NRC’s Adams website. Search for Docket ID NRC-2013-0070. (More comments are currently available on this website than on the www.regulations.gov website.)
San Onofre may be approved for restart WITHOUT repair or replacement of defective parts. Deadline for public comments is May 16, 2013 BEFORE 9 pm Pacific Daylight Time.
San Onofre does NOT meet current NRC operating requirements. Both Unit 2 and 3 reactors show decades of wear in critical steam generator tubes after less than two years of operation. Unit 3 leaked radiation in less than one year. Edison said these steam generators would last 40 to 60 years. Instead, thousands of defective tubes needed plugging to avoid radiation leaks — unprecedented in NRC history. See Plugged Tubes Chart and summary of steam generator problems.
NRC Inspector, Greg Werner, said no technology exists to detect operating steam generator radiation leaks until AFTER they occur. Therefore, we will be part of a nuclear experiment.
The NRC ignored Senator Barbara Boxer’s and Rep. Ed Markey’s request to complete the safety investigation before taking action that could lead to restart. Senator Barbara Boxer, Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, issued the following statement:
“The NRC staff proposal, which could pave the way for the restart of the San Onofre nuclear power plant before the investigations of the crippled plant are completed, is dangerous and premature. It makes absolutely no sense to even consider taking any steps to reopen San Onofre until these investigations look at every aspect of reopening the plant given the failure of the tubes that carry radioactive water. In addition, the damaged plant is located in an area at risk of earthquake and tsunami. With eight million people living within 50 miles of this plant, the staff proposal is beyond irresponsible.”
To meet NRC’s structural integrity standard, San Onofre must be able to operate at 100% Rated Thermal Power for two years before it is considered safe to operate. Now the NRC plans to approve Edison’s license amendment request to lower this to 70% thermal power during Cycle 17. If approved, it would make it easier for Edison to restart their defective Unit 2 nuclear reactor.
Reject Edison’s request to lower San Onofre safety standards to 70% thermal power.
Do not lower safety standards that make it easier to restart defective nuclear reactors.
Support Friends of the Earth’s petition to require a thorough license amendment process and hearing on San Onofre safety issues.
Contact your local, state and Congressional representatives. Urge them to submit similar comments to the NRC. Find your state and Congressional representatives at: www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_r.htm.
Share this information via email or print Handout. Share this video from nuclear expert, Arnie Gundersen, explaining why San Onofre should not be restarted with severely defective steam generators.
UPDATE: The L.A. City Council voted 11 – 0 to approve the resolution.
Please attend Tuesday’s April 23rd 10 a.m. Los Angeles City Council meeting to support the proposed San Onofre Safety Resolution. Southern California Edison is doing everything it can to restart their defective Reactor Unit 2 byJune 1st — without fixing it first! We need a large crowd at this meeting to encourage the City Council to pass the resolution. The resolution unanimously passed the Energy and Environment Committee, and we need swift passage by the full council on Tuesday.
…the City of Los Angeles hereby includes in its 2013-2014 Federal Legislative Program SUPPORT for action by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to
make no decision about restarting either San Onofre unit until it has fully reviewed public safety through a prudent, transparent, and precautionary process, has allowed independent experts and the public ample opportunity to comment, and has confirmed that Southern California Edison has completed any resulting mandated repairs, replacements, or other actions necessary to guarantee both short- and long-term safe operation of San Onofre.
Furthermore, the City encourages the NRC to take the time needed to independently determine whether or not the information, analysis and actions provided by Southern California Edison constitute a solid technical basis for the adequate protection of the public and resumption of operations.
I support this resolution strongly, as it calls for meaningful and transparent opportunities for the public and independent experts to weigh in and for repairs that guarantee short and long term safety to be completed before a decision on restart is made. I want you to support this resolution for safety, too.
The Water Resources Control Board (WRCB) Nuclear Review Committee will meet April 17th in Sacramento to discuss nuclear plant once-through cooling issues. The Review Committee must provide a final report describing the results of special studies and must present their final report to the State Water Board by October 1, 2013. This is your opportunity to learn more about this and provide public comment before it’s too late.
