San Onofre Begins New Chapter as Fuel Transfer Operations End
August 07 2020 - 5:49PM
Business Wire
The decommissioning effort at the San Onofre nuclear plant
achieved a major milestone today when the last of 73 spent nuclear
fuel canisters was safely stored in the Holtec dry storage system.
The fuel is now one step closer to being ready for relocation to an
off-site facility when one becomes available. Currently, no such
federally licensed facility exists.
Both wet storage of spent fuel in pools of water and dry storage
in welded stainless-steel canisters are extremely safe. However,
dry storage offers additional safety benefits: The dry storage
systems at San Onofre have more than twice the seismic rating as
the spent fuel pools, and dry storage requires no electricity
because the fuel is convection cooled with ambient air.
“Our commitment remains ensuring spent nuclear fuel is safely
stored and that it can be transported to an off-site facility in
the future,” said Doug Bauder, SCE vice president and chief nuclear
officer. “We are developing a strategic plan to help us explore
opportunities for advancing various alternatives to get the spent
fuel off-site, as well as make sure that our fuel is ready for
pickup when the opportunity presents itself.”
SCE expects to release the strategic plan early next year. It
will explore alternatives for relocating San Onofre’s spent fuel to
an off-site facility, either for permanent disposal or temporary
storage, and identify actions that SCE can take to advance various
alternatives. The plan also will include opportunities to
collaborate with like-minded stakeholders and the community.
A New Chapter
With all the spent fuel — 123 canisters, including the 50 in the
TN-NUHOMS system — in dry storage, most of the plant now becomes a
deconstruction site. SCE issued a Notice of Deconstruction in
January, and work to dismantle San Onofre began the following
month. Initial projects included asbestos removal from inside the
containment domes and shipping the Unit 1 reactor pressure vessel
to a disposal facility in Clive, Utah. Both have been completed
successfully. In the next couple of months, offices will be
relocated to new trailers in a parking lot on the north side of the
site. That will clear the way for building demolition to begin
early next year. Employees who can continue to telework due to
COVID-19 guidelines are doing so.
“For the next stages at San Onofre, we’ve developed a
streamlined organization that is focused on providing oversight of
our decommissioning contractor and safely managing the spent fuel,”
Bauder said. “Much of the work coming up will be inside the
containment domes and preparing for the removal of lots of steel
and concrete.”
That material will be mostly transported via railcar to disposal
sites in Utah, Arizona and Texas. For the duration of the project,
SCE will continue to issue quarterly updates to surrounding
residents on activity at San Onofre. These are also available on
the SONGScommunity website.
For more information about San Onofre, visit songscommunity.com
and follow us on Twitter (@SCE_SONGS) and Facebook
(@SONGScommunitypage).
About Southern California Edison
An Edison International (NYSE: EIX) company, Southern California
Edison is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, serving a
population of approximately 15 million via 5 million customer
accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central,
Coastal and Southern California.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200807005513/en/
Media Contact: John Dobken, (626) 302-2255
Edison (NYSE:EIX)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Edison (NYSE:EIX)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024