By Jim Shilander
Southern California Edison officials met with Nuclear Regulatory Commission engineers at the NRC’s Maryland headquarters Tuesday to discuss the utility’s proposal to restart Unit 2 at 70 percent power for five months. While the meeting largely focused on the technical aspects, NRC officials indicated that they had some additional questions about the proposal, which would be forwarded to Edison, with hopes of being answered by the beginning of January. NRC officials did not rule out additional inspections of Unit 2.
The current NRC timeline calls for another public meeting in Southern California in February to discuss the utility’s restart proposal. According to the NRC timeline, a decision will not be made before March.
The NRC’s timeline can be viewed online at www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactor/songs/tube-degradation.html.
Restarting SONGS is a venture that is doomed, by in particular by the description of the escape routes in Edison’s own disaster brochure. In the event of a disaster on the scale of Fukushima, for instance, and assuming the wind direction at the time of the accident as being SE, there is no escape for those who live in Zone 1 toward San Diego. As word of the accident spread, ALL streets and roadways heading away from SONGS toward the north and west would immediately become impassable. People in Zone 1 would be restricted in place for probably several days, unable to move. Putting this brochure out with this information makes a lie of saying this is a safety brochure, this brochure is merely stating that those in Zone 1 can bend over and kiss their…. etc. etc. I live in Zone 1, and to me that brochure is merely stating that the investment in SONGS is of far more importance than the people who live here, and their children, the property values of the area, and the truth.