Southern California Edison (SCE) focused heavily on transporting demolition waste offsite from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station near San Clemente, Calif., the company said in its recent decommissioning update.
In SCE’s second quarter update report, the company said a five-track railyard and a specialized material handling facility were built on-site to help streamline the process of transporting over one billion pounds of demolition waste.
Using the material handling facility and railcar, SCE said the well-choregraphed process has been safe and efficient in moving the plant site’s debris offsite.
According to SCE, since 2019 over 5,700 rail shipments have been moved with over 509 million pounds of material removed, completely 50% of its waste shipment offsite. The company said it still has around 500 million pounds more of demolition waste to remove to complete the task.
Around 21% (107 million pounds) of the material has been recycled, SCE said.
In the second quarter, SCE began demolition of the fuel handling building at the site and that work will continue in the third quarter.
In a SONGS Community Engagement Panel Aug. 28 meeting, Joe Nowak, San Onofre Decommissioning Solutions executive sponsor, said SONGS is 84% completed with its decommissioning project.
According to the meeting’s presentation, containment large component removal is 94% completed, reactor vessel cut up and removal is 63% completed and demo package 3 is 34% completed.
Work that remains to be completed, including demo package 4, DIE tent installation and site restoration and backfill, has not been started.
The dismantlement is on track to be completed in late 2028, recent updates indicating final activities could extend into early 2029.
SCE is an Edison International company. The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station was retired in 2013.
The SONGS Community Engagement Panel recently held a spent fuel related meeting on Oct. 16 and will hold a regular meeting on Nov. 13 about SONGS dismantlement update.