San Onofre Power Plant Emergency Level Three Alert

San Onofre Power Plant Emergency Level Three Alert

An emergency was declared at the San Onofre nuclear generating station on Tuesday afternoon. The threat turned out to be an ammonia leak, not a nuclear one, and officials say it does not pose any public danger.   At 3:10pm on Tuesday, the plant issued a level 3 alert, according to CBS2. According to the International Nuclear Events scale, this means that a “serious incident” had occurred. A level 3 incidents could mean anything from nuclear exposure in excess of ten times the annual limit for workers to a misdelivered, highly radioactive sealed source.

Workers discovered the ammonia leak just before 3pm, reports NBC LA. Southern California Edison spokesman Steve Conroy told NBC LA that no nuclear material was released, and there is no danger to the public.   Camp Pendleton Patch has a statement on the emergency alert from Southern California Edison, the majority owner of the plant: According to the Associated Press, Southern California Edison spokesman Gil Alexander said that today’s alert was the lowest of the four possible emergency classifications used by the nuclear industry.