A watchdog group in California on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit aimed at preventing storage of spent nuclear fuel at the closed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The lawsuit, from La Mesa-based Public Watchdogs, comes just months after a settlement to resolve a prior legal challenge against expansion of the plant’s dry storage pad for used fuel.
Defendants in the newly filed legal challenge in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California are: the United States of America; Defense Secretary James Mattis; the U.S. Navy and Navy Secretary Richard Spencer; Southern California Edison (SCE); and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E).
The Navy owns land in San Diego County on which SONGS is situated, while Southern California Edison and SDG&E are the primary owners of the plant (with the city of Riverside owning less than 2 percent).
“Plaintiff brings this lawsuit to prevent Defendants from storing highly dangerous spent nuclear fuel containers at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (“SONGS”) ocean-front public land that was leased from the federal government for electricity-generating purposes but never intended to be used for post-closure storage of such containers,” according to the filing from attorney Cory Briggs.
“We sued the Navy and the Department of Defense because those are the departments that oversee this,” Briggs told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “And then you sue the secretaries so if the department tells you they aren’t going to do it, you can get an order against the person who runs the department and they can do it.”
A Southern California Edison spokesperson on Friday said the company does not comment on pending litigation. San Diego Gas & Electric referred questions to SCE.
Congress in 1963 authorized the Navy to grant the utilities 90 acres of land at Camp Pendleton for construction and operation of the nuclear plant, which began power production in 1968 and closed permanently in 2013. Reactor Unit 1 operated until 1992, and Units 2 and 3 shut down in 2012 due to problems with steam generators.
Spent fuel from Unit 1 is already just feet from the Pacific Ocean in an on-site independent spent fuel storage facility. SONGS’ owners in 2015 received approval from the California Coastal Commission to expand the storage pad to accommodate the waste from the other reactors. The group Citizens’ Oversight led a state lawsuit to overturn that decision. That case resulted in an August settlement that authorizes on-site storage of 3.5 million pounds of waste, but commits the plant’s owners to taking steps to move it to an off-site location.
In its 1963 law approving siting of the plant, Congress had not considered or approved storage of spent fuel at SONGS, according to the Public Watchdogs lawsuit. “Any agreement or action by the Federal Defendants to allow the storage of spent fuel at SONGS under the grant authorized by Public Law 88-82, as well as any and all actions taken by SCE and SDGE to store the spent fuel at SONGS, is illegal,” the group said.
Public Watchdogs is seeking court orders finding that storage of spent fuel at SONGS is not allowed under Public Law 88-82 and preventing such storage, along with reimbursement of legal fees and other costs.
It emphasized the potential danger of keeping the radioactive material in a heavily populated coastal region, saying in the complaint that tens of thousands of people could suffer fatal radiation exposure if a container ruptured due to mishandling or corrosion.
Southern California Edison has emphasized the safety of the underground storage project, saying the spent fuel would be placed within canisters and stainless steel liners that are resistant to corrosion, and held within reinforced concrete bases and tops. The existing and new storage system is intended to resist seismic upheaval.
Holtec International is the contractor for the storage addition. Southern California Edison has said the fuel now kept in pool storage is to be moved into dry storage by 2019.
