Business groups and anti-nuclear activists squared off before a judge and commissioner from the California Public Utilities Commission Thursday over whether Southern California Edison can charge customers for costs related to its embattled San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
The forum is the latest in dozens of governmental hearings and meetings that over the past year that have spanned local, state and federal agencies. A January 2012 steam leak shuttered the plant and revealed thousands of faulty components -- problems related to design flaws in the plant's newly installed steam generators. Adding to the company’s troubles, a Massachusetts Congressman called on the Security and Exchange Commission Thursday to investigate whether Edison violated federal securities laws by withholding from investors information on the faulty steam generators.
The massive fight over the engineering failure and the safety and economic concerns surrounding the plant continued at the Costa Mesa Community Center Thursday.
Warring Factions
Business groups and organizations like the Orange County Business Council, Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and Orange County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce lined up in support of the partial and speedy restart of the plant as proposed by Edison. The plan is currently under review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but no federal decision is expected until the end of April.
"Orange County enjoys some of the lowest unemployment in the state," said Bryan Starr, and executive with the Orange County Business Council. "If not SONGS, then what? What are the alternative sources of energy that could power our businesses immediately? Broad statements about alternative power aren't going to cut it."
Those fighting for a permanent shutdown of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station include activists from organizations like San Clemente Green, San Diego's Citizens Oversight Committee and the national Friends of the Earth group.
Safety and health concerns have dominated the anti-nuclear activists' public message to-date, but the individual groups have organized together and adapted their protests to focus on financial problems for the benefit of the CPUC hearings. Signs in the hearing audience read, "Cut our losses; not a penny more to Edison."
Grace VanThillo, a San Clemente resident demanded her money back.
"We ratepayers should not be paying hundreds of millions of dollars for Edison's mistakes," she said. "In fact, the ratepayers deserve hundreds of millions of dollars in refunds for Edison's mistakes we've already paid for."
Ratepayer advocate organizations like The Utility Reform Network are calling for refunds to ratepayers, who continue to pay for upkeep and replacement power purchasing for the shuttered plant.
"The Utility Reform Network stands for affordable bills and accountable utilities," said group spokeswoman Mindy Spatt. "That means accountable for their mistakes, and Edison made a colossal one. If Edison's steam tubes are faulty, then that's Edison's problem. Customers should not have to pay a single penny for costs incurred for an inoperable nuclear plant."
A Utility Reform Network press release states that Edison has collected $115 million from ratepayers since 2010 when the last of four new steam generators were installed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, "$46 million of which went to shareholder profits."
Local elected officials have split on the issue. Some city councils have adopted resolutions expressing grave concerns about the continued operation of the plant, such as the city of Del Mar and the San Diego Unified School District Board. Others, like the mayor of Newport Beach Kieth Curry and Fountain Valley Councilman Steve Nagel spoke in favor of a plan to reopen the plant.
Edison and Regulators Under Fire
The process to decide whether Edison owes customer refunds will likely take months, CPUC officials say. In the meantime, Mitsubishi, who nuclear inspectors determined made major design mistakes in constructing the faulty generators, has paid Edison back $45.5 million in connection with a product warranty, according to the Orange County Register.
It's likely, however, that Mitsubishi and Edison will be engaged in further financial wrangling as events at the plant develop.
Also on Thursday, U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., sent an open letter to the chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission, calling for an investigation into whether Edison hid vital information about the installation of the steam generators from shareholders.
Markey teamed up with U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. earlier this month to reveal information from internal Edison documents, which prove Edison knowingly installed the faulty generators, they allege.
And the CPUC itself hasn't escaped recent public criticism: the California Legislative Analyst raised concerns about the agency's budgetary practices. Though only tangentially related to the oversight of San Onofre, the office raised concerns about how the CPUC is overseeing accounts of utilities like Edison, given they appear to be mismanaging hundreds of millions of ratepayer fees within their own agency, KPBS reported Friday.
The CPUC will hold another set of public input hearings in San Diego.
