The operator of the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California has requested a public meeting with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to discuss potential safety violations connected to an Aug. 3 mishap in transfer of spent reactor fuel.
“As discussed, SCE has decided to use Pre-decisional Enforcement Conference (PEC} for the two apparent violations that are being considered for escalated enforcement action,” Al Bates, regulatory and oversight manager for Southern California Edison (SCE), wrote in a Dec. 10 email message to Janine Katanic, a senior health physicist at the NRC. The document was posted Monday to the agency website.
A predecisional conference was one option the NRC gave Southern California Edison last month as it laid out two apparent violations of federal regulations identified in a special inspection conducted following the incident. The conference would be open to the public, providing greater transparency than the other option, closed-door alternative dispute resolution, SCE spokesman John Dobken said by email Monday.
The utility “values transparency and has worked since the beginning of decommissioning [at SONGS] to ensure the public’s voice is heard, including the creation and ongoing support of the Community Engagement Panel, and that information about the decommissioning process is made available in a timely manner,” Dobken wrote.
The conference has not yet been scheduled, an NRC spokesman said Thursday. They generally take about two hours and allow agency staff to question a company about its own review of an incident and subsequent corrective measures.
The NRC’s Nov. 28 special inspection report also identified three Severity Level IV violations of safety requirements, including absence of an adequate training program for personnel carrying out used fuel downloading. Those violations are the least significant within the four NRC Severity Levels and do not lead to escalated enforcement.
Southern California Edison is the licensee and majority owner of the San Diego County nuclear power plant, which began operations in 1968. It permanently retired the facility in 2013, following installation of faulty steam generators its last two operating reactors — Units 2 and 3. The next year, the utility contracted energy technology company Holtec International to move the remainder of the plant’s spent fuel into dry casks placed on an expanded storage pad near the Pacific Coast.
On Aug. 3, one canister went off-target and was hung up for about an hour until it could be placed into its storage slot. In its special inspection report, the NRC identified two potential violations that could lead to fines or other forms of escalated enforcement: Southern California Edison did not ensure it had additional gear on hand to prevent a canister drop of up to 18 feet and did not report the situation to the regulator within the required 24-hour period.
The predecisional conference would cover information on whether there was a violation, its significance, and corrective measures that have been enacted or are planned, the NRC said in a letter submitted to SCE with the inspection report. Scheduling the meeting does not represent any finding that the NRC had concluded there was a violation or that it has decided on enforcement measures.
An enforcement ruling would generally be issued 30 to 45 days after the predecisional conference, the agency spokesman said.
During the November meeting of the SONGS Community Engagement Panel, a company executive said the aim is to resume the fuel transfer by mid-January.
Holtec as of Aug. 3 had moved 29 canisters and had 44 to go. Southern California Edison has said it intends to complete the fuel project in 2019.
“Canister-loading operations at San Onofre, currently on hold, will resume only after SCE is satisfied that our team has successfully demonstrated fuel transfer can proceed utilizing the new procedures, training and technology, and the NRC has an opportunity to inspect practice runs and has reviewed re-start plans,” Dobken stated.
There was no immediate word on when that might occur.
However, the attorney in a 2017 court settlement that allowed the spent-fuel transfer to proceed indicated this week he might step in again in an effort to stop the proceeding, San Diego television station KPBS reported. Michael Aguirre had represented plaintiffs challenging a state permit that enabled the coastal waste storage. In a deal filed with San Diego Superior Court, the plaintiffs agreed to suspend their opposition to on-site storage of the spent fuel in exchange for concessions from SCE, including a pledge to take “commercially reasonable” efforts to move the material off-site.
“We can no longer trust the management of Southern California Edison to load these canisters into the silos and we cannot trust them to manage the waste, and unfortunately that means we are going to have to go back to court,” Aquirre told KPBS. “We are going to ask the court to assist us in stopping any further loading based, upon a breach of our settlement agreement.”
In a follow-up email Friday, Dobken said Southern California Edison has stuck to its commitments laid out in the settlement agreement “in good faith.”
Decommissioning
Separately, the California State Lands Commission said Wednesday it anticipates publishing the final environmental impact statement for SONGS Units 2 and 3 in February. Staff at the state agency are completing the document now. The commission itself is due to consider the document and the overall decommissioning plan in March.
The draft version of the document, issued in June, cited “significant and unavoidable” impacts from decommissioning related to air quality and radiological materials.
Southern California Edison intends to apply for a coastal development permit from the state Coastal Commission after the environmental impact statement is issued, Dobken said. That permit is necessary for major decontamination and dismantlement operations to begin.
“The timeline for approval of the CDP is subject to the California Coastal Commission (CCC) workload and meeting schedule,” the SCE spokesman said.
SONGS Decommissioning Solutions, a partnership of AECOM and EnergySolutions, in December 2016 received a $1 billion contract to manage the decommissioning. At the time, major dismantlement operations for the 10-year project were expected to begin in 2018.
SONGS Unit 1, which was retired in 1992 after 24 years of operation, has already been decommissioned, with the majority of its structures and gear placed in a disposal site, according to the NRC.
