Nuclear board rules San Onofre restart requires public input

[bananas]

Source: Reuters

An independent nuclear regulatory panel on Monday called for a full public hearing on the proposed restart of one of the two damaged San Onofre nuclear reactors, a move that will delay Southern California Edison's plan to run the plant this summer.

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruling favored petitioner Friends of the Earth, an anti-nuclear group that sought more public input of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) review of steam generator problems at the San Onofre nuclear power plant.

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Damon Moglen of Friends of the Earth called the ruling "a complete rejection of Edison's plan to restart its damaged nuclear reactors without public review or input."

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The board concluded that SCE's restart plan, known as the Confirmatory Action Letter process, is effectively a license amendment proceeding that gives the public the right to a hearing with testimony and cross-examination of witnesses.

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Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/nuclear-board-rules-san-onofre-restart-requires-public-235407696.html

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[DeSwiss]

1. That piece o' crap will never be restarted.

- And good riddance.

K&R

[Control-Z]

2. I hope you are right.

Will they dismantle it, clean it, and remove all nuclear materials and waste? One large earthquake on the right fault and...well, I'll be toast (living here in south county).

[DeSwiss]

3. It's a danger as it is right now.

It always was from the start:

Safety issues

The San Onofre station, like virtually all large, complex industrial projects, has had technical problems over the years. In the July 12, 1982 edition of Time states, "The firm Bechtel was ... embarrassed in 1977, when it installed a 420-ton nuclear-reactor vessel backwards" at San Onofre.

In 2008, the San Onofre plant received multiple citations over issues such as failed emergency generators, improperly wired batteries and falsified fire safety data.

Early in 2011, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued its annual review of the plant, identifying improvements but noting that in the area of human performance, "corrective actions to date have not resulted in sustained and measurable improvement”.

According to the NRC, workers at San Onofre are "afraid they will be retaliated against if they bring up safety problems, something that's against the rules".

link

- Quite a number of these 40+ year old plants are having problems almost everyday.