The Power Outage in the West

Quote :

Authorities were investigating a power blackout in parts of southern California, Arizona and Mexico on Thursday that left more than 1 million customers without power and caused widespread traffic jams. San Diego Gas & Electric said all of its 1.4 million customers were without power. The problem appeared to have originated in Arizona, the utility said. "This caused our line from AZ and from the north of our region to both trip off," the utility posted on its Twitter account. "Think of the system as linked by springs, when one part goes out the rest are affected," another Twitter post from the utility said. Power outages in California stretched Thursday from San Clemente to the state's border with Mexico, a San Diego County spokesman told CNN. In Arizona, about 56,000 customers in Yuma lost power, Arizona Power and Supply said. Parts of Mexico's Baja California and Sonora states were also without power, Mexican authorities said. At the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station near San Clemente, California, units "tripped from grid disturbance" but have offsite power and were in normal shutdown mode, said Eliot Brenner, director of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Office of Public Affairs.

emphasis added

I can't believe nuclear power plants have such precarious safety switches....hummm