Even the NRC and now subsets within the NRC like the NRR and others are still trying to understand exactly what happened to cause the damage which destroyed Unit 3's NEW steam generators in less than a year so that they can better evaluate the damage already done to Unit 2 steam generators. Edison is desperate to restart using they're poorly in-house designed steam generators at any power level so that they can claim that all this is just "part of doing business" and that the ratepayers should pay for this debacle instead of Edison's shareholders who have had record profits the last few years while SoCal ratepayers have seen their electric bills move ever upward! How bad does it has to get, before SoCal ratepayers can expect to get a fair and unbiased investigation into why all the checks and balances set up to protect CA ratepayers HAVE COMPLETELY FAILED TO WORK?
It is past time for this ENERGY RIP OFF to end, San Onofre should be taken off the rate base immediately and a full unbiased investigation begun with public access to all relevant documentation going back to the original "up-rate" decision that set the stage for doing the replacement steam generator program in the first place. Until a REAL California LEADER steps forward and DEMANDS OPENNESS, SoCal ratepayers will continue to be subject to continued "energy enslavement" thanks to the too cozy relationship between the Utility and those that regulate them which has enabled thIS debacle to continue despite numerous attempts to sweep it under the rug and/or away from public scrutiny! Now is the time for our Public Servants to step forward and actually perform their sworn duty by SERVING THE PUBLIC and do what is best for the ratepayers not JUST Edison's shareholders, even at the risk of some of them losing their Nuclear Payback*. * http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Nuclear+payback Those that support nuclear power because nuclear power somehow supports them; no matter what the health implications or other "costs" are for others.
BTW: Ever more Solar (of all flavors) is being installed and if the CPUC stops dragging its regulatory feet, a huge number of solar installations could happen using money that ratepayers have already spent which would eliminate the need for SanO completely!
At San Onofre, it was one SG tube (as far as we know) that started to leak that caused their shutdown because what was leaking was radioactive core coolant which was first only monitored but then started increasing in volume so fast that Edison had no choice but to shut the reactor down. Later upon further inspection and testing, not one but 8 tubes failed in-situ testing (done in place under controlled conditions) which is something that has never happened before in the history of the entire US Nuclear “fleet”. Even the NRC called that a serious safety concern and they are still trying completely understand how that occurred. It is also is import to note that during this same period after Jan. 31, 2012, Unit 2 was also shutdown (for refueling). When they inspected its SG’s, one of its tubes had 90% wall wear which is well above the 35% safety standard and Edison did not even know it!
More on that here: Nuclear Power Plant Basics https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0BweZ3c0aFXcFZGpvRlo4aXJCT2s/edit?pli=1&docId=0BweZ3c0aFXcFZDZJZWdESWJMYms snip: Important Note: The steam generator’s tubing wall thickness is thinner than a dime (0.043 inches) to help transfer heat, but it also serves as a vitally important boundary between the radioactive coolant circulating inside the tubing which must remain separated from the non-radioactive water/steam mixture which circulates outside the tubing. A leak, crack or worse, a complete failure of one or more of any of the tubes inside the steam generator would allow highly radioactive coolant to mix directly into the non-radioactive water/steam mixture which would then escape into the environment. Additionally, should a Main Steam Line Break or other similar problems occur, the rapid loss of core coolant that is needed to constantly cool the radioactive fuel rods in the reactor could lead to a catastrophic meltdown of the entire radioactive reactor core.+This MSLB event is also mentioned in previous ACRS reports (see our Response to NRR RAI -32 – Technical, page 49). https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0BweZ3c0aFXcFZGpvRlo4aXJCT2s/edit?pli=1&docId=0BweZ3c0aFXcFX05DMWxKNmZXUTA
We all have paid into an Upgrade Account that has many of Millions of dollars in it which is just collecting interest because the CPUC is limiting its use, which is also great for Edison because they make more profits on everyone that are not energy efficient!... And speaking about Energy waste, last year the CPUC paid out as much to administer their energy Upgrade Program as they spent for actual Energy Upgrades, which is shameful! How do you spell BOONDOGGLE?
