Southern California Edison said Wednesday it is preparing to temporarily ramp down some decommissioning operations at the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in response to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
The utility expects in the next few days to determine which deconstruction activities will be temporarily frozen and what work can continue at the San Diego County facility, according to a press release.
Transfer of spent fuel into dry storage will proceed, as it represents “essential work,” Southern California Edison (SCE) said. However, further safety efforts are in place, the release adds.
The reduced workload is part of SCE’s response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) March 19 executive order directing California residents to stay home unless they are needed to support the functioning of critical infrastructure. The order is intended to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus 2019.
As of Thursday, the California Department of Public Health had confirmed 3,006 of COVID-19 in the state and 65 deaths. Nationwide, more than 1,000 people have died.
Energy and construction are among the critical infrastructure sectors identified by California as requiring continuity of operations. The nuclear industry — including decommissioning — has also been defined as essential by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
“We have protocols we’ve implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These protocols are designed to keep our employees safe while allowing certain critical work to continue,” Doug Bauder, SCE vice president and chief nuclear officer, said in the release. “This is an ever-changing situation, at the national, state and local levels, and we are staying flexible in our level of response.”
In a Thursday Skype meeting of the SONGS Community Engagement Panel, Vince Bilovsky, SCE deputy director for decommissioning, said: “There are very few operations where he have to have people standing close together.”
Maintaining a distance of at least 6 feet is among the recommended measures for preventing the spread of the virus. Employees at SONGS are staggered as they go through gates, and shipments to the site are spread out, officials said.
So far, no COVID cases have been identified at SONGS, Bauder said Thursday. He added that if an employee tested positive for infection, work would halt, that employee’s co-workers would also be tested, potential infection paths would be studied, and decisions would be made on a case-by-case basis.
Stock prices for nuclear energy providers have sunk over the last month alongside the broader domestic and international stock market. Per-share value of Edison International, SCE’s parent company, has dropped from $74.31 on Feb. 26 to $57.73 at market close Thursday. Entergy, Exelon, and the brand-new Energy Harbor (previously FirstEnergy Solutions) have experienced similar dips.
Southern California Edison permanently retired SONGS Units 2 and 3 in 2013, more than two decades after Unit 1 was shuttered in 1992. Major decommissioning operations began last month on the two reactors, a $4.4 billion job managed by contractor SONGS Decommissioning Solutions and scheduled to wrap up in 2028.
Early deconstruction has focused on asbestos removal and other work in the reactor containment domes, site characterization, and upgrading the rail spur to support removal of debris, according to SCE spokesman John Dobken.
“No timeline on when certain work would be re-started. We need to evaluate it against our SONGS-specific protocol that directs us to reduce worker risk and maintain vital groups and functions,” he said Wednesday by email. “We take this very seriously.”
Generally, over 400 Southern California Edison and contract workers are on-site. An unidentified number of them are now working remotely, Dobken said.
Prior to Thursday’s Community Engagement Panel meeting, the local advocacy group Public Watchdogs requested that one of the panel’s members, San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, ask whether SCE would halt offloading of used fuel from the two reactors.
“What will happen when an experienced worker gets sick and an inexperienced worker is given responsibility for moving the waste while it is in transit?” Public Watchdogs Executive Director Charles Langley wrote in a letter Tuesday to Desmond. “Do you really want a rookie worker handling a 100,000 pound container of the world’s deadliest material? Obviously, keeping the waste safe is the top priority. But, moving it during an epidemic when workers will be getting sick is foolish.”
In recent months, Langley’s organization has unsuccessfully attempted to force a halt to the offload via the federal court system and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
On Tuesday, Desmond told Langley by email he would “take your comments into consideration.” However, Desmond did not raise the topic at Thursday’s meeting.
Four representatives from Public Watchdogs and other groups raised the same argument at Thursday’s Skyped meeting. Activist Donna Gilmore pointed out that Edison has said both the spent fuel pool at SONGS and its dry storage area are safe, contending that means moving the fuel is not an urgent function.
Energy technology company Holtec International, of Camden, N.J., is SCE’s contractor for relocating spent fuel from Units 2 and 3 from cooling pools to a dry-storage pad along the Pacific Ocean. Keeping the radioactive material in a heavily populated, seismically active region has been a point of contention for Public Watchdogs and other advocacy groups in the San Diego area. Those concerns were exacerbated by an August 2018 incident in which one canister was left at risk of an 18-foot drop into its storage slot.
Southern California Edison paid a $116,000 fine to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for that mishap, and said it subsequently enhanced its operations and safety measures for the fuel offload. The work resumed last July, with the 56th of 73 canisters scheduled for transfer this week. The full project is expected to be completed this summer.
That work is happening within the critical infrastructure sectors as designated by Homeland Security, which Newsom excluded from restrictions, Dobken said.
Radioactive Waste Work Rolls On
Even a moderate reduction in cleanup operations at SONGS by Southern California Edison stands apart from other companies in the nuclear decommissioning and waste management sector, which say they are sustaining levels of work with added safety measures.
NorthStar Group Services, which is managing decommissioning at the single-reactor Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, said there have been no changes since last week. In a statement last week, the New York City-based environmental services said its 100 employees on-site were spread across the property and working staggered shifts. They already often work using respirators and other protective gear, reducing the likelihood of infection, CEO Scott State told RadWaste Monitor.
In an updated posted to its website Thursday, EnergySolutions said “We remain fully functional and available at all of our facilities and are available to assist you with all of your rad-waste management needs.” The Salt Lake City, Utah-based nuclear services firm operates two of the nation’s commercial facilities for low-level radioactive waste disposal and manages several nuclear decommissioning projects, including as half of SONGS Decommissioning Solutions with partner AECOM. Management is monitoring the health of its over 500 workers and has instituted travel restrictions, the notice says.
The operators of the two remaining low-level waste disposal operations, Waste Control Specialists in Texas and US Ecology in Washington state, have said their services similarly remain stable. Idaho-based US Ecology, in fact, has said it can provide decontamination and disposal services for coronavirus contamination.
US Ecology has established a coronavirus task force that meets daily to keep tabs on the corporation’s internal safety measures, new government regulations, customers’ evolving needs, and various logistical and resources aspects of dealing with the disease. Its measures are updated when it receives new directions from the federal government.
Waste Control Specialists taking similar measures while keeping operations going, with contingency plans in place in case the national situation changes. It has limited visits to its Andrews County, Texas, waste disposal facility.
