Should they close the plant the answer is no. The plant provides 2000 megawatts of energy. You will have to find a generating facility to fill that gap. During the Great San Diego blackout, San Onofre was instermental at restoring power quickly to those customers in Orange County and Northern San Diego county.
It takes two or three days to restart a fully functioning nuke plant.
Most of San Diego’s power already comes from outside the county borders, some even from Mexico.
If you read the article, power companies are looking to restart mothballed power plants to makeup the difference in San Onofre’s plant.
8.5 million people live in about a 50 mile radius of the quake prone plant area. I wouldn’t miss the plant for a second if the put a ‘Closed’ sign on it.