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The Diablo Canyon reactors and the fight for a safe, nuclear-free California (updating)
The Diablo Canyon reactors and the fight for a safe, nuclear-free California (updating)

Below is an ongoing timeline of developments regarding the Diablo Canyon nuclear reactors. Check back for news updates as they happen.

The Fukushima Daiichi disaster: Ongoing lessons for California
The Fukushima Daiichi disaster: Ongoing lessons for California

Former Japanese Prime Minister Naota Kan warned today that restarting the damaged San Onofre nuclear reactor is driven by the same industrial and regulatory forces in the United States that are seeking the restart of Japanese nuclear reactors. He told a nuclear safety seminar that the worst-case nuclear accident at Fukushima-daiichi would have required evacuating a 190-mile radius from from the disaster, an area in which 50 million people live, threatening the entire future of…

The NRC – Edison’s atomic lapdog

To say that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- charged with ensuring the safe operation of the nation’s aging, degraded nuclear fleet -- is a paper tiger would be far too kind. Rather than just de-fanged and flimsy, on Wednesday, they went rogue -- disregarding the demands of federal legislators and acting as a law unto themselves -- in order to remove a critical regulatory barrier for restarting an incredibly damaged nuclear reactor, San Onofre Unit…

The secret Mitsubishi report revealed: Key quotes and conclusions

The just-released Mitsubishi Heavy Industries report on the San Onofre steam generators conclusively reveals that, as far back as 2005-2006, the joint Southern California Edison/Mitsubishi anti-vibration bar design team had identified worrisome problems with Edison’s proposed design for the steam generators MHI was contracted to build. The report confirms that Edison’s contract with Mitsubishi specified that the new, radically redesigned replacement steam generators meet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s “like for like” standard (10 C.F.R. §50.59)…

Edison rolls the nuclear dice

A dangerous gamble with the safety of Southern California

If you have ever been to Las Vegas, you’ve seen it: People so caught up in the excitement of the casino that they just can’t resist the lure of the next bet or the thought that maybe this time they’ll win.

Unfortunately, it seems that San Onofre nuclear operator, Southern California Edison, has the same weak spot for a high-stakes gamble. In a stunning announcement…

Looking past the smoke and mirrors

Exposing the truth behind the San Onofre AIT report

On July 18, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Augmented Inspection Team released its final report regarding the newly replaced, crippled steam generators in the San Onofre nuclear reactors. Both reactors at this Southern California Edison run nuclear plant -- located between San Diego and Los Angeles -- have been offline for nearly six months, following a tube failure in one of Unit 3’s steam generators and…

Skeletons in the closet
Skeletons in the closet

Leaked Edison document exposes San Onofre as worst in the nation

The crippled steam generators in the San Onofre nuclear reactors have earned the Southern California Edison run plant the dubious distinction as having  the most severely defective and damaged of all comparable equipment in the US nuclear industry, according to a recent report by Fairewinds Associates. The report analyses a leaked internal Edison document that reveals damage to thousands of tubes in the…

Shut down San Onofre: The continuing nuclear threat to southern California
Shut down San Onofre: The continuing nuclear threat to southern California

The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, located in San Clemente, Calif., between Los Angeles and San Diego, poses a threat to the health and safety of the people of southern California. The reactors have been shut down for nearly five months, following a release of radioactive steam into the environment and the related discovery that recently installed steam generators in both reactors were critically damaged and defective. This current crisis at San Onofre is

San Onofre’s steam generator failures could have been prevented
San Onofre’s steam generator failures could have been prevented

The San Onofre nuclear power plant, located between Los Angeles and San Diego, has been kept shut for the past three and half months by Southern California Edison, after radioactivity leaked into the atmosphere.

Danger from spent nuclear fuel lingers long after memory of disaster fades
Danger from spent nuclear fuel lingers long after memory of disaster fades

Bob Alvarez serves as a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and as a senior analyst at Friends of the Earth, focusing on nuclear disarmament, the safety risks of nuclear reactors and, in particular, the vulnerability of radioactive spent fuel that is piling up at reactor sites across the U.S.

Last weekend he wrote a piece for Huffington Post about the threats posed by spent reactor fuel pools at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi…