Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
8/22/2014
Southern California Edison released its draft Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR) for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station earlier this month, outlining the 20-year, $4.4 billion decommissioning plan. The draft plan now goes to the Community Engagement Panel, the local stakeholder outreach group, for comments and review in an effort to include stakeholders in the decommissioning planning process. A CEP meeting is scheduled for Aug. 28 to review the document. “We look forward to receiving feedback from the Community Engagement Panel on this blueprint for decommissioning,” said Chris Thompson, SCE vice president of Decommissioning. “These key decommissioning documents given today to our community advisers embody our commitments to safety, to transparency with the public and to serving as a good steward of the environment and our customers’ money.” After the CEP reviews the draft plan, the document is sent to the NRC for review and approval. SCE anticipates submitting the document sometime in September.
According to the plan, the major decommissioning activities are set to begin in June of 2015. That is when the project enters its Decon Period 3, titled Decommissioning Preps/Reactor Internals Segmentation. This will include “initial major decommissioning activities will focus on removal, packaging and disposal of piping and components,” the draft PSDAR says. “Following RV and cavity reflood and RV head removal and disposal; the reactor vessel internals will be removed from the reactor vessel and segmented as necessary to separate the GTCC waste which will be placed in storage canisters and modules on the ISFSI set aside for that purpose.” The plan would then move toward Periods 4 and 5, which include plant systems and large component removal and building decontamination. Active Decom would conclude in Period 6, License Termination during Demolition, with an end date of Dec. 30, 2032.
In an attempt to reduce worker dose and disposal costs, a large portion of the project will be dedicated to decontamination efforts. “The decontamination and/or dismantlement of contaminated SSCs may be accomplished by: decontamination in place; decontamination and dismantlement; or dismantlement and disposal,” the draft PSDAR said. “A combination of these methods may be utilized to reduce contamination levels, worker radiation exposures, and project costs. The methods chosen will be those deemed most appropriate for the particular circumstances. Material below the applicable radiological limits may be released for unrestricted disposition (e.g., scrap, recycle, or general disposal). Radioactive contaminated or activated materials will be removed from the site as necessary to allow the site to be released for unrestricted use.”
SCE anticipates moving all of the spent fuel to dry cask storage by 2019, a date the company had previously announced. That process is already underway and should be completed by June of 2019, the company said. The PSDAR includes an anticipated date of spent fuel pick up by the Department of Energy in 2050, but SCE has admitted that date is dependent on movement on DOE’s part.
