nuclear-news

The complaint, filed by Public Watchdogs with U.S. District Court in the Southern District of California, also named Sempra Energy and its subsidiary San Diego Gas & Electric; Holtec International, the contractor storing the nuclear waste underground; and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which allowed the waste transfers.

The nuclear power plant first became operational in 1972. Decommissioning of the last operational reactors began in 2013. Unable to find off-site storage, Edison began to transfer cooled, spent nuclear fuel rods to underground storage on site at the beachfront facility, wedged between San Onofre State Beach and Interstate 5. Edison eventually hopes to transfer the waste to a federal facility.

Nearly 3.6 million pounds of nuclear waste is stored at the plant, which has a spotty safety track record. Earlier this year, the NRC fined Edison $116,000 for violating safety requirements relating to fuel transfers.

My immediate concern is for the health and safety of the millions of people who could be impacted by a toxic cloud being released,” Chuck La Bella, lawyer of Public Watchdog, said in a press release. “It isn’t really a question of ‘if’ but rather ‘when’ we’re going to be dealing with a nuclear accident here.”

An estimated 8 million people live within a 50 mile radius of the facility, what the NRC calls a “plume zone,” where people could be exposed to toxic nuclear waste in the event of a storage equipment failure.

Edison resumed burying rods last month after operations were suspended for nearly a year following an incident during which a canister containing nearly 50 tons of spent fuel rods was negligently handled while being transferred to the underground storage unit. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission found in its investigation that Edison had fallen short on a number of safety procedures, including a failure to publicly report a “near-miss” regarding nuclear waste within 24 hours.

In particular, the canisters in which cooled, spent nuclear fuel rods are being packed are defective and too thin-walled at just five-eighths of an inch thick, according to Public Watchdogs. Furthermore, the canisters are being stored underground, 108 feet from the water in a known tsunami inundation zone near the San Andreas fault.

The court papers identify broken bolts in the storage canisters that get scratched and gouged during transfer, among other engineering failures, as well as alleging cavalier safety attitudes at Edison.

Edison spokesperson John Dobken told The Desert Sun that stopping the fuel transfers from wet to dry storage could potentially strand spent fuel on site, even when options for transport or disposal become available.

“Placing spent nuclear fuel into approved canisters that meet all technical, safety and regulatory requirements for on-site storage is the first step to relocating the fuel to an off-site federally licensed facility.” Dobken said, adding that by 2021, more than 80 percent of the spent fuel stored at San Onofre will be eligible for transport.

In the last month, three more canisters were transferred, leaving another 41 remaining canisters above ground.

A spokesperson for the NRC said the agency does not comment on ongoing litigation, but that they stand by their earlier statement that it is safe for Edison to transfer fuels at the San Onofre facility.

Impact on the beach

The California Department of Parks and Recreation says visits to San Onofre’s surfing spots have steadily declined since 2006.  In August of that year, the station’s third reactor, which had been shut down for 14 years, was discovered to have been leaking radioactive cancer-causing tritium, contaminating the groundwater.

During the peak month of July 2006, there were over 526,000 visitors to the beach area. This year, there were fewer than 200,000 visitors during the same month.

The court filing is part of Public Watchdogs’ larger legal action against Edison.

Last week, the California Public Utilities Commissions awarded the group $57,924 for making substantial contributions to their decision that Edison was unfairly making ratepayers foot the bill for the decommissioning of the facility at San Onofre State Beach.