"Customers Have Paid More Than $1 Billion for Idle San Onofre Plant"

"The California Public Utilities Commission held an initial meeting Tuesday in an investigative process that could eventually result in ratepayers getting a refund for a portion of the bills they have paid during the San Onofre nuclear plant's year-long outage."



"The plant has been out of service since last January, when a steam generator tube leaked a small amount of radioactive steam, leading to the discovery of unusual wear on many more tubes in the newly replaced steam generators.

The investigation will look at the costs incurred in the outage and at the potential cost to ratepayers from repairs as well as scenarios in which one or both of the plant's reactors never come back online.

Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric customers are paying more than $1.1 billion a year in costs related to the troubled plant, according to the commission."

Abby Sewell reports for the Los Angeles Times January 8, 2013.
 

Source: LA Times, 01/10/2013