Not everyone is happy that Southern California Edison is closing the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). For some reason many Republican activists in Orange County are whining about this and are screaming about energy shortfalls. What can they possibly be thinking? Have they already forgotten what happened in Japan when an earthquake and a tsunami wrecked a nuclear power plant and polluted a huge swath of Japan with radiation?
The San Onofre station 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.[12] In 2008, the San Onofre plant received multiple citations over issues such as failed emergency generators, improperly wired batteries and falsified fire safety data.[13][14] 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”.[13]
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”.[15] 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.[15] 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.[16]
The new Mitsubishi generators cost some $770,000,000. But critical tubes began banging together and sprang leaks after less than a year of operations. As many as 17 percent of the plant’s 19,400 tubes may have been involved. (Intellihub)
San Onofre is designed for a 7.0 earthquake, but sits next to a fault with an 8.0+ earthquake probability — 10 times larger, 32 times stronger, and long overdue. More…
The San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant has the worst safety complaint record of all U.S. nuclear reactors according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) safety allegation data. See charts for details.
Why would anyone want to keep SONGS open? Instead local homeowners in South Orange County should all be rushing to install solar panels on their homes. Stop whining and take care of your own energy needs! Isn’t that what Republicans are supposed to be about or are they all a bunch of hypocrites?
If SONGS ever blew it would have destroyed our entire County, if not outright then via radiation. Even if you could get out in time where would you go? Victorville? Barstow? Good grief. Silly Republicans. Sometimes they are just so blind.