By Jim Shilander
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has confirmed that the location, and perhaps the date, of its meeting to discuss Southern California Edison’s response to the NRC’s Confirmatory Action Letter will change.
A release put out by the NRC earlier this week indicated that the meeting would be held at a Dana Point hotel on November 16. However, Victor Dricks, a spokesperson for NRC-Region IV, which has oversight over San Onofre, stated that “last minute issues,” had put both the location and date of the meeting into question.
An employee at the hotel where the event was slated to be held stated that no formal agreement was in place to hold the meeting there.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced earlier this week that it would be meeting with officials from Southern California Edison to discuss the utility’s response to the NRC’s confirmatory action letter, which addressed the damage to the steam generator tubes at the plant.
According to the original release announcing the meeting, Edison will make a technical presentation on how the company has gone about identifying steam generator tube wear, as well as the corrective actions taken. Unit 3 was shutdown in January after the discovery of a leak in a steam generator tube. Unit 2, which was already shut down for maintenance and refueling, was found to have unexpectedly high levels of tube wear after inspections.
More than 1,000 people showed up at an NRC meeting in Dana Point last month to discuss safety at SONGS. The release stated, “the public is invited to observe the meeting and will have the opportunity to talk to the NRC staff after the business portion of the meeting.”The release also stated that the majority of the meeting would involve technical discussions of how Edison was planning on safely operating Unit 2.
