By John Stang
U.S. Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) has announced creation of a task force to study safety issues at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in his state.
“Today I’m launching a task force made up of local stakeholders and experts to tackle the enormous safety challenges we face with the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. We cannot allow the status quo to continue indefinitely, and I know this group is ready to get to work,” Levin, elected in November to succeed Rep. Darrell Issa (R) in California’s 49th Congressional District, said in an announcement posted Jan. 25 on Facebook.
The task force will be headed by former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko and retired U.S. Navy. Rear Adm. Leendert Hering Sr., according to a release from Levin’s office. Its aim will be to provide options for safe relocation and storage of nuclear waste from the San Diego County power plant.
Levin’s district covers the SONGS property. His office did not respond to follow-up questions regarding the size and timetable of the task force, and how it will go about studying the matter, including what type of report would be issued.
SONG majority owner and NRC licensee Southern California Edison (SCE) said in a statement last week that it “welcomes Congressman Mike Levin’s interest in the issues surrounding the long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel. … The congressman and SCE share common ground in a desire to have the spent fuel at the San Onofre nuclear plant (SONGS) moved to a permanent geologic repository or a consolidated interim storage site.”
Southern California Edison permanently closed the nuclear power plant in 2013 following installation of faulty steam generators in its two remaining operational reactors. The utility, through contractor Holtec International, has been moving the remainder of the facility’s used fuel into dry storage on-site.
Local watchdog groups and residents have raised concerns about holding 3.5 million pounds of radioactive material for years in a heavily populated, seismically active area close to the Pacific Ocean. While SCE says the Holtec spent fuel containment system is built to withstand earthquakes and other dangers, it agreed in 2017 to pursue “commercially reasonable” efforts to relocate the material as part of a settlement to a lawsuit over radioactive waste storage at SONGS.
In its Dec. 31, 2018, update on the settlement agreement, SCE indicated it is still developing strategic and transportation plans for off-site relocation of the spent fuel, with guidance from a panel of experts. The utility reaffirmed that it had been rebuffed in a 2017 request to move the material to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona.
The transfer of SONGS’ spent fuel from wet to dry storage has been on hold since an Aug. 3, 2018, mishap in placing one canister into place on the pad. The NRC is considering fines or other forms of elevated enforcement following the incident, with a decision expected within the next couple months.
Southern California Edison has said it still hopes to complete the fuel transfer this year.
“Canister-downloading operations at San Onofre remain on hold and will resume only after we are satisfied that our team has successfully demonstrated fuel transfer can proceed utilizing the improved procedures, training and technology, and the NRC has an opportunity to inspect practice runs and has reviewed re-start plans,” SCE Vice President Tom Palmisano stated in a note last week to the San Onofre Community Engagement Panel (CEP). “Following that, we will notify CEP members and the public when we are ready to begin.”
Inspectors from the NRC observed test runs of spent fuel transfers in January “and concluded that our enhanced procedures are sound, training for our teams has been thorough and our new technology and alarms are working as planned,” Palmisano added. The next major step would be a new NRC inspection, he said.
The utility is waiting on state regulatory approval to begin major decommissioning operations for the two San Onofre reactors, which would be managed by an AECOM-EnergySolutions venture. A third reactor, retired in 1992, has been decommissioned.
