By John Stang
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week conducted its on-site inspection of an August mishap in loading used reactor fuel into a storage pad at the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California.
The agency declined to discuss details of the special inspection beyond those laid out in an Aug. 24 press release on the matter. At the time, the NRC said the inspection was expected to last about a week and to involve interviews with personnel, examinations of equipment, and reviews of relevant records. A report should be issued no more than 45 days after the inspection concludes.
“While our review has just begun, it appears that the ‘near miss’ drop event on Aug. 3 of a loaded fuel canister was the result of apparent deficiencies related to the licensee’s operational performance in the areas of training, equipment, procedures and oversight,” NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said by email.
San Onofre’s last two remaining power reactors were permanently retired in 2013, and contractor Holtec International has been moving all spent fuel from Units 2 and 3 at the San Diego County facility from wet to dry storage. On Aug. 3, workers were inserting a fuel canister into one of the below-ground silos at the storage pad near the Pacific Ocean. The canister’s rigging went off-target so the container could not go smoothly into the silo, causing almost an hour’s worth of corrective work.
Holtec and SONGS majority owner Southern California Edison say they are also reviewing the incident to improve training, procedures, and policies.
“Spent fuel loading work will not restart until SCE is satisfied that Holtec has taken appropriate corrective actions and the NRC has had an opportunity to complete its on‐site inspection activities,” Southern California Edison said in its latest update on the waste transfer.
The progress report is dated Aug. 31 and cuts off at Aug. 20, As of that day, 1,073 fuel assemblies in 29 canisters from the two reactors had been placed on SONGS’ independent spent fuel storage installation. Another 1,558 assemblies remained in wet storage.
One canister holding 37 assemblies from Unit 3 was listed as being “in process.” It will be kept at SONGS’ Fuel Handling Building until transfer operations resume, the utility said.
A California watchdog group this week criticized the NRC for not being aggressive enough in its probe of the SONGS incident.
The agency had denied permission for San Diego County-based Public Watchdogs to have its own people observe this week’s federal inspection. Dricks said it is the NRC’s policy not to permit members of public to accompany NRC inspections.
Public Watchdogs Executive Director Charles Langley highlighted the 38-day gap between the Aug. 3 incident and the start of the inspection on Sept. 10. Both his group and the City Council for San Clemente, which is about 6 miles from the plant, are unhappy that the event only came to light to the public when a safety worker at SONGS brought it up during an Aug. 9 meeting of the site’s Community Engagement Panel, according to the San Clemente Times.
“They kept it a secret from the public,” Langley said.
Dricks noted that Southern California Edison informed the NRC about the incident late in the afternoon of Aug. 6. “The NRC continues to evaluate the reporting requirements of the incident and will be discussing this with SCE,” he stated.
The spokesman defended the 38-day gap between the incident and the beginning of the NRC inspection.
“Given the broad scope of the NRC’s special inspection it was necessary to give Edison time to conduct their own review of the circumstances surrounding the Aug 3 event before beginning our inspection,” he wrote. “Part of the NRC’s review includes an evaluation of the adequacy of the licensee’s own determination regarding the factors that contributed to the event as well as an evaluation of the adequacy of the licensee’s corrective action designed to prevent recurrence. In addition, we have informed Edison of our desire to review any records associated with the event and their subsequent investigation.”
The San Clemente Times quoted City Council member Steven Swartz as saying he is concerned that the incident was not reported directly to jurisdictions in the immediate radiation evacuation zones for the site. The council reportedly planned to send a letter to the NRC expressing that concern. City Manager James Makshanoff was out of town late this week and could not be reached to discuss the status of the proposed letter.
Langley also criticized the NRC for conducting an “inspection” instead of a full-fledged “investigation” of the incident. He contended an inspection is too light of look at the problem. “It is about an order of magnitude,” Langley said.
Dricks said the “inspection” is intended to determine whether Holtec and SCE complied with the agency’s regulations on the safe handling of nuclear materials. An “investigation” would have been conducted if there was suspicion of willful or criminal conduct by an NRC licensee. “We have no reason to believe that has occurred in connection with the Aug 3 event,” Dricks wrote.
Langley said Public Watchdogs is pondering its next step in response to the incident and to the NRC’s follow-up actions. The organization is considering legal action, but Langley said he does not know when a decision on such action would be made.
