Senator Boxer calls for federal probe of San Onofre

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer says she’s lost confidence in the utility that operates the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant.

The plant between Los Angeles and San Diego hasn’t produced electricity since January 2012, after a small radiation leak led to the discovery of damage to tubes that carry radioactive water.

The senator says Southern California Edison is dispensing “gobbledygook” about a 2004 internal letter that Boxer believes shows possible criminal misconduct within the company. That letter can be found here.

In the letter, Southern California Edison Vice President Dwight Nunn explains the need for a “new” generator design to the manufacturer, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The letter from 2004, also says the larger, replacement generators “appear more susceptible to wear.” The plant located along the coast near San Diego went offline last January due to a small leak of radioactive material that led to a discovery of excessive wear inside hundreds of tubes that carry radioactive water in the nearly new generators. The senator says the letter shows SCE lied to federal regulators about the plant’s redesign.

SCE issued this statement:
“SCE would never, and did not install steam generators that it believed would impact public safety or impair reliability.” // “These documents demonstrate the type of careful oversight that SCE exercised during the replacement steam generator project and also served to establish our expectations of MHI.”

Senator Boxer responded with this. “That is so much bologna,” said Boxer. “All you have to do is read the letter.”

Boxer, the head of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, wants a federal probe into the letter that details an equipment swap that eventually led to a radiation leak. It comes day before Edison hoped to reopen San Onofre at 70%. A plan which received preliminary approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “The NRC, if you look at their record, they usually side with the industry, and that is very sad, because their mission is to protect the people,” said Boxer.

The approximately 8 million people the senator says live within 50 miles of the plant. She promises to fight for them until San Onofre clears federal standards to reopen or power down for good. “Honestly, I feel, when you have a nuclear power plant, that is next door to an earthquake fault, that is in a tsunami zone, that is operated for 40 years, you really oughta think about if it’s better not to move forward, and I think that’s up do Edison.”