Reuters: Regulatory News: NRC should finish probes before CA nuclear restart - Senator

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NRC should finish probes before CA nuclear restart - Senator May 23rd 2013, 23:59 Thu May 23, 2013 7:59pm EDT May 23 (Reuters) - A California senator on Thursday called on the country's top nuclear watchdog to complete all investigations surrounding the crippled San Onofre nuclear plant before the agency decides whether one of the reactors is safe to operate. Senator Barbara Boxer, chairman of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, questioned Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Allison Macfarlane on the San Onofre investigations at Macfarlane's hearing in Washington to be re-nominated as chairman of the five-member commission. Both reactors at the 2,150-megawatt San Onofre nuclear station, halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, have been shut for 16 months following discovery of accelerated degradation of thousands of tightly packed tubes inside the units' new steam generators. Loss of the plant's output has kept wholesale power prices in California high and strained the Southern California grid. San Onofre's largest owner and operator, Southern California Edison (SCE), is working to obtain NRC approval to restart San Onofre 2 as soon as this summer. In letters to Boxer, Macfarlane disclosed that in addition to the NRC safety review of SCE's restart proposal, the agency has two additional investigations looking into potential criminal activity. Both the NRC Office of Investigations and the NRC Office of Inspector General are conducting independent investigations at San Onofre, Macfarlane told Boxer last month. Each investigation is focused on "allegations of willful wrongdoing and is separate in scope and purpose from the NRC staff's ongoing safety evaluations," Macfarlane said. The Office of Investigations is looking into wrongdoing by SCE related to the utility's previous license amendment activity while the Inspector General's investigation looks into the behavior of NRC employees and San Onofre. "Any information that appears to have the potential to impact public health and safety will be immediately provided by the investigators to the NRC staff," Macfarlane told Boxer in the letter. At Thursday's hearing, Boxer, a Democrat, asked Macfarlane if the best course of action would be for the agency to complete its investigations before deciding whether the reactor can operate. Macfarlane said it was her "personal belief" that the technical staff should have all conclusions from the investigations before making a restart decision, but noted that the work is separate and should remain so. She said it now appears that the Office of Investigations probe and the technical safety review will conclude "around the same time." If the NRC technical staff finishes first and is ready to make a recommendation on a restart, Macfarlane said they would ask the Office of Investigations if there are significant safety issues that should affect their restart decision. However, Macfarlane said work by the technical staff and the Office of Investigation "are two separate processes and it's very important that the agency maintain the integrity of these processes." "I agree there should be integrity, I do not agree, under any circumstances, that there ought to be a restart until the entire investigation is complete," Boxer said. "We have a bit of difference." "To me, it's pretty simple," Boxer said. "All parts of the investigation have to be complete: the criminal part, the part that deals with complete and accurate information and all the rest, the technical part." Macfarlane, an expert on radioactive waste, joined the NRC as chairman in 2012 and was confirmed to fill the remaining year left in the term of Gregory Jaczko who resigned. If confirmed, Macfarlane will serve a full five-year term to expire in June 2018. SCE, a unit of Edison International, operates San Onofre and owns a 78-percent stake. Sempra Energy's San Diego utility owns 20 percent. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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