Southern California Edison (SCE) on Tuesday requested that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) authorize $302.7 million in disbursements from the San Onofre Generating Station (SONGS) decommissioning trust funds for expenses projected in 2017.
The two remaining reactor units operating at SONGS were retired in 2013 after replacement steam generator issues proved too expensive to fix. Decommissioning, which is projected to cost $4.4 billion, is scheduled to wrap up in the early 2030s. SCE on Monday announced it had selected an AECOM-EnergySolutions partnership as its decommissioning general contractor (DGC) for about $1 billion in dismantlement work.
As part of the decommissioning, SCE will consolidate SONGS’ remaining spent nuclear fuel from two cooling ponds into an expanded independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) at the property. About 50 canisters are in place, but SCE claims it needs 73 more canisters to store the remaining fuel. The company expects to complete the plan by 2019.
The requested disbursements, according to an SCE filing Tuesday, would cover the following:
- DGC expenses to identify work procedures and specifications, as well as design and procure decommissioning items and materials.
- Completion of the ISFSI pad expansion, manufacturing of spent fuel canisters, a fuel offload campaign; and project oversight.
- A site assessment to enable SCE to surrender the SONGS Mesa site to the U.S. Navy, which owns the entire property.
- And environmental permitting costs, including a California Environmental Quality Act decommissioning review, and planning for a National Environmental Policy Act review.
