ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Written by: BY FRED SWEGLES
Contrary to a prior announcement, Southern California Edison did not restart the Unit 2 reactor at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station on Thursday, and SCE had no word today on when the power might go back on.
“Unit 2 has not yet returned to service,” SCE spokesman Gil Alexander said. “Sorry I can’t provide more start-up information, for market reasons.”
Edison’s Ross Ridenoure had said weeks earlier, while being pressed to give a time at a San Clemente City Council meeting, that the reactor would go back online at 3:15 p.m. Feb. 18. That prompted San Clemente Green’s Gary Headrick to call for a delay until safety concerns he raised to the City Council could be aired.
Alexander said Edison policy is not to divulge when power plants like San Onofre will restart because it can affect the energy market. Unit 2 has been down since September for swap-out of two aging steam generators.
“Unit 2 start-up was delayed – not that we are taking any credit for it,” Headrick wrote at San Clemente Green’s Web site, expounding on his safety concerns. “This gives us an opportunity to do more public outreach for safety preparedness and to follow other ways of formally voicing our concerns.”
For more about those concerns see www.sanclementegreen.org.
