A package of legislative reforms for the California Public Utilities Commission calls for the regulatory body to prioritize relocation of spent nuclear fuel now stored at the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).
Gov. Jerry Brown and three state lawmakers last week rolled out a long list of planned reforms for the five-person body charged with regulating California’s electric, natural gas, and water sectors, among others.
Near the end of the lists on multiple nearly identical press releases from the governor and legislators was this proposal: “Require the CPUC to work with Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expedite relocation of spent fuel currently stored at the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station to an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation.”
“It can help encourage or find pathways to ship that material out of California,” one California State Legislature staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday. “I think that the people of that area would like it out of that area.”
SONGS operator and majority owner Southern California Edison in 2013 permanently shut down the plant’s last two operational reactor units due to problems with the facilities’ steam generators. The company is now preparing to store all of the plant’s spent fuel in underground dry storage containers near the Pacific coast. Roughly one-third of SONGS’ spent fuel is already in dry-cask storage, and a permit issued by the California Coastal Commission last October authorizes SCE to expand the fuel storage pad to accommodate the remainder of the material now kept in on-site pools.
While the language cited in the press releases makes specific reference to an independent spent fuel storage installation, the legislative staffer said the intent of the reform proposal looks past temporary storage and toward a point when the spent fuel is removed from the area entirely.
“You’ll have to speak to the bill sponsors to understand their intent on the provision to ‘expedite relocation,’” SCE spokeswoman Maureen Brown said by email Tuesday. She noted the absence of a licensed facility that could take the fuel.
The Department of Energy is required under the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act to remove spent fuel from all U.S. nuclear power reactors and place it in permanent storage. More than 70,000 metric tons of fuel has now accrued across the nation. Under the Obama administration’s nuclear waste storage strategy, established to replace the canceled Yucca Mountain geologic repository, interim consolidated storage sites for spent fuel are about a decade away and a permanent facility might not open until 2048.
The details of the fuel proposal in the reform plan are still being developed, the legislative staffer said. If nothing else, the demand can make the matter a priority for CPUC, encouraging the commission to work with Southern California Edison, DOE, and the NRC to resolve the SONGS situation, the staffer said.
Some components of the reform package are already attached to existing legislation, while others will be added to bills for consideration before the legislature adjourns on Aug. 31, the staffer said. Brown would then have until the end of September to sign or veto the bills.
CPUC this week did not respond to requests for comment regarding the SONGS spent fuel storage reform proposal. In a statement last week, the commission expressed support for the package as a whole: “The reform initiatives warrant our support, and we remain committed to an outcome that will provide enhanced accountability and transparency, and allow us to concentrate on core regulatory functions that protect Californians.”
The reform package was the result of multiple issues with CPUC, including 2013 ex parte communications in Poland between former commission President Michael Peevey and an SCE executive regarding the settlement for the premature shutdown of SONGS. The $4.7 billion settlement resulted in state ratepayers shouldering $3.3 billion of the cost, with the rest borne by SCE parent Edison International and SONGS minority owner San Diego Gas & Electric.
CPUC in December 2015 fined SCE nearly $17 million for failing to disclose the talks. In May, the commission announced that it was reopening the settlement case. Parties this week submitted their opening briefs in the matter.
