Nuclear safety regulators have cited Southern California Edison for failing to check the design of steam generators that eventually led to the closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) citation did not carry specific penalties.
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But it is possible the citation could muck up Edison's efforts to be compensated for the closure. The energy giant is fighting Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., the Japanese company that built the generators, over who is to blame for the breakdown and who pays the bill for the problems.
The California Public Utilities Commission is weighing $94 million in refunds to customers of Edison and San Diego Gas N Electric, which owns a minority share of the plant, reports City News Service.
The utility can appeal the NRC's violation notice.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.