L.A. City Council Joins Anti-San Onofre Nuke Plant Chorus

So far most of the noise being generated against the re-opening of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) has come from environmental watchdog groups. But now, the city of Los Angeles has joined the chorus of opposition. Yesterday, the city council passed a unanimous, 11 to 0 vote, calling on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to delay any action on the plant until a thorough safety review can take place.

As previously reported here, Southern California Edison (SCE), which operated SONGS until late 2011, when it had to shut the plant down because mysterious vibrations were causing damage to cooling tubes, hopes to reopen SONGS this summer at 70 percent capacity. Environmental groups like Friends of the Earth have been blasting the proposal, saying that SCE still hasn't figured out how, if at all possible, to make the plant safe.

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Several other cities in Orange and San Diego counties have passed resolutions similar to the one that the Los Angeles city council just adopted, but L.A. is by far the largest municipality to join the cause. Specifically, the resolution wants the NRC to grant no permits to SCE until the agency has “fully reviewed public safety through a prudent, transparent, and precautionary process, has allowed independent experts and the public ample opportunity to comment, and has confirmed that Southern California Edison has completed any resulting mandated repairs, replacements, or other actions necessary to guarantee both short and long-term safe operation of San Onofre.”

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