Edison Wants to Restart Nuclear Reactor

Plant had been shut down over safety issues

Southern California Edison wants to restart one of the two reactors at its San Onofre nuclear plant, which has been shuttered for eight months over safety concerns, officials said Thursday.

The plant's Unit 2 reactor was offline for routine inspections and maintenance when a steam generator tube in Unit 3 sprung a leak on Jan. 31, releasing a small amount of radioactive steam. That led to the discovery that the tubes in the newly replaced steam generators were wearing out more quickly than expected, including some that showed an unusual type of wear caused by tubes rubbing against adjacent tubes.

The  U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission dispatched a special inspection team to the plant and ordered Edison to keep the plant shut down until the company could show that it fully understood the cause of the issues and how to fix them.