UPDATE: San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant Mandated To Study Risks Posed By Earthquakes, Tsunamis

3/22 UPDATE:

State lawmakers have called on California utilities to delay relicensing of nuclear power plants until the companies complete detailed seismic maps and better understand risks posed by earthquakes and tsunamis.

Concerns over whether the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, located less than 25 air miles from Lake Elsinore, could withstand a natural or other disaster like the one witnessed in Japan, spurred state lawmakers to convene in Sacramento Monday.

California senators heard testimony from various nuclear energy experts and plant officials on safety and disaster preparedness plans for San Onofre and the Diablo Canyon nuclear facility near San Luis Obispo.

According to the Associated Press, lawmakers questioned whether the utilities have been dragging their feet on conducting three-dimensional seismic studies called for in a 2008 state report to assess the risks posed by offshore faults.

Caroline McAndrews, director of licensing at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, said the plant has applied to the Public Utilities Commission for permission to charge ratepayers an estimated $21.6 million for those studies.

The license for San Onofre expires in 2022, and Southern California Edison, which owns the plant, has not yet applied to renew it.

While Japan's crisis raises uncomfortable questions after nuclear plant safety on this side of the Pacific, officials from the two California facilities contend their plants have been designed and located to protect them from the most serious natural threats.

Last week the White House asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct a comprehensive review of safety for all 104 U.S. nuclear plants.

3/21 ORIGINAL POST:

Concerns over whether the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, located less than 25 air miles from Lake Elsinore, could withstand a natural or other disaster like the one witnessed in Japan, spurred state lawmakers to convene in Sacramento Monday.

California senators began hearing testimony today from various nuclear energy experts and plant officials on safety and disaster preparedness plans for Southern California's San Onofre plant and the Diablo Canyon nuclear facility near San Luis Obispo.

According to an Associated Press report, the senators took aim at plant officials, citing concerns over the proximity of San Onofre and Diablo Canyon to fault lines.

The San Onofre plant is located near the Rose Canyon Fault, Elsinore Fault, Newport Inglewood Fault, and San Clemente Fault (click on the photo gallery to see attached PDF of U.S. Geological Survey fault lines).

Concerns about seismic safety have plagued San Onofre for decades. In Southern California, there are an estimated 10,000 earthquakes per year.

Southern California Edison, which operates San Onofre, has maintained the plant was built to withstand the largest quakes expected in the region.

On March 14, Pete Dietrich, head nuclear officer at the plant, said fail-safe mechanisms in place at the facility, such as the fuel tanks being buried below ground, would prevent the failures that have occurred at the Japanese nuclear installations.

The San Onofre plant began commercial operations in 1968.

The timing of Monday's meeting coincides with a mandate last week by the White House, which asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to conduct a comprehensive review of safety for all 104 U.S. nuclear plants after radiation leaks and explosions at Japanese plants raised global fears.

A 2008 NRC report revealed that battery powering safety systems at San Onofre had not worked for four years. (To see all NRC inspection reports for San Onofre dating May 2000 through January 2010, click here.)