Edison spat with San Onofre supplier Mitsubishi intensifies
Utility again demands the steam generator maker submit to a full financial audit.
SACRAMENTO — Southern California Edison Co. is escalating a public relations war with its former contractor at the closed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
On Monday, it issued a news release, reiterating a Sept. 30 private demand it made to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan that it submit to a full financial audit of the design and manufacture of failed steam generators at the plant near San Clemente.
“SCE stands ready to begin the audit as soon as Mitsubishi advises that it will abide by the straightforward terms of the contract,” President Ron Litzinger wrote to Mitsubishi.
Edison announced in July that it was closing permanently the 2,200-megawatt facility that supplied electricity to 1.4 million households in Southern California.
The utility said it would be uneconomical to continue trying to fix the power plant after steam generators manufactured by Mitsubishi became corroded and leaked a small amount of radioactivity, forcing a January 2012 shutdown.
Last week, Edison issued an earlier news release, accusing Mitsubishi of “stonewalling” by not reimbursing the utility $140 million that Edison said it spent investigating the failure of the $769-million steam generators.
Mitsubishi declined to comment on the letter, but took note of earlier criticism by Edison.
Frank Gillespie, an executive of Mitsubishi’s U.S. subsidiary, said the company is “not going to participate in fighting this out in public.” Edison and Mitsubishi, he said, are involved in a legal, contractual dispute that will be settled by binding arbitration with a threejudge panel.
Nevertheless, Gillespie pointed to an Oct. 4 letter from Mitsubishi to Edison, which criticized the utility for what it called “egregious misstatements.”
“Edison has embarked on a public relations campaign in which, under the banner of ’transparency,’ it selectively releases project documentation and communications, apparently to influence its ratepayers and the CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission),” wrote Itaru Kikuoka of Mitsubishi Nuclear Energy Systems Inc.
“Although not afraid of publicity, Mitsubishi believes that our disputes should be resolved privately through negotiations, or, failing that ... arbitration,” the letter said.
Edison in newspaper advertisements has argued that its customers should be prepared to pay some of the billions of dollars in costs of closing and decommissioning San Onofre. Ratepayer advocates contend that Edison’s shareholders should pay for the costly mistakes at San Onofre.