The San Onofre and Diablo Canyon nuclear reactors kill millions of fish and other aquatic life every year, due to their once-through cooling (OTC) systems. They do not meet Federal Clean Water Act §316(b) regulations. Numerous state agencies have jurisdiction over this issue. If they do not grant permits to operate, the nuclear plants would be shut down. See Once-through Cooling Issues section of the SanOnofreSafety.org website to learn why. NOTE:New Jersey’s Oyster Creek nuclear plant is closing due to the expense of complying with their once-through cooling rules.
The WRCB should not allow Once-through Cooling exceptions or mitigation for California’s two nuclear power plants. The plants have had years to mitigate the damage to the marine life and have failed.
The Brown Administration’s plan to shut down the OTC gas plants before shutdown of the two OTC nuclear power plants is unacceptable. This should be reversed.
San Onofre has been shut down since January 2012 due to severely defective steam generators. Edison wants to restart the Unit 2 nuclear reactor in May or June 2013.Keep the OTC San Onofre nuclear power plant shut down. We don’t need it for power and it’s proven unreliable, so there is no justification to continue the severe damage to our marine life.
Senator Barbara Boxer, Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee, issued the following statements.
Senator Boxer said:
“The NRC staff proposal, which could pave the way for the restart of the San Onofre nuclear power plant before the investigations of the crippled plant are completed, is dangerous and premature. It makes absolutely no sense to even consider taking any steps to reopen San Onofre until these investigations look at every aspect of reopening the plant given the failure of the tubes that carry radioactive water. In addition, the damaged plant is located in an area at risk of earthquake and tsunami. With eight million people living within 50 miles of this plant, the staff proposal is beyond irresponsible.”
Rep. Markey said:
“Today, the NRC showed blatant disregard for the safety of tens of millions of people who live near the San Onofre nuclear plant. It is absurd for NRC to say that Southern California Edison’s license amendment is entirely unrelated to a future decision to allow the restart of the reactor; it is like saying that giving someone a driver’s license has nothing to do with allowing them to drive a car.”
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Southern California Edison wants the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to approve lowering San Onofre safety standards in May 2013 in order to expedite a restart of their defective Unit 2 nuclear reactor by June 1, 2013. Currently, San Onofre must be able to run at 100% power for two years before it is considered safe to operate. Edison wants their operating license amended to lower this to 70% percent power during Cycle 17.
If approved by the NRC, Edison would be able to restart their defective Unit 2 nuclear reactor without the rigors of a thorough license amendment and public adjudicatory hearing on the San Onofre safety issues. Contact Senator Barbara Boxerand NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane and tell them to stop the NRC from lowering safety standards at San Onofre.
Both Unit 2 and 3 show decades of wear in critical steam generator tubes after less than two years of operation. Edison only discovered this after a radiation leak in Unit 3 (less than one year of operation). Edison’s nuclear “experts” had promised these replacement steam generators would last decades. Instead, thousands of defective tubes needed plugging — unprecedented in NRC history (see Plugged Tubes Chart with NRC data and summary of steam generator problems).
NRC SONGS Lead Inspector, Greg Werner, said no technology exists to detect steam generator tube radiation leaks until AFTER they occurs, and there is no way to test an operating steam generator (only computer simulations are done).
Watch this video of the 4/3/2013 meeting to hear critical comments and questions from David Freeman, Kendra Ulrich (FOE), Dan Hirsch, Ace Hoffman, John Geesman, Ray Lutz, Gary Headrick, and Myla Reson. (Video courtesy of EON.) For full audio and video of this meeting go to NRC video archives at: http://video.nrc.gov/
…All in-service steam generator tubes shall retain structural integrity over the full range of normal operating conditions (including startup, operation in the power range, hot standby, cool down and all anticipated transients included in the design specification) and design basis accidents…
DATE: Wednesday, April 3, 2013
TIME: 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. PDT (1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT)
LOCATION:
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
One White Flint North
Commissioners’ Hearing Room
11555 Rockville PikeRockville, Maryland 20852.
This is a Category 1 meeting. The public is invited to participate in this meeting and will have one or more opportunities to communicate with the NRC after the business portion, but before the meeting is adjourned. Proprietary information may be discussed at certain times during the meeting. These portions of the meeting will be closed to members of the public who have not been granted access to the information by the owner of the information. Participants from the NRC include staff members from the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR).
