San Onofre shutdown will mean tight electricity supplies

[FBaggins]

92. Certainly... but that returns us to the Yellowstone example and the first point

Now we're talking about the kind of events that are comparable in rarity to things that can occur to any reactor anywhere in the world. They are not, for example, meteor-proof... not will they survive a thermonuclear attach nearby - no matter where you put them. You're exactly right with the "welp, that sucks" comment.

But remember that the discussion began with a question re: whether SONGS was poorly located relative to other reactors. The claim (IIRC) was that the greater likelihood of quakes and/or tsunami made it a poor choice of locations. Such a claim could reasonably be made for many reactors in Japan (even without hindsight)... since they had a long history of major earthquakes and devestating tsunami. The SONGS site, OTOH, has a long history of quakes well below that which would endanger the plant and no history of tsunami that would come anywhere close.