Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
5/2/2014
Southern California Edison is seeking to access the San Onofre Generating Station’s decommissioning funds to help off-set some of the expenses related to the planning for decommissioning necessary to move forward with the SONGS shutdown. For any funds to be withdrawn from the trust, SCE has to receive the approval of the California Public Utility Commission. “SCE has filed a request with the CPUC to authorize early release of trust funds for costs up to a specified cost cap of $214 million to cover SCE’s share of 2013 decommissioning costs,” said SCE’s first quarter 2014 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week. “The request also seeks CPUC approval for a process by which SCE will be able to seek the release of trust funds to cover decommissioning costs incurred in 2014 and future periods until the CPUC approves a permanent San Onofre decommissioning plan and cost recovery mechanism.”
According to SCE spokesperson Maureen Brown, this would enable the company to establish a process to access future funds. ‘The decommissioning advice letter for $214 million would authorize SCE to be reimbursed for SONGS expenses retroactive to June 2013,” Brown said. “It also provides for interim authority to be reimbursed for expenses at SONGS until a final decision on the process to be used for the permanent disbursement and review mechanism for SONGS decommissioning.”
Currently, SCE is in the process of developing estimates and plans to submit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission so it can begin the active decommissioning process. These include developing the Post-shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report, establishing a Decommissioning Cost Estimate, and forming an Irradiated Fuel Management Plan, among other things. Also part of the expended costs has been the physical changes that SONGS has to go through to enter an inactive phase. Changes included de-energizing, de-pressurizing, and draining all systems while establishing a temporary power ring. SCE did not reveal how much each of these steps cost, but it did say it spent $214 million in 2013 in costs related to decommissioning.
