The California State Lands Commission on June 28 voted unanimously to approve a resolution to support two pieces of federal legislation that would prioritize removing used reactor fuel from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).
None of the three commissioners commented on the resolution.
The bills are the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019, introduced in May by Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), and the Spent Fuel Prioritization Act of 2019, also introduced in May by Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.).
McNerney’s bill is an updated version of legislation spearheaded by Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) that passed out of the House in 2018 but never got a Senate vote before the 115th Congress ended on Jan. 3. The bill focuses broadly on measures to advance consolidated interim storage and ultimately permanent disposal of used fuel from the nation’s nuclear power plants. But it prioritizes storage of waste from retired civilian facilities that are in seismically active areas near a large body of water.
Similarly, Levin’s bill would prioritize centralized storage or disposal of spent fuel from plants that are decommissioned or undergoing commissioning; are in regions with the highest populations; and in areas the U.S. Geological Survey has found to have “the highest hazard of an earthquake.”
The language in both bills would apply to SONGS, the three-reactor power plant in San Diego County that was permanently retired in 2013.
The Levin measure “would put the wastes at SONGS first in line to be removed,” Nolan Fargo of the Surfrider Foundation told the commission.
Levin’s bill is currently in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Meanwhile, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019 has been sent simultaneously to the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee, Natural Resources Committee, Armed Services Committee, and Budget Committee. Each panel will address the portions of the legislation that fall within its jurisdiction.
In total, about 3.5 million pounds of spent fuel assemblies from three reactors will be stored at SONGS until an off-site location can be found. Contractor Holtec International has been moving used fuel from the plant’s last two operational reactors to an expanded dry storage pad alongside the Pacific Ocean. However, the process has been suspended since an August 2018 mishap left a canister at risk of being dropped 18 feet into a storage slot. The incident led the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to fine SONGS majority owner and licensee Southern California Edison (SCE) $116,000 for violations of federal nuclear safety regulations.
The utility in May received permission from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to resume the fuel offload. But SCE said this week it has not set a date for that to happen. The company and Holtec have been carrying out practice runs, along with internal evaluations and retraining, according to an update Tuesday on Twitter.
Transfer of 44 canisters of spent fuel from reactor Units 2 and 3, of a total of 73, remain to be placed into dry storage. All used fuel from reactor Unit 1, which closed in 1992, is already on the storage pad.
