San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station

San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station
The station as seen from the north.
Map
Location in San Diego County
CountryUnited States
LocationSan Diego County, California
Coordinates33°22′8″N 117°33′18″W / 33.36889°N 117.55500°W / 33.36889; -117.55500
StatusIn decommissioning [1]
Construction beganAugust 1964[2]
Commission date
  • Unit 1: January 1, 1968
  • Unit 2: August 8, 1983
  • Unit 3: April 1, 1984
Decommission date
  • Unit 1: November 30, 1992
  • Unit 2: Plan announced June 7, 2013
  • Unit 3: Plan announced June 7, 2013[1]
Construction cost$8.968 billion (2007 USD, Units 2–3 only)[3] ($12.7 billion in 2023 dollars[4])
Owners
OperatorSouthern California Edison
Nuclear power station
Reactor typePWR
Reactor supplier
Power generation
Units operational2 × 1127 MW (permanent shutdown)
Units decommissioned1 × 456 MW
Nameplate capacity
  • 2,254 MW
External links
Websitesongscommunity.com
CommonsRelated media on Commons
[edit on Wikidata]

The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) is a permanently closed nuclear power plant located south of San Clemente, California, on the Pacific coast, in Nuclear Regulatory Commission Region IV. The plant was shut down in 2013 after defects were found in replacement steam generators; it is currently in the process of being decommissioned. The 2.2 GW of electricity supply lost when the plant shut down was replaced with 1.8 GW from new natural-gas-fired power plants and 250 MW from energy-storage projects.[6]

The plant is owned by Southern California Edison (SCE). Edison International, parent of SCE, holds 78.2% ownership in the plant; San Diego Gas & Electric, 20%; and the City of Riverside Utilities Department, 1.8%. When fully functional, it employed over 2,200 people.[5] Located between the Pacific Ocean and the Surf Line, the station is a prominent landmark because of its twin hemispherical containment buildings, which were designed to contain any fission products in the event of an incident.

The plant's first unit, Unit 1, operated from 1968 to 1992.[7] Unit 2 was started in 1983 and Unit 3 started in 1984. Upgrades designed to last 20 years were made to the reactor units in 2009 and 2010; however, both reactors were shut down in January 2012 after premature wear was found on more than 3,000 tubes in replacement steam generators that had been installed in 2010 and 2011. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission investigated the events that led to the closure. In May 2013, Senator Barbara Boxer, the then-chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said the modifications had proved to be "unsafe and posed a danger to the eight million people living within 50 miles of the plant," and she called for a criminal investigation.[8]

In June 2013, Southern California Edison announced the permanent retirement of Unit 2 and Unit 3, citing "continuing uncertainty about when or if SONGS might return to service" and noting that ongoing regulatory and "administrative processes and appeals" would likely cause any tentative restart plans to be delayed for "more than a year". The company stated, "Full retirement of the units prior to decommissioning will take some years in accordance with customary practices. Actual decommissioning will take many years until completion."[9] Controversy continues over Edison's plans for on-site dry cask storage of the considerable amount of nuclear waste created during the facility's decades of operation.[10][11]

  1. ^ a b Mento, Tarryn; Alison St John. "San Onofre to Be Permanently Closed". KPBS (TV). Retrieved 7 June 2013.
  2. ^ "Construction of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station". Los Angeles Times. 16 June 2012. Archived from the original on 15 October 2018. Retrieved 7 August 2012.
  3. ^ "EIA - State Nuclear Profiles". EIA. Archived from the original on 2017-05-19. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  4. ^ Johnston, Louis; Williamson, Samuel H. (2023). "What Was the U.S. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved November 30, 2023. United States Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Sewell was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Trabish, Herman (2016-07-07). "Anatomy of a nuke closure: How PG&E decided to shutter Diablo Canyon". UtilityDive. SCE and CAISO then scrambled to replace the SONGS generation. In the end, some milestone demand response and energy storage projects made up 261 MW of the needed supply, but the 1,800 MW balance was replaced with new, more flexible natural gas capacity.
  7. ^ Mufson, Steven (June 7, 2013). "San Onofre nuclear power plant to shut down". The Washington Post. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
  8. ^ "Barbara Boxer wants U.S. probe on San Onofre". Politico. Associated Press. 28 March 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2013. Overall, investigators found wear from friction and vibration in 15,000 places, in varying degrees, in 3,401 tubes inside the four replacement generators.
  9. ^ "Southern California Edison Announces Plans to Retire San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station" (Press release). Southern California Edison (SCE). June 7, 2013. Archived from the original on June 12, 2013.
  10. ^ "How a nuclear stalemate left radioactive waste stranded on a California beach". The Verge. August 28, 2018.
  11. ^ "Op-Ed: The San Onofre nuclear plant is a 'Fukushima waiting to happen'". Los Angeles Times. August 15, 2018.