Protesters
gathered at a meeting between federal regulators and Southern California Edison
in opposition of the proposed reopening of a nuclear power
plant.
The San Onofre
nuclear power plant has been shut down for 10 months because of unusual wear on
steam generator tubes, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Edison has
proposed reopening about 70 percent of the plant for five months before taking
it offline for inspection.
On Friday, the
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission met with Edison to discuss the fate of the
plant, the closing of which cost Edison and partner San Diego Gas & Electric
a combined $771 million.
Anti-nuclear
activists and a group of four Buddhist monks and nuns gathered at the meeting to
express their opposition to restarting the plant.
One of the
monks, Senji Kanaeda, said he was concerned about nuclear power in part because
of the disaster at Fukushima. "We would like to pass a safe world to the next
generation," he said. UPI
Several
activists gathered at the meeting before it started, chanting "No restart, shut
it down". Local Buddhist monks began a seven-day fast in support of a permanent
closing of the plant. Some of them also attended Friday's meeting.
Reuters The Southern
California Edison’s San Onofre nuclear power plant has often fallen under
scrutiny for creating dangerous conditions that some have worried could result
in California’s Fukushima. The plant was shut down over radioactive leaks in
January, but has since drafted a reopening plan without undergoing a safety
hearing. RT Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) officials are set to meet with Southern California
Edison representatives Friday night to discuss the limited restarting of the
plant. In order to restart, inspectors would have to deem the plant safe enough
to operate. RT Edison's efforts
to restart the reactor faced vocal opposition from environmental groups and
local residents, who said the plan was an experiment that could endanger 8
million people living nearby. Reuters San Onofre sits
on the Southern California coast halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. The
Chicago Tribune In Fukushima,
Japan, it was the failure of emergency generators that were partially the cause
of the plant’s failure in 2011. At San Onofre, the backup generator would be
needed to help keep the reactor cool if power was lost at the site.
RT
AGB/ARA
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