Interested members of the public can participate in this meeting via Webcast link or toll-free audio teleconference.
Webcast link: http://video.nrc.gov. This link to the NRC webcast page will permit the user to select the meeting to be viewed and the viewing speed. The meeting link will become active approximately one hour prior to meeting start.
Teleconference bridge number: 888-677-3916; passcode 2670631. [approximately 400 caller maximum]. Callers will initially be placed in a “listen only” status. At the designated point in the agenda, two-way calling will be enabled, so that the public may ask questions of the NRC staff regarding the meeting discussions.
Individuals interested in attending the meeting in person are requested to contact one of the meeting contacts listed below in advance of the meeting, as seating may be limited. [Note: requests to have NRC hold all San Onofre public meetings in Southern California have been denied.]
Randy Hall, NRR
randy.hall@nrc.gov
301-415-4032
Jason Paige, NRR
jason.paige@nrc.gov
301-415-5888
In 1995, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, tried to inform on Chernobyl by organizing in Geneva an international conference with 700 experts and physicians. This tentative was blocked. The International Agency for Atomic Energy (IAAE) blocked the proceedings, which were never published. The truth on the consequences of Chernobyl would have been a disaster for the promotion of the atomic industry.
This film shows the discussions at the following WHO congress in Kiev in 2001, that lead to the fatal disregarding of internal radiation consequences throughout the nuclear world.
Dan Hirsch UCI 10/16/2012 presentation on why the San Onofre nuclear power reactors should not be restarted. A “must watch” short video that presents the facts everyone needs to know.
An exhaustive analysis of data from nuclear plants nationwide reveals that critical safety components in both reactors at the San Onofre nuclear power plant — the damaged replacement steam generators — are in far worse shape compared to typical U.S. reactors than previously admitted by federal regulators and the plant’s operator.
San Onofre’s Unit 2 reactor has about 400 times as many damaged steam generator tubes as the median number at comparable plants over the same operational period, and Unit 3 has more than 450 times as many.
Each San Onofre reactor has greater than 1,000 times as many indications of wear on the tubes than the typical reactor in its first cycle of operation.
Each San Onofre unit has had to plug more tubes than all replacement steam generators nationwide combined.
Daniel Hirsch is a lecturer in Nuclear Policy at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the former Director of the Stevenson Program on Nuclear Policy at UCSC. Hirsch is also President of the Committee to Bridge the Gap, a nonprofit organization working for over four decades to reduce risks of nuclear accident, nuclear proliferation, nuclear terrorism, and problems of radioactive waste disposal. Shortly after the Fukushima accident began, Hirsch was asked to testify before the Select Committee on Earthquake and Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recovery of the California Senate on the implications of the disaster for the Diablo Canyon and San Onofre reactors.
Please attend today’s California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) public participation hearing regarding San Onofre nuclear power plant. The CPUC does not appear to understand the urgency of the situation and has a long drawn out process that seems to care more about protecting Southern California Edison’s profits than protecting the public and ratepayers.
Your presence will send a strong message to the Commission and California’s elected officials and state regulators. Please attend even if you can only attend part of the meeting.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans to rule as early as April on Edison’s proposal to restart the defective Unit 2 nuclear reactor. The CPUC can prevent this using the cost and reliability authority they have. However, they are currently not willing to take the necessary action to do so.
Time: 2 pm to 5 pm and 6 pm to 9 pm (press conference at 1:15 pm outside the Costa Mesa Community Center)
Location: Costa Mesa Community Center, 1845 Park Avenue, Costa Mesa, CA 92627
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Bring this List of urgent demands to the CPUC meeting and make copies to share with others. If the CPUC continues to ignore us, we need to take these demands to the Governor and state elected officials as well as ask our local officials to represent our interest in these critical matters.
List of Demands
The CPUC should immediately refund and stop forcing ratepayers to pay billions of dollars for Edison’s mistakes and stop all future ratepayer funding of San Onofre.
It’s time to take Governor Brown’s goal of clean renewable energy and energy efficiency seriously. We can accelerate the effort and make California the world’s clean energy leader by eliminating the money pit of California nuclear power.
Any cost benefit analysis of whether to restart San Onofre must include the economic impact of a major disaster at San Onofre.
San Onofre should be decommissioned.
