By John Stang
Cramming work from three other years into 2020 justifies a threefold increase in spending this year from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station’s decommissioning trust fund, Southern California Edison wrote Thursday.
The new estimate of $461.8 million dwarfs the old estimate of $166.3 million, which the company drew up in 2017: the year before a close call with a fuel cask shut down spent-fuel handling at the plant for nearly a year.
The latest estimate includes work not completed in 2018 and 2019, plus work originally scheduled for after 2020, Gary Stern, Southern California Edison’s (SCE) managing director for state regulatory operations, wrote in a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission.
The Commission might need until mid-April to rule on SCE’s request, the regulator said Dec. 24. SCE had hoped for a decision by Friday, deadline day for RadWaste Monitor.
When 2019 began, there was some $2.6 billion in the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station’s (SONGS) decommissioning trust fund. SCE predicts spending $4.4 billion on decommissioning through 2028.
Stern’s letter did not identify specific activities shifted into 2020 from other others years, and SCE did not immediately reply to a request for comment Thursday about the altered workload.
Movement of SONGS spent fuel to dry storage halted for 11 months in 2018 and 2019 due to a mishap loading a fuel cask into a dry storage pad. The operating glitch resulted in extensive overhauls in procedures, training and equipment.
“The work scope identified [in late 2019] for 2020 … is substantially different than the work scope identified for 2020 in 2017,” Stern wrote. Therefore “[i]t is incorrect to state that there has been a three-fold cost increase for the same scope of work.”
Stern also wrote that if any specific work for 2020 gets delayed, the money for that work would not be removed from the decommissioning trust fund.
The San Diego County-based Public Watchdogs activist organization has asked the California Public Utilities Commission for a hearing on Edison’s request, alleging the sought-after increase is too large to grant without a thorough review. In its letter this week, SCE opposed Public Watchdogs request for a hearing, contending such a move would be unprecedented and arguing the citizens group is misrepresenting the issue to the commission.
“The Commission should reject Public Watchdogs’ protest as thinly-disguised pretext for Public Watchdogs’ broader litigation efforts to stop SONGS 2&3 decommissioning activities — a series of claims against SCE, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and other parties that have thus far been … dismissed by the reviewing courts and the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission],” Stern wrote.
In its request for a hearing, Public Watchdogs argued that SCE is seeking widespread access to the trust fund for activities other than decommissioning. Edison countered that it is seeking the money for decommissioning, managing spent fuel and eventual site restoration — but not for any other activities.
Public Watchdogs has argued to the California Public Utilities Commission that the decommissioning trust is not being audited by a legitimate third party outside of SCE and its general decommissioning contractor, SONGS Decommissioning Solutions: a joint venture of AECOM and EnergySolutions, plus Holtec International. The latter is in charge of spent fuel movement and storage. So far, Holtec has moved 44 of 73 casks of spent fuel to dry storage.
Edison countered that a five-person committee — two SCE employees and three people not affiliated with SCE who are confirmed by the commission — performs independent audits.
Public Watchdogs has claimed that SCE has signaled that rates will increase due to decommissioning. Edison countered that any rate increases would have be approved by the California Public Utilities Commission.
