Southern California Edison says Nuclear Plant out through August

Wayne Barber | Jun 10, 2012

Edison International (NYSE: EIX) subsidiary Southern California Edison (SCE) said late June 7 that it expects both units at the San Onofre nuclear power plant will remain offline through August at least.


The California Independent System Operator (Cal ISO) has already been working on the assumption that the mammoth nuclear plant would not be available this summer. Some fossil generation, which would have otherwise been idle, has been tapped to help the grid operator make it through the summer heat. That’s part of a larger California ISO contingency plan to reduce the risk of potential blackouts.


Edison Chairman and CEO Ted Craver suggested in a news release that Unit 2 could be the first of the reactors to return to commercial operation while Unit 3 is expected to take longer.


All of this is contingent, however, on getting a restart plan approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).


SCE is performing various safety tests and inspections and anticipates submitting its plan to the NRC by the end of July. The restart of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, often referred to as SONGS, must be reviewed and approved by NRC. SCE engineers and third-party experts are currently working on a plan to address the NRC Confirmatory Action Letter (CAL) that outlines actions SCE must complete at SONGS before seeking permission from the NRC to restart either of the two pressurized water reactors.


As the actions for each unit are completed, SCE will submit its responses to the NRC. There is no deadline for submitting the action letter responses. A series of regularly scheduled inspections and equipment testing will continue as planned over the next couple of months.


Also, the NRC has set June 18 as the date of a public meeting to discuss the Augmented Inspection Team findings.


NRC and company officials have repeatedly said that the nuclear plant will not restart until they are satisfied it is safe to operate.


Earlier this spring a report sponsored by Friends of the Earth suggested that running the nuclear plant on reduced power should not be considered a viable option.


Unit 2 was taken out of service Jan. 9 for a planned outage. Unit 3 was safely taken off line Jan. 31 after station operators detected a leak in a steam generator tube.


Given that the steam generators were replaced only a few years ago, the unplanned outage has caused a stir in Southern California.


Together, the two nuclear units near San Clemente, Calif., can generate 2,200 MW of power, enough to meet the needs of 1.4 million average homes at any point in time, according to the plant website. A smaller Unit 1 was retired in 1982, according to the website.


Other co-owners in the nuclear plant are Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE) subsidiary San Diego Gas & Electric, and the city of Riverside, Calif.

“Replacement power costs for outages associated with the steam generator inspection and repair (commencing on February 1 for Unit 3 and March 5 for Unit 2) through March 31, 2012 were approximately $30 million,” an SCE spokesperson said in a June 8 email.

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