San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station - Safety Issues

Safety Issues

The San Onofre station, like virtually all large, complex industrial projects, has had technical problems over the years. In the July 12, 1982 edition of Time states, "The firm Bechtel was ... embarrassed in 1977, when it installed a 420-ton nuclear-reactor vessel backwards" at San Onofre. In 2008, the San Onofre plant received multiple citations over issues such as failed emergency generators, improperly wired batteries and falsified fire safety data. Early in 2011, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued its annual review of the plant, identifying improvements but noting that in the area of human performance, "corrective actions to date have not resulted in sustained and measurable improvement”.

According to the NRC, workers at San Onofre are "afraid they will be retaliated against if they bring up safety problems, something that's against the rules". As of 2011, according to the NRC, there has been progress on the issue. So far, the problems have not threatened the safety of plant workers or the public. In November 2011, there was an ammonia leak, where as a precaution company employees were evactuated from the area where the leak was found; units continued normal operation.

In a midcycle inspection report, conducted from July 2011 to June 2012, it revealed a few surprises including three incidents relating to human performance; an additional issue found a failure to develop procedures for a "cyber security analysis of electronic devices" that was later corrected.