Future Prospects
The future of the plant is uncertain. It has been shut down since January 2012, and no reopening date has been set. The NRC issued a letter in March, forbidding the plant to be reopened until the causes of its equipment problems are thoroughly understood and fixed. The environmental group Friends of the Earth filed a legal petition with the NRC in June, asking that any decision to reopen San Onofre be made by a trial-like public forum instead of by NRC commissioners. In July the NRC issued its final report, identifying ten issues that need followup and stating “the plant will not be permitted to restart until the licensee has developed a plan to prevent further steam generator tube degradation and the NRC independently verifies that it can be operated safely." In August, Southern California Edison announced plans to lay off about one-third of the plant's workforce, leading to speculation that the facility may never fully reopen.
In March 2012, Irvine Councilman Larry Agran called for the plant to be decommissioned, saying it should be decommissioned safely and as soon as possible. Concerns include “nuclear waste stored at the plant, health hazards from radioactive material, and inadequate evacuation plans”. Agran also said that the plant threatens all of Southern California. Resolutions passed in neighboring cities Laguna Beach and San Clemente call for safer and more secure waste storage. San Clemente has voted to request public information about radiation levels near the plant. Bob Steins, spokesman for Edison International, said “the company will work to prepare detailed responses to council and community member questions and concerns”.
Responding to the idea of replacing SONGS with solar power, retired physics and astronomy professor Dennis Silverman, of the University of California, Irvine, has calculated it would require a facility that would be 20 square miles large, ten times larger than Orange County Great Park, and would cost $44 billion dollars.
Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher declared that San Onofre is safe but outdated and should be replaced with a modern high-tech reactor, "not because of how unsafe it is right now, but because we can be safer and more efficient.”
Read more about this topic: San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station
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