Southern California Edison (SCE) on April 20 told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that the company completed additional inspections of the 2,200 MW San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) Unit 2 steam generators, based on Unit 3 findings.

On April 11, SCE identified wear in two of the 19,454 tubes in the Unit 2 generators that was similar to the type of wear that was previously seen in Unit 3. SCE conducted these inspections with technology specifically designed to identify this type of wear.

"Our number one priority is, and always has been, the health and safety of the public and our employees," said SCE Senior Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer Pete Dietrich. "Our commitment remains the same; the utility will only bring the units on line when we and the NRC are satisfied that it is safe to do so."

SCE also provided a letter to the NRC to update the regulator on the ongoing Unit 2 steam generator tube inspections and confirmed the actions outlined in the NRC's Confirmatory Action Letter, which SCE received on March 27. The letter outlines actions SCE must complete at SONGS before seeking permission from the NRC to restart Units 2 and 3.

Unit 2 was taken out of service for a planned outage on Jan. 9. Unit 3 has been shut down since Jan. 31, when it was safely taken off line after station operators detected a leak in one of the unit’s steam generator tubes.

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