A total of 925 spent fuel assemblies from two shuttered power reactors at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California had been transferred from wet to dry storage as of July 20, according to the latest update from plant majority owner Southern California Edison.
That was up from 666 through June 20 at the time of the prior progress report.
The 925 fuel assemblies were held in 25 canisters.
Another 1,669 fuel assemblies remained to be relocated to SONGS’ on-site independent spent fuel storage installation, the Aug. 1 update says. Seventy-four assemblies were in the process of being transferred at the time of the report.
Contractor Holtec International began the used-fuel transfer early this year and is due to complete the work by the middle of 2019. The radioactive material would then remain on the storage pad until an off-site location for temporary storage or permanent disposal is ready.
This transfer covers used fuel from reactor Units 2 and 3 at SONGS, which closed permanently in 2013 due to faulty steam generators that had been installed in the facility. Fuel assemblies from Unit 1, which suspended operations in 1992, were already on the storage pad, which was expanded to store the remaining material.
Southern California Edison hopes the state by the first quarter will give regulatory approval for decommissioning of SONGS, an anticipated $4.4 billion job managed by a team of AECOM and EnergySolutions.
The California State Lands Commission has scheduled public hearings for today and Wednesday on the draft version of the environmental impact report for SONGS decommissioning.
