SONGS for San Onofre

There's been a lot in the news over the past few months over steam generator problems at Units 2 and 3 of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in southern California. Back when those two units were going through the licensing process (they received operating licenses from the NRC in 1982), Unit 1 was operating at the site but attention turned to the robustness of the seismic design of the plant, particularly in light of the higher seismic design parameters being applied to Units 2 and 3.

SONGS Unit 1 began commercial operation in 1968, an early 3-loop Westinghouse PWR. The focus on the seismic issues for Unit 1 led to a campaign to shut the plant down by local advocacy groups. The Southern California Alliance for Survival distributed this broadside with the catchphrase "San Onofre Has Its Faults."

The four page paper cleverly included a petition to the NRC to shut down the plant. All the reader had to do was clip the petition and send it on to the NRC. The text invoked the NRC's rule for citizen petitions for enforcement action against licensees -- 10 CFR 2.206 -- and set out the minimal facts and basis necessary to request such action

As a junior attorney at the NRC in 1980, a large part of my work was in handling these petitions and advising the NRC technical staff on how to handle them.  We received over 1200 of these cut-out petitions. Following a meeting with Edison in May 1982, NRC staff determined that the licensee needed to demonstrate that Unit 1 met its licensed design basis before the plant, then in an outage, could be permitted to restart. Restart was authorized in 1984, and survived challenge in the court of appeals. 

SONGS 1 operated until 1992 and has been substantially dismantled.