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LOS ANGELES — The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will visit the ailing San Onofre nuclear power plant on the California coast, where twin reactors were sidelined after the discovery of excessive wear in tubing that carries radioactive water.

NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko plans to tour the plant and meet with managers for operator Southern California Edison on Friday, the agency said.

Last week, the agency announced that the plant located between San Diego and Los Angeles will remain off-line while investigators determine why tubing in massive steam generators is eroding at an unusual rate and fix the problem.

In a four-page letter to Edison last week, NRC Regional Administrator Elmo E. Collins scrolled out a series of steps the utility must take before restarting the seaside reactors, underscoring concern about the unusual degradation in the tubes.

The plant’s four steam generators each contain nearly 10,000 alloy tubes that carry hot, pressurized water from the reactors. The Unit 3 reactor was shut down as a precaution in January after a tube break, and extensive wear was found on similar tubing in its twin, Unit 2, which has been shut down for maintenance.

Traces of radiation escaped during the January leak, but officials said there was no danger to workers or neighbors.

Authorities in California have been scrambling to find additional power in case the reactors remain idled through summer, when energy use typically peaks. That could include restarting retired plants in Huntington Beach in northern Orange County.

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