Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
12/12/2014
Southern California Edison has chosen Holtec International to provide its dry cask storage system at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, the company announced this week. Holtec’s HI-STORM UMAX underground storage system features corrosion-resistant, stainless-steel fuel canisters that can operate for both storage and transport, the company said. “After reviewing leading designs with the San Onofre Community Engagement Panel, we concluded this underground design is best suited to safely and securely store used nuclear fuel at San Onofre until the federal government removes the fuel from site, as required,” Chris Thompson, SCE vice president of Decommissioning, said in a statement. “Our decision to move expeditiously to transfer the fuel also reflects feedback from community leaders who prefer dry storage of used nuclear fuel.”
CEP Chair Wants Pressure on DOE for Long-Term Spent Fuel Management
Meanwhile, SONGS Community Engagement Panel Chairman David Victor suggested this week that the CEP continue to push both the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on issues relating to the long-term management of dry casks. One of the largest issues for the SONGS CEP has been the management of spent fuel. Many local citizens have come out against storing the casks on site long-term. Victor, in a report on his recommendations for the CEP’s future, said that the CEP should continue to seek answers from the agencies. “The CEP and many other bodies should continue their work to press DOE for long-term storage sites as well as consolidated interim storage,” Victor said. “When the CEP revisits this issue in early 2015 we should be sure to discuss where and how the CEP can help put pressure on the federal government to remove spent fuel, especially from decommissioned sites such as SONGS.”
Victor, though, still feels that the expedited transfer of spent fuel from pools to dry cask storage represents the safest option for the site. “I remain convinced that the safest option for us starts with getting the fuel out of pools and into casks as soon as that’s practical,” Victor said. “In the pools all the fuel is sitting in two locations and is kept cool with active systems—pumps, circulating water, etc. In casks it is divided into more than 100 new independent containers—each designed to withstand massive shocks—and relies only on passive cooling. All else equal, decentralized passively managed system are safer than centralized active schemes.”
In its Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR), Southern California Edison said it planned to complete the spent fuel transfer by 2019. The PSDAR also includes an anticipated date of spent fuel pick up by the Department of Energy in 2050, but SCE has admitted that date is dependent on movement on DOE’s part. The decommissioning document outlined the estimated costs and planned timeline for the cleanup, with a price tag of approximately $4.4 billion and a start date for major decommissioning activities to begin in 2016.
