Orange County Register

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission took a tougher-than-usual tone with the operators of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station at a May 7 meeting on SanO’s safety, colleague Vik Jolly tells us (Read Jolly’s full story on the packed meeting here):

• The feds are concerned about continuing human performance problems at the plant, which operator Southern California Edison has promised to fix, but without much success.
• SCE reiterated promises to improve, and said that, this time, things will be different: A new senior leadership team of nuclear industry experts is in place, and will be working with federal regulators as the feds do more intensive inspections.

Seeking some context, we at The Watchdog pored over newspaper clippings on San Onofre from the 1960s, 70s and 80s, and were dazzled by the complicated relationship Orange County seems to have always had with the reactors. “Giant San Onofre Plant Proves ‘Crowd-Stopper,’ reads a Sept. 13, 1965 story in the Register:

“Though the giant San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station won’t be finished until late 1966, it already has proved a major Southern California tourist attraction …officials report that 58,400 visitors stopped at the site during the first four months of this year….Visitors have come from all 50 states and 27 foreign countries to tour a modernistic information center at the station’s site and watch construction of the plant itself in a vast manmade canyon fronting on the Pacific Ocean…. The largest group of foreign tourists during the year came from Cambodia.”

The plant was affectionately referred to as the “world’s biggest beach ball” in 1966, but headlines like “Citizens Attack Atom Power Generator Expansion Plans” were the order of the day in 1970, and in 1983, the story was how the now-closed SONGS reactor 1 got low safety marks from the NRC. That report noted three instances in which plant technicians did not recognize potentially dangerous problems.

Not so vastly different, one could argue, from what’s happening today. People still run the machines, and people are still people.

That folks are still arguing over the safety of  nuclear power some 40 years after the first reactors were fired up certainly says something. Exactly what it says depends on your vantage point, of course, but we’ll encourage you do that over on Pat Brennan’s GreenOC blog!

More Watchdog:

• Wow! Mothballing nuclear reactor costs more than building it
• Bad timing: State slices program that helps schools slice costs
• Conflict? Councilwoman backs $24 million tax break for upscale hotel near her upscale bar
• Sweetheart deal for company headed by former Caltrans official?
• Push for more local water leads to hefty $204,000 fine. Unfair?
• State water board will think harder about $204,000 fine
• Former Anaheim city manager hits jackpot with pension
• “Free” credit report costs Orange woman $832
• Retired Vernon official collects a $500K pension–while under indictment
• Did fired OC air marshal endanger flying public, or protect it?
• How did consultant’s $15 million job morph into $126 million job?
• Torture memo’s author may face discipline from state bar
• Kills double at OC’s largest “pro-humane” animal shelter
• Former Garden Grove police chief gets house arrest for embezzlement
• As San Onofre struggles with errors, NRC scrutiny picks up
• Oops. State employees wasted millions, auditor says
• Landlord on hook for up to $44,000 - even though discrimination case was dropped
• Government plan won’t save anyone from disaster, anti-nuke pillmaker says
• AIG investigation goes criminal
• State Bar wouldn’t let guilty lawyer resign
• Free (well, $4.5 million) pills for nuclear neighbors!
• Color of money: Is it racist to ask accountants to have more training?
• Judge stops board from replacing ‘argumentative’ director in Laguna Woods
• 18-seconds missing from jail video taken of jaywalker who claims being beaten
• Manager at addiction center sexually harassed patients, says state report that may be withdrawn
• Two of America’s worst charities call OC home, watchdog says
• Three of OC’s top 10 employers are government agencies
• Oink! Lawmakers fry up $20 million in pork for OC, group says
• OC’s pork projects list
• OC pork breakdown, by lawmaker
• Surprise! Most think taxes are too high, but OK wealth redistribution
• Politicians climb aboard “The Money Train”
• Laguna Woods approves OC’s first mandatory spay-neuter law
• Controversial spay-neuter law heads to Laguna Woods council 
• Vote! Should Laguna Woods approve mandatory spay-neuter law?
• Salt for your thyroid in a nuclear emergency: $4.5 million
• Stimulation, indeed: Feds to drop $285 million on new cars
• Transportation czars enjoy $300-a-night hotels while traveling
• White tabs just won’t do! Tustin pays $400 for color-coded tabs at councilwoman’s request
• Surfrider appears to benefit from its toll road fight
• KPCC public radio on ‘low-performing charity’ list
• Defying economic gravity: One OC city rakes in sales tax as others bleed
• Smile! More airborne government cameras snap pictures of your yard
• State moves to revoke embattled lender’s real estate license
• With $150 million in the bank, why is fire authority axing firefighters?
• Former top cop in Garden Grove guilty of embezzlement
• U.S. Postal Service seeks $25 billion federal bailout
• State considers ban on big screen TVs
• Backyard breeders (trying to evade taxes) oppose spay/neuter laws, OC activist says

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