Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Watch Live

KPBS Special Coverage: Trouble At San Onofre

Southern California Edison has announced it will retire the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which has been offline since a small radiation leak in January 2012 led to the discovery of excessive wear on hundreds of steam generator tubes that carry radioactive water.

Here's your manual to how it all began and the latest developments.
The Beginning
  • KPBS Midday Edition
    A nuclear reactor at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station remained off-line today due to an equipment problem that sent a small, non-hazardous amount of radioactive gas into an auxiliary building and possibly into the atmosphere, authorities said.
  • Hopes that problems at San Onofre’s Unit 2 reactor might be less serious than those at Unit 3 are now fading. California’s energy agencies are gearing up efforts to get substitute power from decommissioned power plants.
Attempts To Restart
  • KPBS Midday Edition
    A new report introduced to a U.S. Senate committee contends the steam generators at San Onofre are in much worse shape than publicly acknowledged. This comes just weeks before Southern California Edison, which runs the plant, is expected to submit a letter to federal regulators outlining the root causes of the tube failure.
  • The Nuclear Regulatory Commission rejected a petition from Friends of the Earth asking for a license amendment for San Onofre before considering a plan to restart the troubled plant.
  • KPBS Midday Edition
    Almost one year since the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station was abruptly shut down due to a unexpected equipment problems, the discussion continues over Southern California Edison's proposal to partially restart the plant.
Permanently Offline
  • Southern California Edison announces it is retiring the remaining reactors at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Decommissioning the plant will take 40 years and cost 1,100 jobs.
Replacing San Onofre Power
Settlement Talks