CPUC should prevent Edison from spreading misinformation.
Written comments may be submitted to the CPUC Public Advisor’s Office, 505 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, CA 94102 or via email to public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov. Please refer to proceeding number I.12-10-013 on any written or email correspondence. All public comments received are provided to the CPUC’s Commissioners and the Administrative Law Judge assigned to the case.
The CPUC did not webcast either audio or video of this meeting. We should insist this never happen again!
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will meet with the public on February 12th to discuss the status of its review of Southern California Edison’s proposed plan to restart San Onofre Reactor Unit 2 WITHOUT fixing it first. The NRC expects to make a decision in April or May 2013 on whether to allow San Onofre Unit 2 reactor to restart.
Both Unit 2 and 3 reactors have the most defective replacement steam generators in U.S. history. Edison’s flawed redesign of these critical steam generators resulted in decades of wear in less than two years and a radiation leak in less than one year of operation. Now Edison wants to restart the Unit 2 reactor without repairing or replacing the defective and worn steam generators. See handout of why the San Onofre Nuclear Reactors should not be restarted.
Please attend this NRC meeting and share this information with others.
This is a Category 3 meeting. Members of the public will be able to ask questions and provide comments concerning the inspection and technical evaluation activities throughout the meeting. The NRC staff will discuss the status of its inspection and technical evaluation of Southern California Edison’s October 3, 2012, response for Unit 2 to the March 27, 2012, NRC Confirmatory Action Letter. The NRC will respond to questions about their current inspection and evaluation activities associated with the replacement steam generators at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
NRC PARTICIPANTS
A. Howell, Team Manager, SONGS Special Project, Region IV
R. Lantz, Chief, SONGS Project Branch (SPB)
G. Werner, Inspection & Assessment Lead, SPB
D. Broaddus, Chief, SONGS Project Branch, NRR
D. Dorman, SONGS Oversight Panel Co-Chairman, NRR
.
WEBCAST: This meeting will be available via public webcast at http://video.nrc.gov. The video stream will be active for approximately 1 hour prior to the start of the meeting.
TELECONFERENCE: To listen to the meeting, call via the following toll-free number: 1-888-790-2038; Passcode 47018. The audio stream will be available once the meeting begins.
The webcast and phone bridge will be one-way only.
Questions or comments regarding San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station can be submitted at any time to OPA4@nrc.gov.
MEETING CONTACT
Ryan Lantz, Chief SONGS Project Branch
817-200-1173
Ryan.Lantz@nrc.gov
Original song by Tom English & Chris Blanchard. Vocals – Tom English, Guitar – Chris Blanchard, 1st umbrella – Gary Headrick, 2st umbrella, Donna Gilmore. Taken outside the 11/30/2012 NRC public meeting on Edison’s plan to restart its aging, crippled San Onofre nuclear power plant…at 70% capacity…poorly designed replacement steam generators with badly degraded tubes. Video by Myla Reson.
Whenever I hear people say
“Let’s re-start San Onofre”
When life and death – our very breath
Is what’s at stake
They talk of “tube fluidity” -“Elastic Instability”
And Fukushima rises like a mushroom headed snake
What part of Fukushima do you NOT understand
When Nuclear contamination hits the fan
Plutonium is everywhere, it’s in the sea, it’s in the air
And we don’t even have any evacuation plan
What part of Fukushima do you NOT understand?
What part of Fukushima did you somehow miss?
When, sure as shootin’, every time, in things like this
Destruction rages like a flame, officials playin'”Spin the Blame”
And all of us are bracin’, racin’, facin’ the abyss
What part of Fukushima did you somehow miss?
Human kind is human kind and we all make mistakes
Hard sometimes to not be blind and fall for fakes
But even now, before our eyes, it’s in the sea, it’s in the skies
You know we best prioritize Air! Water! C’mon, Guys!
What part of Fukushima do you need clarified?
What happens when the plate techtonics slip and slide
And then it blows – what happens then? It isn’t “if”, You know it’s “when”
And everybody petrified, no where to run, no where to hide
What part of Fukushima do you NOT understand?
How then can even FEMA ever lend a hand?
The time to make the break is NOW, to Wind and Wave and Solar Power
If we’re gonna live, nuclear power Must Be Banned!
