Human error is the apparent cause in for a recent mishap in moving used fuel to a storage pad at the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California.
Holtec International, of Camden, N.J., is moving all remaining spent fuel at the plant from wet to dry storage under contract to SONGS majority owner Southern California Edison.
On Aug. 3, workers were inserting a fuel canister into the one of the below-ground silos at the storage pad near the Pacific Ocean. The canister’s rigging went off-target so the canister could not go smoothly into the silo, causing almost an hour’s worth of corrective work before the canister was safely inserted, according to a prepared statement from Holtec.
In a statement, SCE said: “Holtec was loading the spent fuel canister into the Cavity Enclosure Container (CEC) on the dry cask storage pad when the canister got caught on an inner ring that helps to guide it into place. There is a very snug fit in the CECs, and it is not unusual for it to take the downloading team a few manipulations to get the canister aligned appropriately.”
At the Aug. 9 San Onofre Community Engagement Panel meeting, David Fritch, a safety official with an unidentified contractor at SONGS, said he witnessed the incident and was disappointed SCE and Holtec did not tell the public about the incident during the briefing at the beginning of the meeting. “Edison is not forthcoming about what is going on,” he said.
“It was a gross error on two individuals, the operator and the rigger, that were inexplicable,” Fritch said.
Fritch said this type of problem has occurred before, but the more veteran crews are not sharing their experience on dealing with such a canister hang-up with greener crews.
“There was no risk to the spent fuel, no risk to the public. It was a rigging issue,” Tom Palmisano, SONGS’ vice president for decommissioning, said during the meeting.
