The San Diego advocacy group Public Watchdogs is suing a California state agency to prevent decommissioning of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) until a new environmental review of the project is conducted.
At issue is the California State Lands Commission’s approval on March 21 of an agency staff environmental impact report (EIR) on decommissioning the two standing reactors at the retired San Diego County nuclear power plant. The three-member panel also signed off on a lease authorizing decommissioning of offshore components of the facility.
That approval was a key regulatory step in SONGS majority owner Southern California Edison’s (SCE) schedule for decommissioning to begin this year.
The “Final EIR fails to address critical points related to the Project, including the storage of spent nuclear fuel and design flaws in the canisters that transport and house the spent fuel,” according to the lawsuit, filed last week in California Superior Court. “Furthermore, [the State Lands Commission] refused to delay its vote on the Final EIR even though Petitioner and others urged it to wait for the March 25 report of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (“NRC”), which was investigating safety concerns related to SONGS.”
The State Lands Commission did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit, but SCE defended the process that led to approval of the environmental report.
“Southern California Edison believes the California State Lands Commission conducted a thorough and defensible review in drafting and certifying the Final Environmental Impact Report for the decommissioning project and approving the lease for the offshore conduits,” spokesman John Dobken said by email Tuesday.
Southern California Edison retired SONGS reactor Units 2 and 3 in 2013 after faulty steam generators were installed in both. Reactor Unit 1 was closed in 1992 and has been largely decommissioned.
The utility in 2016 hired energy technology company Holtec International to manage transfer of the reactors’ used fuel from wet storage to a dry-storage pad alongside the Pacific Ocean.
On March 25, the NRC said it would levy a $116,000 penalty against SCE for an August 2018 mishap in which a spent fuel canister was left at risk of dropping nearly 20 feet into a storage slot on the SONGS property. The utility did not contest the decision and paid the fine before the end of March.
Just last week, the NRC cited Holtec for two violations of federal regulations in updating the design of a fuel storage canister that was deployed to SONGS and other nuclear power plants. The breaches were identified after a loose bolt was found at the bottom of one of the vessels being used in the SCE contract. Holtec does not face any financial penalty in that case.
Southern California Edison and Holtec said they have made a number of improvements in the spent-fuel transfer process since last August. The NRC will have to authorize the program to resume. Twenty-nine canisters of used fuel have been moved to the dry storage pad, with 44 left to go.
Meanwhile, SCE has awarded a $1 billion contract to an EnergySolutions-AECOM team to manage decommissioning of the reactors. While some operations are underway, the utility is waiting on the state for approval to begin most work.
The March vote by the three-member State Lands Commission to approve the environmental impact report enables Southern California Edison to proceed with its application for a coastal development permit from the California Coastal Commission. That commission could in June consider the application, which must be approved for decommissioning operations involving ground-disturbing activities, Dobken said.
Public Watchdogs said the State Lands Commission vote breached state law on a number of fronts. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) prohibits a “piecemeal” approach to environmental reviews, but the state EIR did not address the buildings for spent fuel storage are part of the lease, the lawsuit says. The Lands Commission said that issue is outside of its purview.
“The Final EIR also fails to address how the buildings will be demolished before the spent nuclear fuel can be transported to the Spent Fuel Installation,” according to the lawsuit. “The EIR must be revised to address the issues involved in storing spent nuclear fuel and the dangers of exposure to radioactive materials and alternatives such as relocation of the spent nuclear fuel.”
The commission further violated California opens meetings and public notification laws, including by failing to announce publicly that the planned lease had been revised less than a day before the vote, Public Watchdogs said.
The organization is asking the court to order the State Lands Commission to set aside the existing EIR and produce a new report, and in the interim to suspend any activities that could alter the physical environment at the SONGS property.
