An expert panel met March 27 to begin work on recommendations for potential locations for off-site storage of spent fuel from the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), along with a plan for moving the radioactive waste.
The panel has not made any of its discussions public yet, said Maureen Brown, spokeswoman for SONGS primary owner Southern California Edison (SCE). A date for the panel’s next meeting has not been released.
Establishing the panel was one component of the 2017 settlement agreement to resolve a lawsuit from the watchdog group Citizens’ Oversight against the state permit that authorizes SCE to move all of SONGS’ used fuel to an expanded storage pad near the Pacific Ocean. The agreement requires the utility to take “commercially reasonable” steps to move the 3.55 million pounds of waste off-site, but in the meantime it can move the material from wet to dry storage on its property.
Southern California had its six-person expert panel in place by March 8. Within 30 days it must solicit the group’s input on strategic and transportation plans for the spent fuel. That is due to happen by April 7, according to SCE’s latest update on the settlement agreement.
There has been talk of moving the spent fuel to the Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona, but the update indicates that remains a nonstarter.
Roughly one-third of SONGS’ spent reactor fuel is already held in 51 canisters in an on-site independent spent fuel storage installation. That radioactive waste is from the plant’s reactor Unit 1, which shut down in 1992. Last year, SCE built a new dry storage site for another 73 canisters of fuel from Units 2 and 3, which closed permanently in 2013.
Relocation of this material is expected to be complete in mid-2019. Brown said SCE has to date moved five of 73 canisters of spent nuclear fuel.
