The majority owner of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California is still waiting for state approval to begin full decontamination and decommissioning of the plant following its permanent closure in 2013.
In a March 8 inspection report for SONGS, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said decommissioning general contractor SONGS Decommissioning Solutions (SDS) was mobilizing personnel and planning decommissioning operations. “At the time of the inspection, the SDS was planning and scheduling limited activities, until such time as the licensee receives approval for decommissioning and dismantlement from the California State Coastal Commission,” according to the NRC report, which was posted Monday on the agency’s website.
The California State Lands Commission heads the environmental review for SONGS decommissioning, and is readying a draft environmental impact statement that is expected by mid-May, according to Maureen Brown, spokeswoman for plant primary owner and licensee Southern California Edison. The document will undergo a 60-day public review and comment period before going to the Lands Commission for action, possibly in October, Brown said by email.
Action by the Coastal Commission on a coastal development permit application from Southern California Edison is anticipated following completion of the Lands Commission proceeding. That could happen in December, Brown stated.
In any event, major decommissioning operations are not scheduled to begin until all used fuel from SONGS reactor Units 2 and 3 has been moved from wet storage to dry storage on site. The latest update from Southern California Edison shows 111 fuel assemblies in three canisters had been transferred as of Feb. 20, leaving 1,557 assemblies yet to go. Full transfer is expected to be completed by the middle of 2019.
The San Diego County plant never reopened after faulty steam generators forced it to halt power production in 2012. It is now in SAFSTOR mode, and Southern California Edison in December 2016 designated SONGS Decommissioning Solutions as its decommissioning general contractor.
The contractor, a partnership of AECOM and EnergySolutions, is being paid $1 billion. Full decontamination and decommissioning is expected to last 10 years. Including spent fuel management, the project is forecast to cost $4.4 billion.
SONGS Decommissioning Solutions has already taken up 21 programs from the utility, including maintenance and surveillance of the two reactors, the NRC said. The contractor is allowed to conduct certain limited operations while the reactors are in SAFSTOR mode, including hazard mitigation, ventilation maintenance, and radiation monitoring.
NRC staff conducted the on-site inspection from Feb. 5-8, and found no violations.
Meanwhile, Southern California Edison has released the names of members of its expert panel that will provide advice on long-term siting of SONGS’ 3.5 million pounds of used fuel, the Orange County Register reported. The panel was required as part of a 2017 legal settlement that allows SONGS to store the radioactive waste on-site while it pursues options for relocation. Former NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane is among the panel members.
Cleanup workers at the former Dounreay fast-reactor site in Scotland are mixing a radioactive liquid with three solids to ensure the material can be placed safely into storage, the United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said Monday.
The raffinate was the byproduct of reprocessing of fuel from the Prototype Fast Reactor at Dounreay, which shut down in 1977. A total of 230 cubic meters of the liquid were previously processed at a Dounreay facility, which over the last two years was updated for the solidification project.
The material has been held in tanks for roughly two decades. It will over a five-year period be mixed with cement, pulverized fuel ash, and lime powders to form “a stable solid waste package,” according to an NDA press release.
The first step involves placing 15,000 liters of the solid mix into over 30 drums. In coming months, as many as 100 drums should be filled.
“This is probably our highest single remaining hazard at Dounreay,” Sam Usher, Dounreay waste director, said in the release. “Safely and compliantly creating the first solid waste drums is a huge achievement for the team and a major step forward as we deal with the site’s legacy hazards.”
A new structure will be attached to the facility for storage of the solidified waste. Work on that extension, worth millions of British pounds, is due to start by the end of 2018.
From The Wires
From BusinessWire: Westinghouse wraps up its decommissioning mission at the retired Barsebäck nuclear power plant in Sweden.
