Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Tubes Plugged at San Onofre, Seismic Studies to Move Forward

Southern California Edison has moved forward with a plan first reported last week to take more than 1,300 tubes in the steam generators at San Onofre Nuclear Generating station offline. A total of 510 tubes at the Unit 2 reactor and 807 at Unit 3 have been plugged and removed from service. The total accounts for about 3.4 percent of more than 39,000 tubes that comprise the plant’s four generators, two at each reactor.

Despite the fix, no plan has yet been presented to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to restart operations at the facility, despite an earlier report that Edison could request permission to resume operations by mid-May and have the plant back online at reduced capacity as early as June. Southern California Edison’s corporate parent quickly backed off that statement, and Nuclear Regulatory Commission chief Gregory Jaczko called the move “clearly premature.”

Meanwhile, the previously mothballed AES Huntington Beach natural gas power plant went back online over the weekend, and will provide 440 megawatts of power, or enough to power about 280,000 homes, through the summer in an effort to mitigate the power loss from San Onofre remaining idled. The Huntington Beach plant, however, is scheduled to go offline for good in October, when a new facility in the City of Industry is scheduled to open.

In other San Onofre news, the California Public Utilities Commission has approved $64 million in seismic studies to determine potential impacts from earthquake faults surrounding the plant. The studies are being done as part of a drive to extend the operating licenses for the reactors beyond their current expiration dates in 2022, an issue we first reported on in 2010. Nuclear critics say the studies are needed even if the plant’s licenses are not extended, as large amounts of radioactive nuclear waste are stored on the site of San Onofre with no plans to move the material in the immediate future.

Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric customers will ultimately shoulder the cost of the studies. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography will participate in the studies of previously unaddressed offshore faults.

Similar studies have been approved for Diablo Canyon, the state’s other active nuclear plant. But unlike at Diablo Canyon, the Los Angeles Times reports that a peer review panel overseeing the studies will not report to the Public Utilities Commission, but instead to the Commission’s energy division director.

According to the Times, Administrative Law Judge Robert Barnett said the review process at Diablo Canyon had proved “cumbersome,” hence his recommendation for changes. Watchdog groups such as the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility bristled at the change, saying the group would have less independence and public access to the proceedings would suffer.

“After [Southern California Edison's] acceptance of defective steam generators, the Commission seems willing to accept SCE's seismic study scope and funding without a single seismic expert on staff,” says Alliance director Rochelle Becker. “At Diablo the Commission has the advantage of shared oversight of the California Coastal Commission, California Energy Commission, California Geological Survey and California Seismic Commission AND the Public Utilities Commission. Yet the CPUC's sister agencies play only an advisory role in the SONGS seismic review with ultimate authority resting in the hands of the Energy Division of the Commission.”

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

The Digital Currency Wave Hits the Shores of San Diego

Southern California Edison has moved forward with a plan first reported last week to take more than 1,300 tubes in the steam generators at San Onofre Nuclear Generating station offline. A total of 510 tubes at the Unit 2 reactor and 807 at Unit 3 have been plugged and removed from service. The total accounts for about 3.4 percent of more than 39,000 tubes that comprise the plant’s four generators, two at each reactor.

Despite the fix, no plan has yet been presented to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to restart operations at the facility, despite an earlier report that Edison could request permission to resume operations by mid-May and have the plant back online at reduced capacity as early as June. Southern California Edison’s corporate parent quickly backed off that statement, and Nuclear Regulatory Commission chief Gregory Jaczko called the move “clearly premature.”

Meanwhile, the previously mothballed AES Huntington Beach natural gas power plant went back online over the weekend, and will provide 440 megawatts of power, or enough to power about 280,000 homes, through the summer in an effort to mitigate the power loss from San Onofre remaining idled. The Huntington Beach plant, however, is scheduled to go offline for good in October, when a new facility in the City of Industry is scheduled to open.

In other San Onofre news, the California Public Utilities Commission has approved $64 million in seismic studies to determine potential impacts from earthquake faults surrounding the plant. The studies are being done as part of a drive to extend the operating licenses for the reactors beyond their current expiration dates in 2022, an issue we first reported on in 2010. Nuclear critics say the studies are needed even if the plant’s licenses are not extended, as large amounts of radioactive nuclear waste are stored on the site of San Onofre with no plans to move the material in the immediate future.

Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric customers will ultimately shoulder the cost of the studies. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography will participate in the studies of previously unaddressed offshore faults.

Similar studies have been approved for Diablo Canyon, the state’s other active nuclear plant. But unlike at Diablo Canyon, the Los Angeles Times reports that a peer review panel overseeing the studies will not report to the Public Utilities Commission, but instead to the Commission’s energy division director.

According to the Times, Administrative Law Judge Robert Barnett said the review process at Diablo Canyon had proved “cumbersome,” hence his recommendation for changes. Watchdog groups such as the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility bristled at the change, saying the group would have less independence and public access to the proceedings would suffer.

“After [Southern California Edison's] acceptance of defective steam generators, the Commission seems willing to accept SCE's seismic study scope and funding without a single seismic expert on staff,” says Alliance director Rochelle Becker. “At Diablo the Commission has the advantage of shared oversight of the California Coastal Commission, California Energy Commission, California Geological Survey and California Seismic Commission AND the Public Utilities Commission. Yet the CPUC's sister agencies play only an advisory role in the SONGS seismic review with ultimate authority resting in the hands of the Energy Division of the Commission.”

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.