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ONE GREAT THING about Saddleback College is its proximity to the beach. ⎯To surf. Sand. Squawkin' birds.

And to a nuclear power plant.

Yes, there's San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONG) just down the road. Inquiring minds wanna know: is the plant safe? Well, Saddlebackians, you'll want to check out this morning’s OC Register: Nuclear incidents 'more than minor':

On Dec. 11, operators in the control room of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station were bringing Reactor 3 up to full power after a months-long refueling outage…The goal: raising power to 18 percent by adding water to the nuclear core.

But rather than doing the precise calculations necessary to determine how much water to add, operators consulted a book, did some rudimentary math and added 500 gallons – twice what was necessary…When power jumped to 19 percent from 15 percent, operators alerted supervisors. Boric acid injected into the reactor halted the increase at about 20.3 percent of full power, according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission reports.

…This incident was among more than a dozen at San Onofre last year considered "more than minor" because it could have led to a significant event, challenged safety systems or affected workers' health. In the end, the incidents had very low safety significance, and no harm was done, the commission said.

Overall, San Onofre gets good grades from the commission. Seven years elapsed between its last two major enforcement actions. But some neighbors don't trust the commission. Last year, radiation 16 times higher than that allowed in drinking water was found beneath the decommissioned reactor known as Unit 1. The commission called it "troubling" but said it was within radiation protection limits.

…Southern California Edison, which runs San Onofre, declined to discuss the Dec. 11 incident in detail. In a statement, spokesman Ray Golden said: "We concur with the NRC that these issues were of very low safety significance, and never presented a risk to the community or to the operation of the facility. It should be understood that we review and monitor every step of our operation to ensure that we work error-free. This is an ongoing and never-ending process."

The safety debate about nuclear power is intensifying as a push to build nuclear power plants surfaces in the U.S….Most of the new plants will be in the South. Nothing is planned for California, because state law forbids nuclear development until a federal waste repository comes online.

…How safe is nuclear power? There have been no major accidents in the United States since a reactor at Three Mile Island had a partial core meltdown in 1979. Radioactive gases were released, but no deaths or injuries were reported….

How safe is San Onofre?…While violations serious enough to garner official dings are fewer and farther between than they were a decade ago, there are still many minor incidents – some reported by San Onofre itself. An Orange County Register review of commission reports shows San Onofre workers:

•Improperly labeled a container of radioactive material, which wound up in a chemistry-lab trash can.
•Allowed debris to collect in water-storage tank enclosures, which could block flow in an emergency.
•Failed to promptly identify trapped air in safety-injection suction lines, which could damage emergency core cooling-system pumps.

Dave Lochbaum, director of the Nuclear Safety Project for the Union of Concerned Scientists, has criticized the commission, testifying before Congress that it has let plants cut back on safety checks and operate with dangerously worn equipment….Lochbaum's group isn't anti-nuclear, but argues for stricter regulation. At the Register's request, Lochbaum reviewed San Onofre's recent safety records.

…Lochbaum is impressed by how hard San Onofre officials are trying…"About a year ago, I attended a public meeting between San Onofre and NRC," he wrote. "San Onofre had requested the meeting. They presented the results from a recent survey of the workforce on safety culture issues. … The survey results for San Onofre were really good – numbers that most sites would love to have. But San Onofre's presentation to the NRC was as if they got a failing grade. I sent them (a) letter commending them on having such high standards. It's not the first commendation letter we've sent, but it's in a very small group."

That's not much comfort to Lyn Harris Hicks of San Clemente, who has lived beside the reactors for about 30 years…She is deeply troubled that radioactive tritium was found last year in groundwater beneath a defunct San Onofre reactor more than a decade after it ceased operations. Public health was not in danger, the commission and Edison said...Harris Hicks is skeptical. "Tritium into the beach is the most important issue to us," she said. "This indicates it may have been seeping into the ground there all those years. We have our young surfers down there all the time. … That's the problem of nuclear radiation, of course. It permeates."

…Harris Hicks and the Coalition for Responsible and Ethical Environmental Decisions aren't convinced [that residents she be reassured by existing oversight]. She particularly objects to the secrecy surrounding physical security in the wake of 9/11.

On March 15, the commission released a letter saying San Onofre has two low-level security violations, but did not say what they are….[End]

Just for laughs, check out:

● National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says San Onofre "tsunami ready"

Officials from NOAA's National Weather Service have recognized California’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station as the nation’s first nuclear power plant to establish a tsunami and severe weather safety plan as part of the federal weather agency’s nationwide program of preparedness....

● Southern Cal Edison's advice to residents

Should any emergency occur at SONGS, San Onofre officials would immediately contact local, state and federal authorities. Those groups then make the decision to alert the public, if necessary. The public would then be notified through the siren system and by government agencies on the Emergency Alert System (EAS) via television and radio announcements. Upon hearing the sirens, residents should turn on a radio or television and wait for instructions. The EAS message might advise you to stay inside your home with doors and windows closed. Or, it might recommend that you evacuate, depending on the nature of the emergency....

● The state: What to do in the Event of a Radiological Emergency

THINGS GETTING WACKIER AT UCI:

Also from today's Reg: UCI deals with claims of anti-Semitism:

A young man in a turban, his face covered, marches around UC Irvine with signs saying "Death to Infidels. Death to Israel" during a week of campus demonstrations by Muslim students…Here's the catch: He's not Muslim. In fact, he's not even a student at UCI….Instead, he's one of many outsiders who have become embroiled in a campus war of words between a small number of Jewish and Muslim students….

See: UCI: a history