Earlier today, NEI's Steve Kerekes spoke to the Washington Post concerning the announcement today by Southern California Edison that they intended to close the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station:
“This is a situation that is unique to Southern California Edison and the replacement of steam generators at the San Onofre reactors,” said Steve Kerekes, a spokesman for the NEI, who added that the closures were “a blow to California’s energy diversity.”
He said that “this situation underscores the need for an efficient and effective regulatory process that results in timely decisions on the operation of these critical energy resources.” He said that independent firms had endorsed plans to restart San Onofre’s Unit 2 and that “it’s simply intolerable to delay decisions that impact millions of customers and the company’s obligation to provide electricity to those customers.”For additional links and coverage, please follow our Twitter feed.
Comments
The damnest thing about it is that the total effect and bad persception of nukes being safe and reliable can be remedied by AGGRESSIVE adult nuclear PSA and AD education IF the power companies and nuclear community REALLY wanted to do it yesterday. Again the Tylenol incident is a renoun textbook example that image turnarounds are possible. I'm not exaggerating to say that your mentions, capped with SONGS' closing, just put all the good and and nobel efforts of "Pandora's Promise" in the media garbage can. Damn needless shame!
James Greenidge
Queens NY
They gave up, because they see years of pointless discussion ahead.
As for the poster who talked about the trend of so many plants being shut down over "unique" issues, I think that part of this is bad luck, but also part is a trend that will continue. Most of the nuclear plants in the country are getting old and just like a car, they lose value over time. If a serious situation arises it often doesn't make sense to go through all the hassle and money of dealing with the NRC and making any fixes because the plant itself is no longer worth that much. It's just like how you probably wouldn't pay $10,000 to repair a ten year old car. This trend of plants shutting down will continue because every year the value of the plants goes down and the cost of replacing any issue goes up. It's just basic economics and has nothing to do with nuclear in particular. The utility I work for has ~25 old coal units right now and any time there is a serious issue on one they simply retire it instead of fixing it because they will never pass current enviromental laws and will likely be shut down in a few years anyways.
That's true. A nuke plant is a billion dollar liability one year after it's built, and a billion dollar liability 60 years after it's built. But it could be generating a billion dollars per year revenue during those years.
I, too, have a 1966 vehicle. Perhaps there's something about nuke workers and old cars? :-)
James Greenidge
Queens NY