Feds Say San Onofre Safety Margins Compromised

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published December 22, 2008 at 10:08 AM PST

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

Federal regulators say one of several batteries used to supply power to San Onofre nuclear power plant safety systems didn't work for four years. But the company that operates the plant says the other batteries would have powered the safety system. KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce explains.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says inadequate maintenance procedures were to blame and the lapse is troubling because the condition persisted for so long.

The NRC says the loss of even one emergency battery reduced the plant's safety margins.

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The agency says the battery was inoperable from 2004 to 2008.

Southern California Edison spokesman Gil Alexander says the battery's connections were not tightened to federal standards.

Alexander: The battery is part of a system of nine batteries that provide backup power in the event that all other electricity on the site and to the San Onofre site is unavailable. This would be a catastrophic earthquake for example.

Alexander says there was no danger to the public or employees during the four years the connections to the battery were not as tight as required.

He says other emergency batteries were available to supply power to plant safety systems.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

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Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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