A hearing has been set for April 5 on motions to dismiss a California watchdog group’s lawsuit against storage of spent reactor fuel at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).
Public Watchdogs has no standing to sue in the matter, among several breakdowns in its case, SONGS primary owners Southern California Edison (SCE) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) said in their Jan. 26 motion. The U.S. Justice Department made the same argument in its Jan. 19 motion to dismiss, while also emphasizing the sovereign immunity of the United States against lawsuit.
The utilities plan on holding about 3.5 million pounds of spent fuel on dry-storage pads at the retired three-reactor power plant until off-site disposal facilities are available. Used fuel from reactor Unit 1 is already in dry storage near the Pacific coast, while SCE is moving the radioactive waste from the other two reactors from wet storage.
El Cajon-based Public Watchdogs in November filed its lawsuit in U.S. District Court for Southern California, against the utilities, the federal government, the Navy and Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, and the Department of Defense. It argued the 1963 federal legislation that created an easement to build SONGS on U.S. Navy land in San Diego County did not authorize spent fuel storage there, and that the situation as it stands represents harm to the group, its members, and the general public. The lawsuit seeks a prohibition on spent fuel storage at the site.
In response, the defendants all said Public Watchdogs has no legal standing in the matter because it cannot demonstrate any actual injury from the spent fuel storage.
The utilities also noted the watchdog has no interest in the land easement.
“Plaintiff’s Complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief for alleged future harm,” the SCE and SDG&E dismissal motion states. “The alleged harm amounts to the possibility of future harm to the ‘public generally,’ including the ‘example’ of the hypothetical harm that could be caused if ‘a container storing spent fuel were to break open.’ Plaintiff’s speculative allegations are not ‘actual or imminent’ and instead are merely ‘conjectural and hypothetical.’”
In addition, the 1963 legislation offers no private right of action that would allow for the claim, according to the utilities’ motion.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department focused on the federal defendants’ sovereign immunity: “The United States did not waive its sovereign immunity with respect to any of the claims asserted in the Complaint. Neither of the statutes identified in the Complaint as an alleged basis for jurisdiction … waives the United States’ sovereign immunity.”
The motions are scheduled to be heard at 1:30 p.m. April 5, “or as soon thereafter as this matter can be heard,” before U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino.
“We will respond appropriately. It is entirely predictable that Edison and SDG&E would file a motion to dismiss,” Public Watchdogs Executive Director Charles Langley said by email. “We are confident of the strength of our case, and certain that we will prevail.”
