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

San Onofre Operator to Present Plan to Resume Operations

Despite a recent finding that radiation detectors had been offline for months at the time of the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown without officials noticing, and the manufacturer of malfunctioning steam generators reporting it won’t conclude its analysis of the units until August, Southern California Edison is moving forward with a plan to restart operations at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station as early as next month.

Edison wants to operate the units at a level below peak generating capacity, believing that the lower power output would reduce vibrations that are suspected as the root cause of wear to tubes that carry radioactive steam, many of which show signs of premature wear that have caused some to fail following a $670 million overhaul of the plant in 2009.

“We have honed in on the cause of the tube wear and believe that we have a proposal,” said Stephen Pickett, an executive vice president with Edison, in an interview published in U-T San Diego. The company intends to present its plan to resume operations to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by mid-May, with power generating activity to begin as early as June 1.

A Los Angeles Times post reports that a recent quarterly earnings statement from Edison shows the company expects to incur $55-65 million in costs related to inspection and repair of the damaged systems, which they hope to recover from manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries under a warranty. The utility has also spent at least $30 million so far in securing power from other sources to replace San Onofre’s generating capacity, a cost which continues to climb as the plant remains offline and is not covered under Mitsubishi’s equipment warranty.

Nuclear power critics are already moving to condemn Edison’s accelerated time line for resuming operation.

“It's pretty clear on the political side that this is Edison's attempt to strongarm the NRC into giving rapid approval,” said nuclear consultant Shaun Burnie, with the environmental group Friends of the Earth. His group has issued reports alleging that the designers of the failed generators intentionally sidestepped Nuclear Regulatory Commission review, and doesn’t believe operating under partial power is an acceptable solution to the premature wear and failure problem.

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

Previous article

Making Love to Goats, Rachmaninoff, and Elgar

Despite a recent finding that radiation detectors had been offline for months at the time of the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown without officials noticing, and the manufacturer of malfunctioning steam generators reporting it won’t conclude its analysis of the units until August, Southern California Edison is moving forward with a plan to restart operations at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station as early as next month.

Edison wants to operate the units at a level below peak generating capacity, believing that the lower power output would reduce vibrations that are suspected as the root cause of wear to tubes that carry radioactive steam, many of which show signs of premature wear that have caused some to fail following a $670 million overhaul of the plant in 2009.

“We have honed in on the cause of the tube wear and believe that we have a proposal,” said Stephen Pickett, an executive vice president with Edison, in an interview published in U-T San Diego. The company intends to present its plan to resume operations to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by mid-May, with power generating activity to begin as early as June 1.

A Los Angeles Times post reports that a recent quarterly earnings statement from Edison shows the company expects to incur $55-65 million in costs related to inspection and repair of the damaged systems, which they hope to recover from manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries under a warranty. The utility has also spent at least $30 million so far in securing power from other sources to replace San Onofre’s generating capacity, a cost which continues to climb as the plant remains offline and is not covered under Mitsubishi’s equipment warranty.

Nuclear power critics are already moving to condemn Edison’s accelerated time line for resuming operation.

“It's pretty clear on the political side that this is Edison's attempt to strongarm the NRC into giving rapid approval,” said nuclear consultant Shaun Burnie, with the environmental group Friends of the Earth. His group has issued reports alleging that the designers of the failed generators intentionally sidestepped Nuclear Regulatory Commission review, and doesn’t believe operating under partial power is an acceptable solution to the premature wear and failure problem.

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.