The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on March 4, 2009 sent a letter to Southern California Edison (SCE) the owners of the Nuclear power plant that sits about 35 minuets North of San Diego on the coastline in Oceanside. San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) annual assessment letter was the latest completed performance review for SONGS. Included in this letter was that the NRC was concerned that “the continuing performance problems are not being effectively addressed, and issues that were identified were in human performances, plus problem of identification and resolution”. The assessment letter went on to say “human performance findings include instance of operation error, failure to follow procedural guidance during surveillance, troubleshooting and nuclear fuel movement activities.” These issues are yet to be corrected by SCE.
SONGS Reliability Questioned
The huge problem here being that SCE plans to cut two 28ft x 28ft holes in SONGS this fall to remove old steam generators and replace them with new ones. The side notes here is, that removal hatches were never installed in these nuclear reactors. Maybe the designers back then felt that SONGS technology would be too old in 25 years and who would want a reactor that old still in operation? Also this critical feat of replacing steam generators has never been done on an active nuclear reactor.
Yet the real concern is what if there is a mistake or accident during this process? No one knows how long the reactor will be down even if the replacement goes perfect. Southern California could have an “unknown timetable” of a dismantled
Reactor and 16% shortage of electricity. SCE is having problems with safe normal operation of SONGS now. What is the probability of something going wrong during this experiment? If there is an error during the procedure then Southern California rate costs will go through the roof.
The good news is that California has control over reliability and economics of our power generation, and these issues are not pre-empted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. We already endured an “energy crisis” in 2000. Let’s plan not to have another one. An earthquake shut down Japan’s new nuclear reactors in 2007 and they are still down today, costing the company to buy power elsewhere to meet demand and costing the country billions of yen. Not only is nuclear power financially unpredictable, the safety risk is an intrical part of that harmful fuel. Additional losses would also come from tourist avoiding visiting this potential health hazard area.
We need solutions to insure that SONGS stay safe, and hope we don’t end up paying absorbent rates by buying power from power “scalpers”, because we did not plan. One solution is to delay the cutting of the holes in SONGS. Let SCE demonstrate it can manage the reactor without problems first. Rochelle Becker, Executive Director for the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility has brought this issue to the Office of the Inspector General to investigate whether SCE can safely cut these holes, given their poor track record. What solutions can you offer to help keep SONGS safe and reliable? Contact me: svaine@cox.net or Twitter.com/SolarShirley orvisit www.A4NR.org
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