Tuesday, June 19, 2012

San Diego County Dems call for San Onofre closure - NFC

Nuclear Free California -

On June 19th The San Diego County Democratic Central Committee passed a resolution calling for the permanent closure of San onofre.

Resolution to Shut San Onofre

WHEREAS: the San Onofre Nuclear plant experienced an emergency shutdown and radioactive steam release on January 31, 2012, apparently due to premature steam generator tube degradation after Southern California Edison (SCE) replaced four steam generators, and experts assert , changing the design to “super-charge” them and illegally upgrade the capacity of the plant without completing the appropriate licensing procedure; short of decommissioning the plant, the only prudent course of action to repair these mistakes will likely be to fully replace the steam generators with the original design for perhaps another $500 million, all borne by the ratepayer; and
WHEREAS: the San Onofre Nuclear plant is sited in a tsunami inundation zone and near numerous faults predicted to sustain 7.5 to 8.0 magnitude earthquakes (while the plant was originally designed for a 6.0 quake and upgraded to resist a 7.0 quake), and the site includes 4,000 tons of spent fuel , those together endangering at least 8.4 million Californians within a 50 mile evacuation area (as recommended for Americans in Japan) where evacuation routes, planning, and infrastructure are inadequate; SCE and Nuclear Regulatory Commission refuse to reconsider the $12.6 billion federally-funded liability limit of the Price-Anderson Act, when cost estimates for damage from the radioactive fallout in Fukushima have already reached $50 billion and counting; and
WHEREAS: California’s nuclear power plants never had to pass computer simulation stress tests that would prove that they could withstand severe earthquakes and tsunamis although experts who reviewed the Fukushima disaster now recommend such tests;
THEREFOREBE IT RESOLVED: that the San Diego County Democratic Party supports permanent decommissioning of the San Onofre Nuclear plant, and encourages the California Democratic Party to do so and to reaffirm its Platform position that California shift its energy production and consumption to sources of energy that are safe, environmentally sound, sustainable, renewable, and cost efficient generation, where far more jobs will be created than in the nuclear industry for displaced workers.

Adopted by the San Diego Democratic Central Committee on 19 June 2012

San Diego County Dems call for San Onofre closure - NFC

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