San Diego Gas & Electric Co. on Dec. 27 requested that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) authorize $84 million in disbursements from the San Onofre Generating Station decommissioning trust funds for expenses projected in 2017.
The request follows a separate request from plant majority owner Southern California Edison, which asked that CPUC authorize $302.7 million in disbursements for 2017 decommissioning expenses. Minority owner SDG&E’s request was included in an advice letter filing requesting funds necessary to comply with IRS tax rules and preserve qualified tax status of the trusts.
SCE’s request would cover expenses related to the decommissioning general contractor’s process for designing and procuring decommissioning items and materials; completion of the plant’s independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) pad expansion; a site assessment to allow SCE to surrender the SONGS Mesa site to the U.S. Navy, which owns the entire SONGS property; and environmental permitting.
SONGS began operating in 1968, and reactor Unit 1 was retired in 1992. SCE retired Units 2 and 3 in 2013, after replacement steam generator issues proved too expensive to fix. Decommissioning is expected to wrap up in the early 2030s. SCE announced last month that it had selected an AECOM-EnergySolutions partnership as its general contractor for about $1 billion in dismantlement work for the $4.4 billion SONGS decommissioning.
Based on SCE’s last report filed in March 2016, the decommissioning trust funds balance for San Onofre Units 2 and 3 was $3.5 billion through December 2015. The company is expected to file another update with the NRC in March 2017.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Southern California Edison has requested an $84 million withdrawal from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station trust funds. The request was made by site minority owner San Diego Gas & Electric Co. for tax purposes.
