Another California advocacy organization pitched its case Wednesday to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission against on-site storage of all spent reactor fuel at the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).
Following a Tuesday presentation from the San Diego-based Public Watchdogs, Oceansiders Against San Onofre Corruption made its arguments to the NRC’s Petition Review Board for approval of a petition filed in August.
The petition urges the federal agency to revoke the California Coastal Commission’s October 2015 coastal development permit for SONGS majority owner Southern California Edison. That permit authorized the utility to expand dry-cask storage at the San Diego County facility to accommodate used fuel from reactor Units 2 and 3, which were permanently powered down in 2013. When the offload from wet storage is complete, expected later this year, roughly 3.5 million pounds of fuel assemblies will be held underground on the storage pad.
In its 76-page petition, Oceansiders argued that on-site storage of the radioactive material represents a violation of federal law and a significant safety threat. It called for a halt to the fuel offload and moving the spent fuel to a lower-population-density area.
On Dec. 20, 2019, the Petition Review Board told the group it believed previous environmental impact studies on SONGS’ decommissioning were sufficient to allow the work to continue. Wednesday’s session was an opportunity for the group to persuade the PRB to change its mind.
One of the organization’s attorneys, William Waggle Jr. , contended that an environmental impact study should take into account that SONGS and its dry storage site are located on a military site — Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. He agued that Camp Pendleton is a target for missiles if a war ever erupts, with those missiles likely to hit the dry storage site.
“A missile provides a lot of concussion and could easily rupture those canisters,” Waggle Jr. said.
His son and another Oceansiders attorney, William Waggle III, also argued that thick-shelled fuel canisters are needed for dry storage and that an environmental impact study should compare the safety of the current thin-shelled canisters and of the Oceansiders’ sought-after thick-hulled canisters.
