Scripps to study seismic threats to San Onofre

By Gary Robbins | San Diego Union-Tribune
10:46 p.m.June 16, 2013

Southern California Edison has awarded the Scripps Institution of Oceanography $4.7 million to study potential seismic threats to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, a power plant that is being closed permanently because of equipment problems.

The new study is part of a larger, on-going effort by SCE and its contractors to examine the shape and nature of the Newport-Inglewood/Rose Canyon fault system, and the lesser known Oceanside Blind Thrust fault. Scientists are studying whether the two systems interact, and whether such interaction could magnify shaking during a major seismic event.

SCE has said that Units 2 and 3 at SONGS were designed to withstand earthquakes of about magnitude 7.2. There's also been some scientific evidence that suggests that the Rose Canyon fault does not break as often as previously thought. But scientists don't have a good understanding of the onshore and offshore segments off earthquake faults in Southern California, particularly between Crystal Cove in Orange County and Baja California. Researchers also know comparatively little about the Oceanside fault, and blind-thrust systems are worrisome. The magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake, which killed 72 people in 1994, was a blind-thrust fault that wasn't known to exist.

The on-going studies in northern San Diego and southern Orange County will focus, in part, on whether the faults have the ability to produce damaging tsunamis.

SCE has decided to close SONGS 2 and 3 because inspections revealed serious wear and tear on hundreds of steam generator tubes.

Source: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jun/16/seismic-songs/

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