Damaged California Nuclear Plant Faces Restart Safety Hearing WASHINGTON, DC, May 14, 2013 (ENS) –Southern California Edison’s request to restart its San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station will be decided by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission only after a formal license amendment proceeding with full public participation, an adjudicatory panel has ruled. A three-judge panel of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board today granted Friends of the Earth’s petition for a hearing on the NRC’s Confirmatory Action Letter process covering steam generator issues at the San Onofre nuclear power plant.
Southern California Edison had asked the NRC for permission to restart the Unit 2 reactor by this summer and run it at partial power – a request the agency had indicated it would grant with no prior public hearing.
“This ruling is a complete rejection of Edison’s plan to restart its damaged nuclear reactors without public review or input,” said Damon Moglen, energy and climate director for Friends of the Earth.
“The ASLB has announced that the restart plan is an ‘experiment’ and calls the tube wear at San Onofre’s defective steam generators ‘unprecedented,’ as we have asserted all along,” said Moglen.
Southern California Edison must now undergo a trial-like license amendment process before a judge, including public hearings, sworn testimony from expert witnesses and rules of evidence……
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer said in a statement that the Board’s order sets “a legal framework for a full public hearing before any final decision on the restart of the San Onofre nuclear power plant is made by the NRC.”
“It is a comfort to me that the safety board stood up for what is right,” said Senator Boxer.
“Given that the NRC commissioners asked the Board to undertake this review and given that these judges were appointed by the NRC, I expect the commissioners to follow their lead,” said the California Democrat who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that oversees the NRC.
The Board’s ruling requires a license amendment because the restart plan is an ‘experiment’ under Section 5090(ii) of NRC regulations, which would allow the unit to operate beyond the scope of the existing license and without compiling with applicable technical specifications……. http://ens-newswire.com/2013/05/14/damaged-california-nuclear-plant-faces-restart-safety-hearing/
