San Clemente Mayor to Seek a Review of Onofre Study

Citing his concern over atomic plant safety, San Clemente Mayor Brian J. Rice said Monday that he will ask the City Council to review a controversial report on the environmental impact of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.

“This situation with the nuclear power station is something that should concern the city,” Rice said. “Its effect on the environment will have an effect on us in the future.”

The power station is four miles south of the city in San Diego County.

Rice said he will ask the council on Wednesday to review a 15-year, $45-million study of San Onofre’s impact on the ocean environment. The study, performed by three biologists appointed by the California Coastal Commission and released last week, says the nuclear plant has done some damage to the ocean area but doesn’t pose a major environmental threat.

Assurances Are Doubted

However, Rice said he had doubts about the report’s broad assurances about the plant’s overall environmental safety. He said by putting the environmental report on the council agenda, council members can discuss it and consider inviting plant officials to San Clemente to answer questions about environmental damage.

“We’ve been constantly reassured that these things are safe,” Rice said. “But I think the record of nuclear generating stations is less than reassuring about their being a safe method of providing energy.”

San Onofre opened its first generator in 1968 and now has three nuclear reactors designed to produce about 2,625 megawatts of electricity. Operated by Southern California Edison Co., the plant is capable of producing about 21% of the utility’s total electrical output for the 50,000-square-mile service area from Kern to San Diego counties.

‘Zero Radiation’

“We have used very sensitive radiation tests around the plant, and we’ve found almost zero radiation caused by the plant,” said Byron Mechalas, the utility’s manager for environmental research. Mechalas said San Onofre poses no health hazard to humans and has a very small impact on the sea environment.

The biologists’ study said the nuclear station has killed about 21 million tons of fish a year and has reduced the amount of kelp in the ocean. Because the San Onofre reactors are cooled through a procedure that draws water through the plant at almost 2 million gallons per minute, fish often get sucked into the pipes. And after cooling the reactors, the water is returned to the ocean at a higher temperature.

“Basically they’re talking about 21 tons of fish, and that’s a lot of fish,” Rice said. “Then there’s the effect on the kelp. So now there’s danger to fish and kelp, and it makes me wonder what will be next. These people keep telling us there is no health hazard from a nuclear generating plant. But these people, from the very first, said nuclear generating plants are safe, efficient and low-cost, and they’ve been wrong on all three counts.”

In a telephone interview from his Rosemead office, Mechalas argued that the biologists’ study confirms that the San Onofre plant has caused little damage.

Kelp Reduction

“We’ve got the biggest kelp beds down there in 25 years,” Mechalas said. “The report only said that there was a reduction in what there might be in the amount of kelp.”

Mechalas agreed that 21 tons of fish are killed yearly because San Onofre water-cooling pipes pull in ocean water. But Mechalas said San Onofre uses a “fish elevator” system that saves 80% of the sea life pulled into the pipes. Mechalas said the system diverts most of the sea life from the pipes into a holding area and then elevates it to a higher water area, where another pipe pumps it back to sea.

“The impact of the (San Onofre) plant is so small that if anybody didn’t know the plant was there, he could never tell from inspecting the environment that there is anything different about that part of the coast,” Mechalas said.

Rice, however, said he is not convinced by Southern California Edison’s reassurances.

The council meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at San Clemente City Hall.