Wrap your mind ’round Fukushima
It’s no time to be a dreamer
It’s no time to be a scheemer
One year ago, a radiation leak nearly became a major nuclear disaster.
A year without any blackouts proves we don’t need to live with the danger.
Safe, reliable and sustainable alternatives will provide energy and jobs.
$10 Pre-paid Admission ($15 at the door)
Includes a slice of pizza and your choice of beverage.
Additional servings: $2.50 per slice / $5.00 beer or wine (other drinks free)
Pre-purchase tickets at nosano.bpt.me
Limited to 500 people
See details about our bus charters.
San Clemente Green (949) 218-4051
Write to gary@sanclementegreen.org for updates.
See SanOnofreSafety.org for details on San Onofre issues.
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*Ed Begley, Jr, is an American actor and environmentalist who has appeared in hundreds of films, television shows, and stage performances. He is best known for his role as Dr. Victor Ehrlich, on the television series St. Elsewhere, for which he received six consecutive Emmy Award nominations, and his most recent reality show about green living called Living With Ed on Planet Green with his wife, actress Rachelle Carson-Begley. For more on Ed, go to http://www.edbegley.com/
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.
— Daniel Moynihan
www.factcheck.org
What you do speaks so loud I cannot hear what you say.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Leaders need to operate on the basis of facts, not on wishful thinking.
— Madeleine Albright
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. — Nobel physicist Richard Feynman after 1986 space shuttle Challenger explosion
The most valuable of all talents is never using two words when one will do.
— Thomas Jefferson
Chernobyl has once more demonstrated, as did Three Mile Island, that a nuclear accident anywhere is a nuclear accident everywhere. — Alvin Weinberg
Whistleblowers
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Find your Council member on this map
San Onofre Safety 
Public Comments due 5/16/2013: Stop NRC from lowering San Onofre safety standards
UPDATE 5/17/2013: The public comment period is closed. However,
___________________________________________________________
San Onofre may be approved for restart WITHOUT repair or replacement of defective parts. Deadline for public comments is May 16, 2013 BEFORE 9 pm Pacific Daylight Time.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced plans to approve SoCal Edison’s request to lower San Onofre safety standards and may do so in less than 30 days – removing obstacles to the early restart of the defective San Onofre Unit 2 nuclear reactor.
San Onofre does NOT meet current NRC operating requirements. Both Unit 2 and 3 reactors show decades of wear in critical steam generator tubes after less than two years of operation. Unit 3 leaked radiation in less than one year. Edison said these steam generators would last 40 to 60 years. Instead, thousands of defective tubes needed plugging to avoid radiation leaks — unprecedented in NRC history. See Plugged Tubes Chart and summary of steam generator problems.
NRC Inspector, Greg Werner, said no technology exists to detect operating steam generator radiation leaks until AFTER they occur. Therefore, we will be part of a nuclear experiment.
The NRC ignored Senator Barbara Boxer’s and Rep. Ed Markey’s request to complete the safety investigation before taking action that could lead to restart. Senator Barbara Boxer, Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, issued the following statement:
To meet NRC’s structural integrity standard, San Onofre must be able to operate at 100% Rated Thermal Power for two years before it is considered safe to operate. Now the NRC plans to approve Edison’s license amendment request to lower this to 70% thermal power during Cycle 17. If approved, it would make it easier for Edison to restart their defective Unit 2 nuclear reactor.
On May 13th, the Federal Atomic Safety Licensing Board (ASLB) ruled that Edison’s restart plan is experimental and they must grant Friends of the Earth’s petition asking the NRC to require Edison to undergo a trial-like license amendment process before a judge, which includes public hearings, sworn testimony from expert witnesses and rules of evidence. However, this ruling does not affect this 70% power license amendment request. Also, the NRC Commissioners can overrule the ASLB decision.
URGENT: Please submit your public comments to the NRC before 9:00 pm (PDT) May 16, 2013.
Tell the NRC:
Contact your local, state and Congressional representatives. Urge them to submit similar comments to the NRC. Find your state and Congressional representatives at: www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_r.htm.
Share this information via email or print Handout. Share this video from nuclear expert, Arnie Gundersen, explaining why San Onofre should not be restarted with severely defective steam generators.
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