Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) called on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday to assure the public that a shuttered nuclear power plant in her state that experienced a small leak is safe.

Southern California Edison was forced to shut down the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station near San Clemente, Calif., on Jan. 31 after a leak was found on a steam generator tube on the Unit 3 reactor.

The shutdown was precautionary and the company has said sensitive monitoring instruments at Unit 3 continue to show no change in radiation levels that would be detectable off-site. The company is still cooling the reactor and will be able to better inspect the leak this weekend, NRC said, and federal regulators will monitor the process.

Pete Dietrich, the company's senior vice president and chief nuclear officer, said in a Feb. 1 statement that the public and workers at the facility were never in danger and operators performed exactly as they were trained.

Even so, Boxer told NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko in a letter yesterday that the agency should conduct a comprehensive safety review at the plant and ensure that all potential safety issues are promptly addressed.

"I am concerned about recent media reports regarding dozens of tubes carrying radioactive water that have been degrading at an unusual rate," she said, adding that media reports have noted the extent of tube damage was not yet clear.

"The media also reported on a worker who fell into a spent fuel pool in January and an ammonia leak that forced an evacuation of workers at the facility in November," she wrote.

Boxer said NRC should assess conditions at the plant and determine if safety upgrades at San Onofre and other facilities are required.