U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) announced Wednesday he would not seek re-election, removing an influential voice on nuclear waste issues from Congress a year from now.
Issa has represented a coastal zone north of San Diego, first in the 48th Congressional District and now in the 49th District, since 2001. His exit, announced in a formal statement Wednesday morning, would presumably become effective at the end of the 115th Congress on Jan. 3, 2019.
In the statement, Issa highlighted his service to the area and achievements against congressional earmarks, for intellectual property protection, and to augment the Violence Against Women Act. He made no mention of his years-old effort on removal of radioactive spent fuel from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in his district, which closed permanently in 2013 due to malfunctioning steam generators.
Plant majority owner Southern California Edison (SCE) plans to store about 3.5 million pounds of spent fuel in dry-cask containers near the Pacific Ocean until a temporary or permanent off-site repository becomes available. Used fuel from the plant’s long-retired reactor Unit 1 is already in place, while waste from the more recently shuttered Units 2 and 3 for now remains in wet storage at SONGS.
While Southern California Edison agreed in a recent lawsuit settlement to pursue “commercially reasonable” efforts to move the waste to an off-site location, there is no assurance regarding when or even if that will occur.
Last January, Issa introduced the Interim Consolidated Storage Act of 2017, which would authorize the Department of Energy to establish contracts for temporary storage of U.S. spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. The bill, a fresh version of legislation that Issa co-sponsored in 2015, remains in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Issa was also among the more than 100 lawmakers who co-sponsored Rep. John Shimkus’ Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017, which would strengthen the federal government’s ability to license and build the long-planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. That bill is awaiting a floor vote in the House.
Issa’s successor will have to pay attention to the future of the San Onofre site and its waste, but is not likely to have the same influence, according to David Victor, chairman of the San Onofre Community Engagement Panel.
“This is a major issue for the district in one of those areas where Republicans and Democrats almost agree completely. Serious solutions will require new legislation, such as that cosponsored by congressman Issa,” Victor said by email Wednesday. “So I expect his successor focus a lot on this topic. … They won’t have the seniority of Congressman Issa, so the capacity to do something about it will probably be diminished.”
Issa’s office did not respond to a request for comment this week. The Hill reported Thursday that the lawmaker might be considering campaigning in an adjacent congressional district in which his chances for re-election are better.
Arizona Remains Resistant to Taking SONGS Spent Fuel
Meanwhile, Southern California Edison is taking steps to meet its commitments for off-site disposal of used fuel from SONGS, but has hit a roadblock in efforts to ultimately ship the waste to Arizona.
One component of the August 2017 settlement in the lawsuit led by the watchdog group Citizens’ Oversight requires formation of an expert panel to advise SCE in preparing strategic and transportation plans for moving the waste to an off-site location expected to be somewhere in the southwestern United States.
There were no updates regarding the plans in a Dec. 22 status report on implementation of the settlement agreement. But SCE said it was evaluating more than 30 candidates whose names were proposed by Dec. 8 for inclusion on the expert panel. The utility expects by mid-March to select the panel, which must have at least four members, SCE spokeswoman Maureen Brown said by email.
The settlement agreement also gave Southern California Edison 90 calendar days to formally propose that SONGS’ spent fuel be shipped to an expanded storage pad at the Palo Verde nuclear power plant in Arizona, of which the utility is a minority owner. Majority owner Arizona Public Service has made clear it would reject this proposal.
Southern California Edison, at an October meeting of the Palo Verde Administrative Committee, called for additional talks among the plant’s owners on the SONGS’ fuel plan. But the proposal failed to garner the unanimous approval necessary to proceed.
“We have not had additional contact with Palo Verde regarding the expanded” independent spent fuel storage installation, Brown stated. “Regarding the search for offsite disposal, the settlement agreement calls for preparation of strategic plan that will evaluate options.”
