Southern California ratepayers are paying about $500 million less in premature shutdown costs at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) than the plant’s majority owner, Southern California Edison, had sought in a settlement agreement, according to the company’s latest filing with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).
CPUC announced in April the reopening of the settlement case, which resulted in state ratepayers shouldering $3.3 billion of the $4.7 billion cost to shutter the plant. The settlement was reached two years after closed-door conversations between former CPUC President Michael Peevey and former SCE executive Stephen Pickett at a meeting in Warsaw, Poland. CPUC handed SCE a $17 million fine in December 2015 for the company’s failure to report the ex-parte communications, and state Attorney General Kamala Harris has opened a criminal investigation against Peevey.
SCE claims it has taken action to reduce its customers costs by $500 million, including a recovery from its insurance provider and procurements from the nuclear decommissioning trust fund. The company expects further reductions from nuclear fuel sales, and a potential award from a lawsuit against partner Mitsubishi. SCE is seeking nearly $7.6 billion from the Japanese manufacturer for liabilities tied to steam generator issues that led to the 2013 shut down at the plant. Any potential cost recovery would reportedly be split evenly between customers and SCE.
According to the SCE filing, the settlement dictates that its customers pay $2.5 billion in present value rates, which is $1.2 billion less than Southern California Edison was seeking under the agreement, the company said.
California Residents Demand San Onofre Waste Removal
Southern California residents are demanding that the federal government expeditiously remove 1,600 tons of nuclear waste from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
The recently formed Secure Nuclear Waste group, which includes residents from San Diego and Orange counties, held a public meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Laguna Beach City Hall to increase momentum in a fight against Southern California Edison’s storage expansion plan. The company expects to move the remainder of its spent reactor fuel from two cooling ponds into an expanded on-site storage pad property near the Pacific coast by mid-2019. San Diego attorney Mike Aquirre, one of the group organizers, has filed a lawsuit requesting that the California Coastal Commission revoke SCE’s expansion permit.
“San Onofre is not a safe place to store dangerous spent fuel as it is situated in a recognized tsunami, earthquake, and firestorm zone and is vulnerable to climate change and terrorist attack in a densely populated area on the ocean,” the group states on its website, calling for additional public support against the waste plan.
The group requests that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Energy Department facilitate the creation of a California interim storage facility “on or near an isolated, sparsely populated, enforced no fly zone military base, or other guarded facility where it can be protected from the growing threat of nuclear terrorism.”
SCE Expects Decision on Decommissioning Contract in Fall
SCE expects to select a general contractor for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station’s estimated $4.4 billion decommissioning project some time after Labor Day, according to SCE spokeswoman Maureen Brown.
SCE Vice President Tom Palmisano had said in March that the company hoped to have a selection in June or July, but Brown said the timeline has shifted. SCE has narrowed the list to three bidders: Team Holtec, a team led by Bechtel, and an AECOM/EnergySolutions partnership.
