to use the Pacific Ocean as their radioactive toilet (their low cost solution for getting rid of all their contaminated radioactive water and ash) instead of spending the money to clean up after themselves. It has gotten so bad that they have even restricted free speech in Japan to further limit any discussion that will publicize what is going on and especially how they are dealing with all their radioactive pollution. This failure to be able to safely deal with nuclear "gone BAD" is an international engineering embarrassment to the Japanese because it is hurting not only their all powerful nuclear industry but also the global nuclear energy marketplace that is now being downsized because of accidents like Fukushima and ever lower renewable energy costs that are making nuclear fiscally uncompetitive. Until independent experts are allowed access to both Fukushima and the waters off Fukushima we will continue to see the Japanese radioactive pollution affect the Pacific Ocean while the US and other Pacific Rim countries look the other way as the sea life and all the millions of people that depend upon it as a major source of food, are affected. BTW: Many countries are now inspecting incoming food stuffs for radioactivity and/or (like the US) continue to keep increasing their threshold of what amount of radiation is "SAFE"!
— May 5, 2016 7:44 a.m.

Attorney general Kamala Harris's predictable "malpractice"

Rebecca — I think what we have here is the pointed end of the "real" news that many in the media wish they were able to share with the public but cannot because of the cozy relationship between these same media outlets and the "powerful entities, whose names we do not say say outloud"! Imagine what it must be like to be a "muzzled" professional reporter and have to play along, like nothing is really amiss, when the biggest ripoff in California history is occurring "during your news watch"; especially when they (and their shareholders) who must not be named are laughing all the way to the Bank, while at the same time asking the CPUC for more...
— April 27, 2016 4:41 p.m.

Attorney general Kamala Harris's predictable "malpractice"

Swell — Do a twitter or Google search for #sanonofregate and you will see tons of info, if there is something special you are interested in just let me know. Here is a link to get you started: http://tinyurl.com/jay5qlb + A wonderful free animation that shows what could have happened if SanO Unit 2 was restarted and one or more of its replacement steam generator (RSGs) tubes failed... Note you can move your cursor around the animation and explore many different sub-animations. http://acehoffman.blogspot.com/2013/02/new-animat…
— April 24, 2016 4:26 p.m.

Attorney general Kamala Harris's predictable "malpractice"

The key to OPENING SanOnofreGate * is that the CPUC ALJ stalled the investigation and then the ALJ that replaced her never even reopened the investigation despite receiving technical documentation that clearly showed that SCE knew about their RSG design problems yet they continued to have them manufactured, which then put southern California at risk of a nuclear accident, since they failed so soon after being installed and accepted by SCE as meeting all design criteria. **The new hashtag that will allow you to keep up to date on the ongoing investigation into the multi-billion $ SCE-CPUC ripoff.
— April 24, 2016 1:52 p.m.

Hey, Bernie: Hillary has diddled with Wall Street

Don — Clinton as President is $CARY because she is far too connected to Big Money. We would end up even more beholding to the Ultra Wealthy than we are now. I'm hopeful that San Diego voters wake up to the fact that they better get motivated else they will get GOP'd into having San Diego sold out from under them. How bad could it get, think what is happening in Hawaii, where locals and especially their children can no longer afford to live there.
— April 21, 2016 4:13 p.m.

More stench from California's utilities commission

Don — I know several of the UT reporters have tried to do even more but they have had trouble getting permission from management. I hope you are right and now the UT will become a louder voice for ratepayer fairness. I hope they and KPBS will also cover this story.
— February 25, 2016 3:33 p.m.