Southern California Edison has until March 15 to file papers showing the nearly $700 million cost of the troubled steam generators at San Onofre nuclear plant is reasonable.
Edison never filed the paperwork required to justify the cost of installing the new steam generators back in 2011. Nor did it in 2012, the same year that San Onofre was shut down after a radioactive leak was detected inside one of those new steam generators.
San Diego lawyer Mike Aguirre represents a ratepayer who argued that Edison is long overdue to file the paperwork. This week, a judge agreed and ruled that Edison must submit the application by March 15.
The order comes two weeks after Senator Barbara Boxer alleged that an internal report shows that Edison knew there were problems with those steam generators before it installed them, a charge Edison denies. Aguirre said Boxer’s allegation combined with the shutdown poses a big challenge for the utility.
“If you ignore red flags that what you have is defective, how can you come back and say you acted reasonably especially when you are trying to get the costs in 2013 and in 2012 after you know that those red flags were in fact a reality," he said.
Edison says it had intended to submit the paperwork to state
regulators by March 15 even without the judge's ruling. The company has denied knowing the generators were faulty before installation.
