A settlement announced Monday could provide a path for spent nuclear fuel from storage at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) along a California fault line to a more stable facility inland.
The settlement agreement filed with the State Superior Court in San Diego on Monday morning brings potential resolution to a lawsuit originally filed nearly two years ago. Potential sites include the Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona, of which SONGS owner Southern California Edison is part owner, and planned consolidated interim sites in New Mexico or Texas.
After SONGS Units 2 and 3 were permanently shut down due to safety concerns in 2013, the California Coastal Commission in 2015 approved a 20-year permit for SCE to expand its coast-side spent fuel dry storage pad to hold all of the facility’s nuclear waste. Roughly two-thirds of the used fuel from the two reactors is now in wet storage.
With no federal repository for nuclear waste, the spent fuel seemed destined to sit at San Onofre, atop an active fault line. Activist group Citizens Oversight and local resident Patricia Borchmann sued the commission in 2015 to stop the expansion, citing dangerous conditions for residents.
The plaintiffs have agreed to dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice in return for a number of commitments from Southern California Edison, which will now not be opposed in expanding its on-site fuel storage pad while it looks to ultimately move the waste off-site.
“The agreement plots a prudent strategy in furtherance of the goal of moving the fuel sooner than later,” Ray Lutz of Citizens Oversight said in a press release.
Under the settlement, SCE has 60 days to issue requests for proposals from consultants to form a panel of experts to provide guidance on relocation of spent fuel, and another 90 days to have that team in place. Other obligations include preparing a plan for developing a “Commercially Reasonable Offsite Storage Facility” and making an offer for expanding the Palo Verde spent fuel storage pad to hold material from SONGS. The utility will spend up to $4 million to meet those commitments.
