The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday it had scheduled a meeting on Jan. 24 with representatives from Southern California Edison (SCE) to discuss possible violations of federal regulations connected to a radioactive waste transfer mishap at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).
The agency is considering fines or other forms of “escalated enforcement” against the utility following a special inspection last year at the retired San Diego County nuclear plant.
The pre-decisional enforcement conference will give SCE an opportunity to present its views regarding the incident and the NRC findings.
On Aug. 3, personnel for Holtec International were placing a canister of spent reactor fuel into its dry-storage slot as part of the company’s contract to move the material out of the cooling pond at SONGS. The canister went off-target and got hung up, and it took about an hour for the problem to be identified and resolved.
In a Nov. 28 special inspection report, the NRC cited two potential violations that could lead to action: 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 NRC within the required 24-hour period.
The report also lists a trio of more minor Severity Level IV violations of safety requirements, which would not lead to enforcement measures.
An enforcement ruling would be expected 30 to 45 days following the pre-decisional conference, the NRC has said.
The meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. local time at the NRC Region IV office, 1600 E. Lamar Blvd. in Arlington, Texas. It is open to the public and can we watched on a webinar, which requires registration.
Westinghouse Electric intends to create a business unit covering services for the full nuclear power life cycle as part of a broader reorganization announced Tuesday.
The Plant Solutions business will encompass delivery of new power facilities; government services; and deconstruction, decommissioning, and remediation resources, according to a press release. it will be led by David Durham, a former Department of Energy staffer who has been with Westinghouse since 2015.
Asset management firm Brookfield Business Partners in August completed its $4.6 billion acquisition of Westinghouse from Toshiba, enabling the troubled nuclear company to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The reorganization also creates business branches focusing on nuclear power plant operations, along with “an operations delivery support function to build Global Supply Chain into a best-in-class organization that will support the business units through a robust procurement organization,” the release says.
Westinghouse anticipates completing the reorganization by the start of the third quarter of this year.
The company offers a long list of resources for the end of the nuclear power life cycle, including decontamination and decommissioning project planning, spent fuel management, nuclear parts segmentation, and design of waste storage and disposal sites.
Its Westinghouse Government Services business pursues contracts with the federal government. It is one of the members of Mid-America Conversion Services, which has a $319 million, five-year award for depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion at DOE sites in Ohio and Kentucky. A Westinghouse-Fluor partnership also remains in competition to take over liquid waste management at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Durham joined Westinghouse in July 2015 as senior vice president for new projects business and president of its WESTEC subsidiary. He previously was an executive at GE Hitachi, Fluor, E3 Solutions, and PRC Environmental. That followed a short stint in government, including as special assistant to the secretary of energy from 1991-1992 to manage the Energy Department’s Environmental Management program.
Westinghouse did not respond by deadline to a request for additional information regarding the reorganization.
Radiological decontamination and decommissioning of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California should be completed within a decade of its permanent retirement, a community panel recommended this week.
“The decommissioning (decontamination) process should begin immediately upon shutdown with a goal of 10 years for completion of radiological decommissioning and decontamination, avoiding SAFSTOR (which allows up to 60-year delay in decontamination),” the Diablo Canyon Decommissioning Engagement Panel said in a report outlining its “strategic vision” for the site’s future.
Utility Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) intends to shut down the San Luis Obispo County facility’s two reactors as their Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses expire: respectively on Nov. 2, 2024, and Aug. 26, 2025. In a decommissioning cost report filed with the state in December, PG&E said it would expedite cleanup of the property.
At the time, the company said it expected to need 12 years and nine months to complete license-termination activities, not covering ongoing management of the plant’s spent fuel storage pad. Decontamination and dismantlement, spent fuel management, and site restoration are expected to cost $4.8 billion.
“Our analyses show that a ten-year decontamination and deconstruction, as well as license termination in 12 years after Diablo Canyon Unit 2 shuts down in 2025 are feasible, which are milestones verified by third-party reviews,” PG&E spokeswoman Suzanne Hosn said by email Thursday. “The milestones are feasible provided that PG&E receives the necessary regulatory approvals to fund and permit the work.”
The utility formed the 12-member panel of local residents, one representing PG&E, to provide community input on the power plant. Among other recommendations in the strategic vision report, the Engagement Panel urged consideration of repurposing some facilities at Diablo Canyon to reduce waste and promote economic development, and to ensure the 12,000 acres around the site are conserved and kept available for public use.
Hosn said PG&E has not yet made any decisions regarding future uses of facilities that do not have to be eliminated as part of the decommissioning process, including office buildings, a warehouse, and garages. The Engagement Panel and local community will have a say in any future decisions, she said.
“We will evaluate the Panel’s recommendations as Diablo Canyon decommissioning plans are developed, and as the Panel’s charter indicates, PG&E retains discretion to accept, modify or decline them,” Hosn wrote. “We greatly appreciate the Panel’s thoughtful recommendations and recognize that as a utility, we cannot act unilaterally, but in a manner that is compliant with regulations and considerate of stakeholder input.”
From The Wires
From the San Diego Union-Tribune: Responding to two reports prepared by a nongovernmental organization, Nuclear Regulatory Commission says spent fuel at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station poses little to no threat to the local community or economy.
