The majority owner of the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California this fall plans official outreach to the potential new off-site home for its used reactor fuel, according to a senior executive.
Late last month, Southern California Edison announced the settlement of a lawsuit challenging its current plan to place spent fuel from the San Diego County plant on an expanded storage pad near the Pacific Ocean. Part of that agreement involves pursuing an alternative location for the roughly 3,500 fuel assemblies, with an official offer to the Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona.
Southern California Edison will honor its commitment, Chief Nuclear Officer Tom Palmisano told the SONGS Community Engagement Panel last week. While the utility has not officially contacted Palo Verde majority owner Arizona Public Service about the waste transfer, Palmisano said he expected that to happen by late November. SCE is part owner of the Arizona plant.
“We will make a good faith effort to ask Palo Verde and other owners of Palo Verde to allow us to move our fuel,” Palmisano said.
In the interim, Southern California Edison is moving ahead with the storage pad expansion at SONGS, as allowed under the settlement with Citizens’ Oversight, lead plaintiff in the waste storage lawsuit, Palmisano said.
Arizona Public Service has already said it would not take the used fuel from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, noting it is not licensed to store waste from other nuclear plants.
