Regulatory delay closes San Onofre -- world-nuclear-news Alex Gimarc
Howdy all – Yet another example on the Obama administration’s war on cheap, reliable, environmentally friendly energy. Coming soon to a state near you. Cheers – - AG Ed note: Nuclear energy is a major source of "clean" energy. Fwd message From:Donald Anderson [mailto:] Sent: Friday, June 07, 2013 10:19 AM To: undisclosed-recipients: Subject: [wnc] Regulatory delay closes San Onofre -- wnn SCE said it cannot afford to wait for permission to restart unit 3 without income from the operation of unit 2. The reactors produce 1080 MWe and 1070 MWe respectively. Regulatory delay closes San Onofre www.world-nuclear-news.org 07 Jun 2013 San Onofre (Image: SCE) Both reactors at the San Onofre nuclear power plant in California are being retired due to the lengthy and uncertain regulation surrounding their return to service. "We have concluded that the continuing uncertainty about when or if San Onofre might return to service was not good for our customers, our investors or the need to plan for our region's long-term electricity needs," said Ted Craver, chairman and CEO of Edison International - the parent company of San Onofre owners Southern California Edison (SCE). The plant's problems began in January 2012 with a fault in one of two new steam generators installed as part of an uprate and modernization program of unit 3. The reactor shut down automatically when a minor amount of radioactive material was detected coming from a failed tube in the steam generator, but this aspect of the issue led to the mobilization of an anti-nuclear campaign against the plant, its majority owner Southern California Edison (SCE), and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries which supplied the faulty component. SCE proposed to restart unit 3 at reduced power to provide an additional safety margin for the steam generators, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) review processes have so far taken eight months without reaching any conclusion. Around 900 jobs will be lost with the closure of both units as SCE scales back its plant workforce from 1500. Now, said SCE, decisions by the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board have "created further uncertainty," adding that "additional administrative processes and appeals could result in delay of more than a year." During this time, SCE would have to purchase replacement power for its customers as well as maintain the plant in a state of readiness to operate. The issue with unit 3 is exacerbated by the outage at unit 2, which has been kept from restarting from maintenance because it shares the same steam generator design. SCE said it cannot afford to wait for permission to restart unit 3 without income from the operation of unit 2. The reactors produce 1080 MWe and 1070 MWe respectively. Around 900 jobs will be lost with the closure of both units, said SCE, as it scales back its plant workforce from 1500. "This situation is very unfortunate. This is an extraordinary team of men and women. We will treat them fairly," said Pete Deitrich, chief nuclear officer of SCE. The wider region will be affected by a tightening balance of power supply and demand. "Thanks to consumer conservation, energy efficiency programs and moderate summer, the region was able to get through last summer without electricity shortages. We hope for the same positive result this year, although generation outages, soaring temperatures or wildfires impacting transmission lines would test the system" said Ron Litzinger, SCE president. San Onofre is owned 78% by SCE, 20% by San Diego Gas and Electric and 2% by the city of Riverside. Researched and written by World Nuclear News Ray Stevens http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Ray+Stevens+Obama+Care+Song&view=detail&mid=190E292D04D632D4EDF7190E292D04D632D4EDF7&first=0&FORM=NVPFVR&qpvt=Ray+Stevens+Obama+Care+Song SurgeUSA.org Grow local leadership, not the federal bureaucracy http://www.surgeusa.org/actions/tea_party.htm -- -- To join RichsRants, send email to: [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/richsrants?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RichsRants" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
