nuclear-news

$65 for repair to San Onofre nuclear plant

Repair bill for San Onofre nuclear plant could hit $65 million LA Times, May 2, 2012 | Edison International officials estimate that the company’s cost for inspections and repairs at the closed San Onofre nuclear plant will be between $55 million and $65 million, but said that the costs may be recovered under a manufacturer’s warranty.

The company, which revealed the figures during a conference call about
its first-quarter earnings, also incurred costs of $30 million for
replacement power through March 31, Edison reported. Officials did not
give an estimate of what total replacement power costs will be.

The plant has been closed since Jan. 31, when a steam generator tube
in the plant’s reactor Unit 3 sprung a leak, releasing a small amount
of radioactive steam. Since then, 192 tubes in Unit 2 and 317 tubes in
Unit 3 have been taken out of service due to excessive wear.

San Onofre’s four steam generators were replaced within about the last
two years at a cost of $671 million, to be recovered from ratepayers.
They were intended to last at least through the end of the plant’s
current license in 2022……
Restarting the facility would still require approval from the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Edison spokeswoman Jennifer Manfre said she was unsure where those
dates had come from, but said that they were not current. She said
Edison still needs to submit a repair plan to the NRC, get it approved
and hold a public meeting before either unit can come back into
service and that she thought it was unlikely that would happen before
June 1.

NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said Edison has not provided the agency
with any target startup dates.

“Before they do that, they will need to prove to us that they have
identified the cause or causes of the tube degradation and have a plan
to ensure that they don’t occur in the future,” he said.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/05/san-onofre-outage-costs.html

May 5, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA