A san Onofre nuclear power plant has been off line sthins end of January because cracks
were discovered inside the new steam generator.
There's a growing movement to keep it shut down permanently.
Solana Beach city council members were urged to fell federal regulators to oppose relies
nsing of the plant.
Earlier this week, Orange County di did just that.
Arnie Gundersen former nuclear executive and author of a report from the friends of the
earth environmental group.
Thanks for joining us.
My first question is what did you tell it the Solana Beach city council members?
>> >> ARNIE GUNDERSEN: Inside the steam generators there's 19,000 pipes, about the size of my
finger and they're vibrating.
So they're colliding with each other and the leak that was created was small, and Southern
California shut down quickly.
What I told them is if it went more than about a day, that leak would have cut the pipe entirely
and instead of a very small issue, it would have been km a very large issue.
Likely, shutting down I 5.
>> >>PEGGY: Now you're talking about this and the Irvine city council also had a recommendation
they put in.
We're years out from reliance, why now?
>> >>ARNIE GUNDERSEN: I'm assuming that California's going to be a contentious hearing.
In some state where there's no interest in the nuclear power plant a license can get
extended in two or three years.
In contentious hearings like in Massachusetts, that process has taken 8 to 10 years.
Southern California Edison has got to expect the contentious hearing and it's most likely
going to have to notify the NRC in 2013 because it's about a 10 year process.
>> >>PEGGY: We've got a 10 year process notification so we're kind of back tracking to 2013 and
have these problems.
Southern California Edison, they operate the plant and a representative made a media statement
after the Irvine city council meeting.
They said relicensing is not their concern right now, specifically they said we are really
now focused on the safe operation of that plant and summer reliability.
Those are the two things that are paramount right now.
How would you respond to that?
Are they taking enough responsibility in this?
>> >>ARNIE GUNDERSEN: As long as the plants are shut down, that's the right thing to do.
They don't know what caused the problem and staying shut down until they do is the right
thing to do.
As far as not being prepared for the license extension, there's publications that say that
they in fact had anticipated this generator would run 40 or 50 years.
They were clearly expecting to extend the license and I think they will.
>> >>PEGGY: A lot of peopleÊ I shouldn't say a lot, some people are calling for the
permanent shut down.
Is that sort of an alarmist reaction to these tubes or is that something you're in support
of?
>> >>ARNIE GUNDERSEN: Well, the tsunami issue and earthquake issue, both of which they have
here, that's thing # 1.
The necks st emergency planning.
My biggest professional done is emergency planning.
There's two sites that are the worst in the country.
One is Indian point outside of New York and the other is san Onofre which is within 50
miles or 8Êmillion people.
>> >>PEGGY: Why do you say they're the worst sites?
>> >>ARNIE GUNDERSEN: The population density in the area within 50 miles of san Onofre
is about 8 times higher than the population density around FUKOSHIMA and we know how hard
it was to evacuate that one.
In the event of an accident, getting 8Êmillion people out is unheard of task.
Unplanned for task.
>> >>PEGGY: If there was a problem that needed evacuation.
We've only got a little bit of time left.
What would you like to see happen with san Onofre at this point?
>> >>ARNIE GUNDERSEN: It's got to stay down until they figure out what's caused the breaks.
The people that made it, have said they're not going to be prepared to understand it
until September.
The state of California needs to be prepared for a winterÊ summer without san Onofre.
>> >>PEGGY: All right.
Arnie Gundersen, thank you for joining us.