Authorities to meet with So. Cal Edison regarding restart for San Onofre

SAN DIEGO (Wire Service) - Nuclear Regulatory Commission authorities will meet with Southern California Edison officials next week to discuss a restart plan for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in northern San Diego County.

The plant has been shut down since a leak was discovered in one of two nuclear reactors at the end of January. The other reactor was off-line for planned maintenance -- and neither has operated since.

According to the NRC, the Dec. 18 meeting will focus on SCE's October response to a list of actions the agency requires before a restart would be considered. The utility is the majority owner and operator of the plant. San Diego Gas & Electric owns a 20 percent share and receives 20 percent of the power it creates.

Anti-nuclear activists are opposed to any plans to restart the facility.

A group called Friends of the Earth contends that new steam generators installed at San Onofre in 2010 were of such a different design that SCE should have to go through an entirely new licensing procedure before the plant returns

to service.

According to the NRC, no decision on restarting the plant has been made.

NRC staff plans to take questions from the public at the meeting, which will begin at 10 a.m. Pacific Time in Rockville, Md. The meeting will also be webcast.