Decommissioning and spent-fuel offloading will continue at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), but with added safety measures to prevent any transmission of COVID-19, according to majority owner Southern California Edison (SCE).
“We’re monitoring the situation very closely, on a day-to-day basis, with plans in place to ensure the appropriate levels of safety and security at the site,” Vince Bilovsky, the utility’s deputy decommissioning officer, said in a March 19 press release.
Southern California Edison said it has enacted “necessary precautions” based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
SONGS’ final two operating reactors were permanently retired in 2013. The transfer of used fuel from cooling pools to dry-cask storage, under contractor Holtec International, is due to be wrap up this summer. Major decommissioning operations by SONGS Decommissioning Solutions began in late February and are scheduled for completion in 2028.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not have the legal power to require COVID-19 testing at its licensees. Representatives of two watchdog groups for SONGS on Friday criticized the lack of a testing requirement.
“The idea that contract workers sickened by fever could be handling 100,000-pound canisters of the world’s deadliest substance with cranes and other heavy equipment is terrifying,” said Charles Langley, executive director of Public Watchdogs, in a news release.
Shutting down a commercial nuclear power plant in response to COVID-19 is essentially a judgment call, Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said Friday.
Agency staffers discussed regulatory effects from the pandemic in a teleconference with nuclear industry representatives. The teleconference addressed solely operating reactors.
Some members of the public asked about the criteria that would require an online reactor to shut down for coronavirus-related reasons. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said there is no set criteria for the agency to intervene independently of a utility, and it is initially up to the plant owner to decide whether to suspend operations if the disease hampers staffing. A utility has the legal responsibility to inform the NRC if a coronavirus-related staffing shortage exists, NRC spokesman Scott Burnell told participants in the teleconference.
He added the NRC has the discretion to order a shutdown for safety reasons if it believes one is warranted. “The NRC has the power to step in,” Burnell said. Any potential shutdown for purely economic reasons is up to the utility, NRC officials said.
The regulator expects to issue its first coronavirus-related enforcement guidance document — covering applications for temporary departures from NRC requirements — early this week.
