By John Stang
The California Coastal Commission unanimously approved a permit Thursday that allows for major decommissioning to begin for two retired reactors at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).
While the coastal development permit for plant majority owner and federal licensee Southern California Edison (SCE) solely covers on-shore decommissioning operations for SONGS Units 2 and 3, the five-hour meeting and public hearing focused almost entirely on the continuing transfer of the reactors’ spent nuclear fuel from cooling pools to dry storage.
Supporters and opponents of the permit both fretted about the dry storage pad located at the former site of reactor Unit 1, 108 feet from the Pacific Ocean and 18 feet above sea level. Unit 1 at the San Diego power plant closed in 1992 and has been mostly decommissioned
“I don’t think we could possibly say ‘no’ to the permit without further endangering this area,” said commission Chairwoman Dayna Bochco. She contended the quickest way to get the fuel from the shoreline was get it ready to ship to one of two proposed consolidated storages sites in New Mexico and Texas — or anywhere else — as soon as possible.
Critics told the commission Thursday that the on-site storage installation is too susceptible to flooding and should not be used, arguing the wet pools are safer places to hold the fuel. “There is no urgency to destroy the pools,” said Donna Gilmore, founder of the watchdog group San Onofre Safety.
In a press release after the vote, Southern California Edison thanked the commission for diligently studying the issues and agency staff for ensuring “all voices were heard.”
“I also want to thank the members of the public who spoke in favor of the permit for their support in helping get this project underway,” Doug Bauder, SCE vice president for decommissioning and chief nuclear officer, said in the release.
The unanimous vote by the commission’s 12 voting members was not seamless. Bochco twice called short breaks — just before and just after the voice vote — when audience members loudly called for continuing the discussion after the public hearing. Some audience members called for a roll call vote; Bochco refused, saying the voice vote had been unanimous.
Southern California Edison permanently shut down Units 2 and 3 in 2013 after faulty steam generators were installed in both reactors. The utility hired SONGS Decommissioning Solutions, a joint venture of AECOM and EnergySolutions, as the general contractor for the $4.4 billion project. Operations to date have been limited to preparatory work. With the Coastal Commission’s approval of the permit, full decommissioning is expected to begin next year for a target completion of date of 2028. SONGS is on U.S. Navy-owned land at the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.
The coastal development permit is needed for onshore ground-disturbing work, which would include radiological remediation, tearing down the reactor domes and containment structures, and extraction of other large equipment. Decommissioning will begin with dismantling parts of the reactors, removing the administration buildings, and preparation for demolishing other structures, according to SCE. Removing the reactors’ domes will likely take place in five to six years.
The coastal-development permit has 18 special conditions, which include an annual update each June 15 to the commission’s executive director on potential fuel storage sites opening up at SONGS or elsewhere. The overall permit calls for annual measurements whether the sea level is rising, and quarterly measurements of ground water levels.
Another special condition says SCE cannot remove the plant’s two cooling pools until it pays for an independent review of an inspection and maintenance plan on the canisters in dry storage. This review is supposed to be submitted to the commission by March 31, 2020.
Decommissioning has so far been overshadowed by the troubled transfer of the two reactors’ used fuel to an expanded dry-storage pad near the Pacific, under contractor Holtec International. Locals have for years’ expressed concerns about keeping radioactive waste in a heavily populated, seismically active region, even as SCE and Holtec have affirmed the storage system is engineered to withstand an earthquake.
Worries were exacerbated by several problems with the spent-fuel offloading, most prominently an August mishap in which one canister was left at risk of an 18-foot drop into its storage slot. The project was halted for nearly a year afterward, during which SCE said it made a number of fixes. As of this week, 35 of 73 canisters have been transferred. When done, 3.5 million pounds of spent fuel from all three reactors will be in dry storage.
The California-based Public Watchdogs, Citizens’ Oversight and Surfrider Foundation public interest organizations, plus slightly more than half the 20 individuals who testified Thursday, opposed granting the coastal development permit. They wanted to delay the vote until the permit could be studied more. Some wanted to keep the unmoved spent fuel in the two pools at Units 2 and 3, believing those locations are safer than the dry storage site. A few wanted the dry storage moved a few miles inland to another location at Camp Pendleton.
Opponents also wanted SCE to keep one pool in reserve after completion of the fuel transfer to hold any cracked fuel canisters. They also recommended a facility where cracked canisters could be installed in overpacks, or construction of an on-site hot cell to hold and repair cracked canisters. “The five favorite words for the nuclear industry: ‘We’ll figure it out later,’” said Ray Lutz, national coordinator of Citizens’ Oversight.
This issue is spurred by the discovery of some scratches and abrasions on some canisters as they have been placed into storage. Critics contend this raises the possibility of cracks eventually forming in the casks. Southern California Edison and Holtec have described the scratches as infinitesimally shallow, with tests indicating the strength of the canisters’ walls have not suffered. On Thursday, Bochco and other commissioners said they are comfortable with the assurances that the scratches are not a threat.
So far, no cracks have shown up in fuel canisters from any manufacturer, SCE officials said.
In the 2017 settlement to a Citizens’ Oversight lawsuit on SONGS spent fuel storage, SCE committed to make “commercially reasonable” efforts to move the fuel away from the site. The utility in June awarded a contract to infrastructure and environmental services specialist North Wind Inc. to begin work on the plan to move the fuel off-site.
Earlier this month, Citizens’ Oversight filed new state litigation calling for a halt to the used-fuel offload and for SCE to prove it is taking steps to transfer the waste elsewhere.
Tom Palmisano, SCE’s vice president for external engagement at SONGS, and utility spokesman John Dobken said the company looked in inland sites at Camp Pendleton in 2015, but the Navy rejected using those locations. Dobken also said by email that Edison has an inspection and maintenance program in deal with aging canisters and identify potential problems in advance.
“We are doing industry leading work in this regard. The pools will obviously remain until all the fuel is in dry storage. Once in dry storage, any degradation to canisters would be a long-term consideration,” he wrote.
David Victor, chairman of the SCE-backed SONGS Community Engagement Panel pushed for the permit to be approved, arguing that the reactors domes cannot be removed with the pool are kept intact.
Southern California Edison will eventually have to apply for a separate coastal development permit from the commission for some offshore decommissioning operations.
