SCE: Mitsubishi still refusing to produce Final Repair Recommendation
SONGS saga plays on
November 10, 2013 | By
Barbara Vergetis Lundin
Southern California Edison (SCE) has made documentation publicly available showing that for more than 16 months, "Mitsubishi failed to offer any viable, implementable and licensable plan that would safely and reliably restore the replacement steam generators to 100-percent power for their promised 40-year operational life" at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The publication of these materials follows the September 20, 2013 finding by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that Mitsubishi's replacement steam generators at SONGS failed, in part, due to a flaw in Mitsubishi's proprietary computer code used to design and manufacture them.
According to SCE, once the Mitsubishi-designed and manufactured replacement steam generators failed, "SCE spent hundreds of millions of dollars to investigate, repair and keep San Onofre in a state of readiness for potential restart." Despite Mitsubishi's contractual obligations, SCE claims that Mitsubishi failed to provide it with complete documentation regarding the replacement steam generators' failures and potential repairs, "repeatedly delayed in providing a final repair recommendation and failed to substantiate that the repair proposal and the replacement proposal eventually offered would resolve the underlying problems with Mitsubishi's design." The SCE materials detail repeated attempts to gain access to important documents in Mitsubishi's possession; however, "Mitsubishi still refuses to allow SCE access to its documents," according to the SCE report. The SCE documents illustrate how Mitsubishi failed "to fulfill its contractual obligation to 'repair or replace (as appropriate) any defective part' of the replacement steam generators 'at its sole expense with due diligence and dispatch.'" On the contrary, "despite these constant meetings and other communications, Mitsubishi failed to offer a repair plan that (1) solved the cause of the replacement steam generator failures, (2) was feasible and implementable, (3) was validated and (4) was licensable." In the end, "in part because Mitsubishi provided 'no viable path to restoring SONGS to service, SCE [was] forced to retire and decommission SONGS as a result of Mitsubishi's total and fundamental failure to meet its contractual obligations," according to the SCE documents. SCE has demanded that Mitsubishi reimburse the utility for the costs incurred investigating the cause of the failed replacement steam generators. To date, Mitsubishi has accepted responsibility for $7 million of the $140 million spent investigating the problems caused by Mitsubishi's failed design. Earlier this month, SCE filed a Request for Arbitration of the utility's claims against Mitsubishi in an attempt to recover all damages caused by Mitsubishi's failed replacement steam generator design. SCE announced June 7, 2013 that it would permanently shut down SONGS Units 2 and 3, and begin the process to decommission the plant. For more: © 2013 FierceMarkets. All rights reserved. |