On January 31, 2012, the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) lied about a radiation leak that tainted the skies and air above Southern California in this press release. According to the release:
“There has been no release to the atmosphere.”
They lied.
It was not a “lie of omission.”
It was a shameful bald face lie.
They lied because they had to. The operator, Southern California Edison had just installed experimental high-performance steam generators as part of an upgrade. As it happened, the experimental plumbing in those generators had failed. Edison said it was wear caused by “vibrations” in the steam tubes. Or you could say that the generators were shaking so hard that the pipes broke. This was a huge financial problem because the new equipment was never approved by the people who regulate nuclear safety at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
That was bad, bad, news for Edison …
When Edison designed those high-performance generators, they built them for profit, not public safety. They intentionally stripped vital safety features that were designed to prevent the “vibrations” that caused the leakage of deadly radiation. And to make matters worse, one of Edison’s top engineers warned the company in this memo that the generators could be destroyed by powerful “water hammers.”
After the leak, which was probably caused by the water hammers, Edison said nothing. There was no warning issued to nearby communities like San Clemente, or the Marines at Camp Pendleton, who were even closer. Nothing.
Additional Resources:
Public Watchdogs has also obtained a copy of the original Event Report submitted to the NRC on January 29, 2012.
Click here for a pdf of Edison’s lying release. Or scroll down for the text version:
6 p.m. PDT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Gil Alexander, (626) 302-2255
San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station Operators
Perform Precautionary Shutdown of Reactor Unit
ROSEMEAD, Calif., Jan. 31, 2012 – Southern California Edison (SCE), operator of the
San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, has begun a precautionary shutdown of Unit 3 because
sensors installed for this purpose detected a possible leak in one of the unit’s steam generator
tubes.
The potential leak poses no imminent danger to the public or plant workers. There has
been no release to the atmosphere. San Onofre personnel will evaluate the cause of the leak and
the steps required to repair it and resume operations.
Unit 2 is currently offline for a planned maintenance, refueling and technology upgrade
outage. Southern California Edison has ample reserve power to meet customer needs while Unit
3 is offline.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was immediately informed of this development.
About Southern California Edison
An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edison is one of the
nation’s largest electric utilities, serving a population of nearly 14 million via 4.9 million
customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern
California.
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