ML13141A224

LTR-13-0433 - N. Eddy Email Shutdown of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS)

ML13141A224
Person / Time
Site:	San Onofre
Issue date:	05/20/2013
From:	Eddy N Public Commenter
To:	Macfarlane A NRC/Chairman
Shared Package
ML13141A225	List: ML13141A224
References
LTR-13-0433
Download: ML13141A224 (3)

Text

Joosten. Sandy From: Eddy. N@verizon.net Sent: Monday, May 20,20138:17 AM To: CHAIRMAN Resource

Subject:

ca Dear Allison With its massive money and clout, Southern California Edison (SCE) was ready to ram through a license exception for a San Onofre reactor whose botched $770 million steam generator fix had kept it shut for a year.

But a No Nukes groundswell has turned this routine rubber stamping into an epic battle as the nuclear industry is in full retreat. The American people demand NRC to shut down San Onofre because 2 US reactors are already down this year and another proposed project has just been cancelled in North Carolina. Powerful grassroots campaigns have pushed numerous operating reactors to the brink of extinction throughout the US, Europe and Japan, where all but two reactors remain shut since Fukushima. We demand federal intervention because California water quality regulations require Edison to build cooling towers, but Governor Jerry Brown has been deafeningly silent on the issue.

San Onofre sits in an earthquake/tsunami zone halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego with at least 8 million people within a 50 mile radius, many millions more within 100. The reactors are a stone's throw from both a major interstate and the high tide line, with a 14-foot flood wall a bare fraction of the height of the tsunami that overwhelmed Fukushima. San Onofre Unit One was shut in 1992 by steam generator issues.

Edison spent $770 million upgrading the steam generators for Units 2 and 3 but the pipes have leaked and failed. Units 2 and 3 have been shut since January 2012. NRC must deny SCE permission to run Unit 2 at 70%

power for 5 months to see how the reactor might do. Edison is desperate to get the reactor running before summer but in the wake of Fukushima, and in the midst of a major boom in solar energy, California demands a shutdown, and we urge NRC to serve the public interests and not be in the pockets of nuclear lobbyists because:

• A dozen cities, towns and public organizations-including a unanimous Los Angeles city council and the public school district of San Diego--have asked that public hearings and further in-depth, transparent investigations be held before the reactors reopen.

• Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) have asked NRC to thoroughly investigate all relevant issues-and to make them public-before restart can occur. NRC must investigate whether Edison knew it was installing faulty equipment in the first place, an explosive revelation given the dangers and costs involved.

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• Newly revealed correspondence between Edison and Mitsubishi over additional steam generator issues reveal persistent unresolved disagreements about the technology involved and what needs to be done about it, casting further doubt on what constitute safe operating procedures and SCE criminal negligence and malfeasance.

• In response to a suit by Friends of the Earth, NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board has ruled that Edison's restart application constitutes a license amendment, which require a full public hearing. NRC Commissioners must NOT overrule its licensing board because this was a unanimous decision and the public and Congressional outcry would be substantial. It's a huge setback for Edison, damaging what's left of its credibility and pushing restart far into the future, or never. There's much Edison want hidden from the public record, but this ALL must be revealed by NRC or San Onofre shut down because our lives are at stake.

• San Onofre cannot be licensed to restart at least until July, which pushes any actual restart date until after summer resulting in the region's second straight peak season with no power from San Onofre. Despite utility rhetoric, its absence last summer caused no blackouts or significant shortages, and none are expected this summer either. Edison's argument that the reactors are needed to keep the region cool and lit is pure bullshit.

• Edison CEO Ted Craver now says San Onofre could be permanently shut before the end of the year, and we demand NRC to make this come true so we all can sleep better.

It's common in the nuke blackmail business for a utility to threaten to shut a reactor where jobs and power are desperately needed. But the spread of solar throughout southern California will bring far more jobs than San Onofre can begin to promise. A new feed-in tariff in Los Angeles has helped spread solar panels throughout the region. SCE billed southern California ratepayers $1 billion for San Onofre in 2012 even though it generated no juice. Because the California PUC (CPUC) is in SCE's pockets, we demand US officials to intervene to force SCE to return the $1 billion stolen and ensure CPUC won't let SCE rape ratepayers again because public awareness and anger levels have soared. Major media throughout the region have been pummeling Edison over economic issues. Should San Onofre stay dead, its power void will fast be filled by cheaper, cleaner, safer green technologies destined to make southern California a major focal point in the global march to solar power. This shutdown would take the number of licensed US reactors down to 100. With others on the brink at Indian Point, Vermont Yankee, Palisades, Oyster Creek and elsewhere, the race to shut the world's nukes before the next Fukushima is turning the nuclear renaissance into an all-out reactor retreat because public safety must always come first.

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