The chief nuclear officer at San Onofre has notably clammed up when asked about the "anti-vibration bar design team." Since San Onofre was trying to get extra juice so to speak from the steam generators, they realized that there would be vibration problems. They got a team (likely well before the replacement steam generators were installed) to advise on how to remedy the vibration and tube wear problems with the replacement steam generators. They did give some recommendations -- but they were all rejected by decision-makers since they realized that it would have been clear that they needed to go through the somewhat time-consuming NRC license amendment process. So they ran the two remaining reactors with no fix installed, and got the tube wear which the rejected anti-vibration bar design team recommendations sought to avoid. SCE is about greed -- not safety. : /
When concern about the Newport / Inglewood Fault was mentioned, Chris Wills (Supervising Engineering Geologist with the California Geological Survey) mentioned that the Palos Verdes Fault further offshore has a higher slip rate than the Newport / Inglewood Fault. Then on December 14th, a quake struck the area around that Palos Verdes Fault. And while following up on that quake, a map was discovered showing the largest swarm of seismic events offshore in southern California to be offshore from Orange / San Diego County and in the area that is the junction where the Palos Verdes Fault and the Santa Cruz / Santa Catalina Faults meet. Plus, I've heard about a 7.5 quake in San Juan Capistrano in 1812 -- and San Onofre allegedly was designed to handle a 7.0 (even that claim I highly doubt)!
Here is an example of how things can go wrong when you don't know what you are doing: Try giving someone a great PROVEN family cake recipe, only to later learn that it turned out really bad; then when asked about what went wrong, you were told that the "cook" did not realize that "add 2 whole eggs" did not actually meant to add two eggs and their shells... In short, Edison's "cooks" did not know what they were doing and that is why we now have a 1.3 Billion dollar debacle at San Onofre!
Captain...I respect your position of solar, but are you saying to fill the dessert with panels or target the households. Because anyone that buys the proper solar system to live off the grid in San Clemente is a moron. I have a bridge to sell you. It doesn't make financial sense, unless you want to lose your ocean view and breezes. Most of us that read this blog enjoy the coast, but we don't have air conditioning. We also have a TON of ineffective days of marine layer. My hot water is heated by solar. GREAT in the summer. Best gas bill last year was $3. But, there are a lot of days the little gas lamp lights up the tank.
I guess we could buy up the desert and pay folks to keep the panels clean. That would at least generate jobs, right? And, make a shaded refuge for all those desert critters. Win-win! As for earthquakes, fires, airplane crashes, tsunamis, hurricanes and global thermonuclear war...NEWS FLASH...you're gonna die some day. All of us are one way or another. Death and taxes. Quit living in fear of the "end." I'm not dying to die (now THAT'S a pun worth typing, darling!), but it is the reality. If you choose to live out your life haggling over what you THINK you know, READ in the media (it's true...it's in print!I), but NEVER did anything but bitch...have fun with that and keep yourself as frustrated as humanly possible. Peace out!
+ Another issue is that now the Utility does not pay you for your solar energy as much as it pays itself for the same amount of energy it generates from its own solar panels... This is yet another Energy Rip Off that is blessed by the CPUC and if changed would dramatically shorten the payback time of solar installations!
Edison told ratepayers they would last 18+ years and save them over a Billion Dollars and now about two years later we have PAID 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS and are still paying 54 million dollars a month while Edison tries to figure out how to not get stuck with the bill! Edison is the one that has sold US a bridge, A Bridge To N☢ Energy!
http://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/doccontent.jsp?doc=%7B70C719BF-6DEE-4755-B6C6-D3CEE2551EA0%7D
What the worker was asking about was what were dealing with today,the current Steam Generators. His question was, If the Primary side of things go south and enters the Secondary System, which is in direct contact with ocean cooling water via condenser tubes that are always spring leaks, will it contaminate the Condensers, the outfall pipe and the ocean? When I heard the Supervisors comment I quit and about 10 others did as well.
I have lived in the area before the Dana Point Harbor was built and have had no desire to live anywhere else including, Columbia or Argentina and I can only imagine what would happen there without power, thus thats why I live here. Imagine you have a beautiful 8 cylinder engine, and your planning a trip to Columbia. But you realise that water has made it's way into the crankcase, or it's only running on 5 of them 8 cylinders. Your thinking to yourself, if I only run the vehicle at about 70% of it's designed power I might make it ...to Oceanside. Shut er down, let the Labor market DEMO it for the next 15 to 20 years and boost the economy for hundreds of employees and we can move on. Whew, got that off my chest!
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/feb/22/judge-orders-southern-california-edison-show-gener/#c18368