California energy officials say they're preparing for potential summer power shortages if the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station remains out of service.

The nuclear power plant was shut down Jan. 31 when a tube that carries hot, radioactive water in one of the plant's steam generators sprang a leak.

A small amount of radioactive steam was released, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The reactor was taken offline and operator Southern California Edison began pressure-testing 129 tubes that showed excessive wear.

A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission team was also dispatched to investigate.

Eight tubes have failed pressure stress tests and excessive wear on more tubes has been found, officials said.

Edison is planning for the possibility that the plant could be offline through the summer, spokeswoman Jennifer Manfre said.

A major heat wave or transmission line outage during the peak season could see South Orange County and the San Diego and Los Angeles areas facing energy shortages without the 2,200 megawatts of power generated by San Onofre, a report presented to the Independent System Operator board said.

Board officials said they plan to produce more energy from other sources and convince customers to scale back on demand.

"If, in fact, we do nothing, there could be some potential issues down there," ISO Chief Executive Stephen Berberich said. "We don't intend to do nothing."

Faulty Swiss nuclear reactor shut down for repair
Geneva (AFP) March 24, 2012 - A reactor at the world's oldest functioning nuclear plant, in Beznau, Switzerland, has been temporarily shut down because of a problem with its main pump, its operator Axpo said late Friday.

The halt at the Block 2 reactor is expected to last several days.

The main pump is responsible for circulating coolants in the system's primary circuit and must be shut down completely for the repair work, Axpo said.

Axpo said that there was no danger to the population and that another reactor -- the older Block 1 -- at Beznau, located close to the German border in northern Switzerland, was functioning normally.

Beznau's Block 1 was put in service in 1969, and became the oldest operating nuclear plant in the world after the atomic power station in Oldbury, Britain, was shut down on February 29.