Is the public entitled to see documents that may bear on the safety of a for-profit utility's plan to restart the flaw-stricken San Onofre nuclear plant in California? Maybe not.

Southern California Edison withheld some documents from an arm of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission claiming they involved trade secrets. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, an administrative-law arm of the NRC, ruled December 7, 2012, that the utility must turn the documents over to the board — but currently plans to keep them secret from the public.

San Onofre has been shut since January 2012 because of faulty steam generator tubes.

• "San Onofre Nuclear Plant Operator Ordered To Turn Over Records," [2] Associated Press, December 7, 2012, by Michael R. Blood.
• "California Moves To Open Probe into San Onofre Nuclear Shutdown," [3] Reuters, October 16, 2012, by Nichola Groom.