U.S. Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) has reaffirmed his call for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to post a full-time inspector at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) until completion of the used reactor fuel offload at the retired power plant.
The lawmaker, whose congressional district covers SONGS, cited a list of safety issues dating back more than a decade that he said demand increased scrutiny by the nuclear industry regulator. The most recent was the August 2018 mishap that has halted the spent-fuel transfer for nearly a year.
“I would like to be able to tell my constituents that they should be comforted to know that the NRC is genuinely committed to protecting their safety,” Levin, a first-term congressman who has focused on safety at the Southern California Edison (SCE) facility in San Diego County, wrote in a June 21 letter to NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki. “However, a review of your recent record fails to provide that comfort.”
Levin wrote that he and Svinicki were scheduled to meet in the next few weeks to discuss the issue. The NRC on Monday said it would respond to his letter “through its normal congressional correspondence process.”
On June 17, Svinicki responded to April correspondence from Levin and other members of California’s congressional delegation regarding safety issues at SONGS. In her letter to the lawmakers, the NRC chair said the agency had determined after “careful consideration” that it did not need a full-time resident inspector at the site to protect public health and safety.
“This is because power reactor decommissioning activities present fewer radiological and/or nuclear safety hazards than similar activities at an operating power reactor site,” Svinicki wrote. “Spent fuel handling and storage-related activities represent a higher risk that warrants more frequent NRC inspection, though such activities are usually limited in duration.”
The NRC will continue to deploy visiting inspectors with varying areas of expertise to SONGS “as appropriate to observe various ongoing licensee work activities,” according to Svinicki.
Southern California Edison closed SONGS in 2013 after faulty steam generators were installed in its two remaining operational reactors, Units 2 and 3. Unit 1 has been largely decommissioned following its 1992 closure.
The utility, SONGS’ majority owner, in 2014 selected Holtec International to transfer the reactors’ spent fuel from wet to dry storage. Last August, one canister of fuel assemblies was left at risk of a nearly 20-foot uncontrolled drop for close to an hour after becoming lodged on the shield ring for its storage slot.
Following an investigation, the NRC in March fined Southern California Edison $116,000 for violations of federal nuclear safety regulations. The company paid the penalty almost immediately. The agency in May authorized the fuel offload to resume.
Forty-four of 73 storage canisters of fuel assemblies remain to be transferred to the storage pad; SCE expects work will resume within a matter of weeks and will wrap up next year.
“Once the licensee resumes fuel transfer operations, we will initiate unannounced inspections that will be performed frequently to observe the licensee’s implementation of its enhanced programs,” an NRC spokesman said by email Monday. “We anticipate performing inspections several times (for a few days) during a calendar quarter, and then we will produce formal reports to let the public know how the activities are proceeding.”
In his letter, Levin criticized the agency for instituting a $116,000 penalty on a company with $56 billion in assets and choosing not to post a full-time inspector at SONGS “while being aware of the dubious record at the site and knowing how such an action would help rebuilt the public trust.”
He asked Svinicki to reconsider posting an inspector on an ongoing basis while the fuel offload continues. Specifically, Levin asked whether the NRC has the statutory authority and funding to keep an inspector at SONGS on that schedule. If not, he wrote, what authority is needed and what would that cost?
Within weeks of taking office on January, Levin established a task force to examine safety at the site, headed by retired Navy Rear Adm. Len Hering and former NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko. In May, Levin introduced legislation that would prioritize removal of spent fuel from nuclear power plants that are decommissioned or are undergoing decommissioning, and are in high-population areas that are at significant risk of earthquakes. All of those would apply to SONGS.
Southern California Edison is waiting on a state coastal development permit to begin the core work of its anticipated $4.4 billion decommissioning of the two reactors. The California Coastal Commission had been scheduled to consider the utility’s permit application this month, but delayed that to September or October to collect more information.
With regulatory approval, decommissioning general contractor SONGS Decommissioning Solutions would begin work in 2019 and aim to complete the project by 2028.
