By John Stang
The retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California recently transferred the first two used fuel canisters to its new dry storage site.
Right now, roughly a third of SONGS’ 3.55 million pounds of spent reactor fuel is already held in 51 canisters in the original independent spent fuel storage installation. That radioactive waste is from the plant’s reactor Unit 1, which shut down in 1992.
Last year, SONGS majority owner Southern California Edison built a new dry storage site for storage of another 73 canisters of fuel from Units 2 and 3, which were permanently retired in 2013 due to problems with faulty steam generators.
The first canister went to the new site on Jan. 30, said Maureen Brown, spokeswoman for Southern California Edison. Since then, a second canister has been transferred. All the fuel is supposed to be placed in dry storage by mid-2019.
It will be years, it not decades, before the radioactive material is moved to another location. Southern California Edison estimates spent fuel management at SONGS will cost $1.3 billion through 2051 to take care of spent nuclear fuel matters, Brown said Thursday.
Residents near the San Diego County power plant and watchdog groups have for years warned of the dangers of placing radioactive waste about 100 feet from the Pacific Ocean in a densely populated region prone to earthquakes. SONGS’ owners have emphasized the safety of the storage system: Brown said the fuel storage sites are designed to withstand earthquakes significantly greater than required by California’s construction standards.
The San Diego-area organization Citizens’ Oversight in 2016 sued in San Diego Superior Court against the California Coastal Commission’s approval the prior year of a permit for SCE to build the additional storage pad at San Onofre. A 2017 settlement allowed on-site waste storage to move ahead while Southern California Edison committed to a number of steps to move the spent fuel to another location.
Per the settlement, SCE has explored shipping the fuel to the Palo Verde nuclear power plant in Arizona, of which the California utility is a minority owner. However, unanimous consent of all the owners is needed for Palo Verde accept the spent fuel canisters.
Southern California Edison must submit monthly reports on progress in the settlement. In a Jan. 26 report, the utility noted that it tried in late 2017 to convince the Palo Verde owners to agree to accept the San Onofre spent fuel, but could not get unanimous consent.
In accordance with the court settlement, SCE has also gathered experts to look for potential off-site storage sites, to study transportation issues, and to develop an inspection and maintenance program for the spent fuel storage at San Onofre.
Another organization, Public Watchdog, in November 2017 sued Southern California Edison, SONGS minority owner San Diego Gas & Electric, the U.S. Navy, and the Department of Defense to prevent on-site storage of the spent fuel. The Navy owns the land on which the nuclear plant sits. The plaintiff claims federal law does not allow on-site spent fuel dry storage after a reactor shuts down.
Ultimately, that fuel in stainless steel canisters could be shipped to proposed future consolidated interim spent fuel storage sites in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, neither of which have yet been licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The ultimate destination for the fuel is supposed to be the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada, assuming it is licensed and built.
