Regulatory delay closes San Onofre

Both reactors at the San Onofre nuclear power plant in California are being retired due to the lengthy and uncertain regulation surrounding their return to service.

"We have concluded that the continuing uncertainty about when or if San Onofre might return to service was not good for our customers, our investors or the need to plan for our region's long-term electricity needs," said Ted Craver, chairman and CEO of Edison International - the parent company of San Onofre owners Southern California Edison (SCE).

The plant's problems began in January 2012 with a fault in one of two new steam generators installed as part of an uprate and modernization program of unit 3. The reactor shut down automatically when a minor amount of radioactive material was detected coming from a failed tube in the steam generator, but this aspect of the issue led to the mobilization of an anti-nuclear campaign against the plant, its majority owner Southern California Edison (SCE), and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries which supplied the faulty component.