Nuclear Plant Gets Good Marks in Review

Federal regulators have given the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and its neighboring communities high marks in being prepared for a nuclear disaster.

“Generally we’re happy with their performance,” said Tom Ridgeway, branch chief for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees emergency preparedness. “They have demonstrated that they . . . have plans in place and the ability to protect the public.”

The good marks came in a report delivered at a briefing earlier this week. It was the first public response to last week’s three-day test of a simulated nuclear disaster, which ended Friday.

About 25 regulators from FEMA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission graded the performance of the plant and civilian emergency personnel in response to the simulated disaster--an all-systems test performed every six years.

Among the minor problems were concerns about a telephone that malfunctioned at Orange County’s emergency center at Loma Ridge, as well as delays in approving press releases chronicling the disaster, said Ridgeway and a plant spokesman.

In addition, some members of a team assigned to monitor radiation levels in the area needed further training, authorities said, and plant officials took too long to notify the state Office of Emergency Services of the unfolding disaster. That notification, plant officials said, took 22 minutes instead of the required 15.