EDITORIAL: Meltdown prompts caution

OUR VIEW: Nuke review necessary, but overreaction should be guarded against

The nuclear reactor meltdowns possibly under way in Japan will undoubtedly prompt the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ---- and U.S. nuclear industry critics and proponents alike ---- to sharply scrutinize the status of plants such as the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, as well occasion more careful consideration of new plant licensing.

What we should guard against is an overreaction that dooms the potential renaissance of the industry in this country. The Japanese reactors are 40 years old, and current nuclear technology has improved significantly with the latest generation of pebble-bed reactors.

The potential benefits of essentially carbon-free and oil-independent electricity are too great for panic over the Japanese events to rule decisions here.

Meanwhile, the San Onofre plant assumptions do need careful re-examination.

The plant was constructed in the 1970s to specifications calling for it to withstand a 7.0-magnitude quake and a subsequent tsunami.

Plant officials said the 20-foot wave that struck Japan's 40-year-old Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant would not have breached the sea wall protecting San Onofre. They also said the problem of hydrogen buildup that caused the explosions in Japan's plants would have been avoided by systems at San Onofre that recombine the gas with oxygen to form water.

And, not surprisingly, officials have said they believe their generators (which can be used to pump cooling water into the reactor) and wiring are better protected.

Nonetheless, the engineers in Japan probably thought all of the likely bad scenarios facing their plant were accounted for, too.

One certain area of concern here, however, should be the spent fuel storage buildings on the San Onofre site. The rods do not have as robust a system as the reactors themselves. And while they are protected by concrete structures, the rods must be kept apart and cooled.

Having them jumbled into a pile would pose a serious problem.

We would have much preferred those spent rods be safely interred in the now-abandoned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility.

For that decision, we have Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to thank.


