RW Monitor
7/25/2014
IN THE NRC
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Staff have issued a finding of no significant impact for an environmental assessment of exemptions requested by Southern California Edison that would allow access to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station’s Decommissioning Trust Fund. SCE wants to be able to use funds from the trust to pay for irradiated fuel management and site restoration costs while also having the ability to use withdrawals from the Trusts without prior notification to the NRC. The NRC said that the actions would have no impact on the environment and funds for the decommissioning would still be in place. “The proposed action involves an exemption from requirements that are of a financial or administrative nature which do not have an impact on the environment,” the NRC Staff said. “The NRC has completed its evaluation of the proposed action and concludes that there is reasonable assurance that adequate funds are available in the Trusts to complete all activities associated with decommissioning, site restoration, and irradiated fuel management. There is no decrease in safety associated with the Trusts being used to fund activities associated with irradiated fuel management and site restoration activities.”
IN THE INDUSTRY
The Spanish utility Iberdrola announced this week that it has signed a memorandum of understanding to work on the deployment of GE’s PRISM technology. The technology is currently being considered as a solution to the United Kingdom’s plutonium stockpile—It would re-process the plutonium to generate electricity from the used fuel. According to Iberdrola, “[the company] will bring its expertise and excellence as a nuclear power operator in Spain and provider of nuclear engineering services as well as the experience of more than ten years developing nuclear power projects.”
