San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant

The first of four new steam generators needed to keep the San Onofre nuclear power plant in operation is making its way -- slowly and carefully -- to the facility in northern San Diego County by ship, barge and a tractor-trailer-like vehicle with 256 wheels. The 650-ton pieces of equipment are intended to extend the life span of the power plant, which has come under scrutiny from regulators in the last year because of safety lapses.

California's initiative process can be both a wonderfully democratic and perilously dumb way to make law. On no issue could that be more true than the proposed initiative to shut down nuclear power in the state. The initiative would shut down the Diablo Canyon and San Onofre nuclear plants until the federal government approves a permanent disposal site for nuclear waste. The issue is scientifically, environmentally and economically complex, and tangled with powerful emotions. Between the facts and those feelings, guess which will have more influence on the choice people make?

Southern California Edison executives Friday outlined plans to implement a series of state recommendations to mitigate the killing of tons of fish and kelp at the firm's San Onofre nuclear power plant.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, citing serious concerns about equipment failures at the San Onofre nuclear power plant, has prohibited Southern California Edison from restarting the plant until the problems are thoroughly understood and fixed. The plant has been shut down for two months, the longest in San Onofre's history, after a tube leak in one of the plant's steam generators released a small amount of radioactive steam. Since then, unusual wear has been found on hundreds of tubes that carry radioactive water.

A reactor at the San Onofre nuclear power plant shut down automatically when computers detected a problem in the power supply to the unit's cooling system. A spokeswoman for Southern California Edison Co., operator of the plant, said that no radiation was released during the shutdown and the unit is expected to be back in operation early this week.

A reactor at San Onofre nuclear power plant shut down automatically when computers detected a problem in the power supply to the unit's cooling system. A spokeswoman for Southern California Edison said Sunday that no radiation was released during the shutdown and the unit is expected to be back in operation early this week.

Operators of the San Onofre nuclear power plant are delaying plans to truck a decommissioned 900-ton reactor along a beach and onto a barge bound for South Carolina. Southern California Edison, the major owner of the power plant, will delay the move until November at the earliest to avoid the breeding season of federally protected species of birds, a company spokesman said.

The community alert system, designed to notify residents in case of an emergency at the San Onofre nuclear power plant, will be tested Wednesday, officials said. The 49 sirens in a 10-mile-radius evacuation zone around the plant will be sounded twice for three to five minutes between 10 a.m. and noon. The sirens, required by federal law, are tested annually.

A 41-year-old Vista man died Wednesday in a Mission Viejo hospital of head injuries he suffered Monday while working at the San Onofre nuclear power plant, a spokesman for the plant said. Meredith B. Seace, an electrician, suffered the injuries while using a wire-brush burnishing machine to clean metal brackets in a workshop, said David Barron, a spokesman for Southern California Edison. Apparently a bracket broke loose and struck the man in the temple.

Six workers received minor doses of radiation from an X-ray machine that shorted out at the San Onofre nuclear power plant. A Southern California Edison Co. spokesman said the accident had nothing to do with the plant's nuclear facility. The machine, used routinely to X-ray pipe welds, shorted out and a highly radioactive probe could not be retracted. Workers had to shield and remove the probe manually, exposing them to radiation of up to 100 millirems, the spokesman said.

The San Onofre nuclear power plant came under renewed scrutiny last week after a small radiation leak and the discovery of extensive tube damage. The leak and the tube wear "at no point posed a danger to the community or to workers on site," said Jennifer Manfre, spokeswoman with Southern California Edison, which operates the facility. But the incidents raised concern among environmental groups, which for years have kept a close eye on the plant near San Clemente following other safety problems.

The first of four new steam generators needed to keep the San Onofre nuclear power plant in operation is making its way -- slowly and carefully -- to the facility in northern San Diego County by ship, barge and a tractor-trailer-like vehicle with 256 wheels. The 650-ton pieces of equipment are intended to extend the life span of the power plant, which has come under scrutiny from regulators in the last year because of safety lapses.

Despite the launch of its third special inspection in a year at Southern California Edison Co.'s San Onofre nuclear plant, federal regulators Thursday night assured the public that the coastal power plant is safe. About 100 residents and officials from nearby communities came to hear the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's annual report on the plant, located near San Clemente.

Regulators are launching a special inspection at Southern California Edison's San Onofre nuclear plant to make sure the utility fixed electrical problems with crucial backup power systems, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Wednesday. The visit next week by a three-person team marks the third special inspection in the last 12 months for the coastal facility near San Clemente.

Edison International's Southern California Edison unit got state permission to build a $22-million, 150-acre kelp forest off San Clemente, near its nuclear power plant. The forest would be part of a reef that helps fulfill an environmental commitment made by Edison, California's second-largest utility, when it got approval to build the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, the Rosemead company said. The kelp forest was approved after a 15-year study showing that the power station might be discharging cloudy water that reduces sunlight for a nearby kelp bed.

Seven workers at the San Onofre nuclear power plant near San Clemente have been disciplined or fired in connection with a rash of safety and security problems uncovered by federal regulators last year, Southern California Edison officials said Tuesday. "Where the acts were deliberate misconduct, employees were discharged and contract workers were no longer permitted on the property," said Gil Alexander, an Edison spokesman.

Federal officials Monday disclosed a variety of lapses at the San Onofre nuclear power plant near San Clemente, including a worker who falsified records for more than five years to show that operators made hourly fire patrols when they had not. As a result, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ordered Southern California Edison to develop a training program for employees, including ethics courses for managers and contractors as well as classes for plant staff to prevent deliberate misconduct.

Federal inspectors are investigating the failure of an emergency generator at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station during three tests in late December. The diesel generator is one of two that provide electricity to safety systems in the event of a power outage at the plant near San Clemente. Emergency generators are tested monthly. Inspectors from the U.S.