Nuclear Fuel Transfers At San Onofre Resumes

Speaker 1: 00:00 In North San Diego County workers at San Onofre nuclear power plant are once again transferring canisters filled with nuclear waste from wet to dry facilities. San Onofre is in the process of being decommissioned, but a near miss accident halted work last August. KPBS science and technology reporters Shalina chat. Lani has been following this story and joins us now with more Shalina welcome. Hi. Thanks for having me. Remind us why the transfer of the canisters stopped in the first place. Yes. So in August last year, there was a near miss accident. What happened was that some workers, uh, from Holtec International, which is the company that, uh, is working with the canisters for a socal Edison, he was supposed to be monitoring the canister being downloaded into the storage vault. And what happened was that the slings that were holding the canisters up actually ended up going slack. And so the canister had caught on a ring that was inside the storage vault and it was suspended there 18 feet above the bottom of the storage vault for nearly an hour. Speaker 1: 01:04 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave Addison the green light though to restart the transfers back in May. Why is Edison doing it now? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave, so cal Edison the greenlight months ago, but Edison decided to hold off a little bit because they decided they needed to ramp up their training process and, and invest in technologies that can allow them to monitor the downloading process more effectively to avoid an ex a near miss accident like that in the future. So what's our sort of safeguards has Edison put in place to make sure a similar incident doesn't happen again? Yeah, so in the press release that they had just on Monday this week, a socal Addison sort of goes through it. They said that they have been, um, integrating a, a more robust training process for the employees that they have there. They're specifically going to be doing the canister downloading. And I, and I also spoke with John Dobkins. He's the public information officer for Santa No fray. Speaker 2: 02:02 We've made some, uh, some comprehensive changes to the entire fuel transfer operation process that included updated procedures, updated training, new equipment, uh, that we brought in to help us visualize the downloading process. And through those changes we concluded after many rigorous internal readiness reviews that we are ready to proceed with, uh, field transfer operations. Speaker 1: 02:34 So, you know, they've also been incorporating that with recommendations from the NRC. The NRC did its own a review of, of the canisters as well. Has Edison said what would have happened if that initial canister had fallen? Yeah, so initially Soquel Edison said that the canister would have been cool and safe and it would have been fine. Um, to an extent that's kind true. But, um, there's also the reality that the NRC came out and said that the fuel inside the canister would have been damaged. So it's true that the outer casing of the canister probably would've been fine, but there is a big challenge in that the fuel inside would've been damaged. And then, so cal Edison would have had to deal with that because when the cladding on fuel is damaged, then you get rid of the first protective layer that blocks radiation from leaking. Speaker 1: 03:27 Did Edison face any repercussions or fines for that incident? Yes. So because the utility did not promptly report the incident within 24 hours as required by the NRC, they faced a $160,000 in civil penalty fines. Critics of Edison are still not convinced, though they've raised concerns about scratches on canisters and there was a loose pin that officials have said posed no safety risks. How are critics responding to the new transfers? Yeah, so a lot of community groups right now are mostly concerned about the longterm impact of keeping this spent nuclear fuel on the beach. So the NRC has come out and said the canisters are safe. You know, the way that it's being stored right now is safe. But I think the big question these community groups are having is what happens 40, 50 years from now. Um, with climate change as sea levels rise, uh, as a number of different environmental factors happen. And Shalina you actually heard from a community group, right? Yeah, that's correct. I spoke on the phone with Chelsea Sparty from the Samuel Lawrence Foundation, which here's from folks in the community. Speaker 2: 04:36 This is an issue of concern here at Santa no fray and also around the nation, the idea that we're stranding waste without a solution or real thoughtfulness about what to do next as a nation. It's a, it's unacceptable. Speaker 1: 04:51 So I think the, the main issue here is now there are 44 canisters that are going to be moved after the, after the 29 that have already been moved. And that's sort of creating this more permanent issue of what's going to happen in the longterm. I mean, once you put them in, what's going to happen then meanwhile, the NRC is considering cutting back inspections at the nation's nuclear sites. But uh, even if that goes through, that won't apply to Santa, no free. Is that right? That's correct. So the, a inspections that they were referring to are for commercial operating nuclear reactors. So that won't impact said, I know for a, it's been decommissioned since 2012 but Linda Howell, who was part of the NRC in a public webinars said that there would be surprise investigations into San Antonio phrase, a transfer of, of spent fuels. So there will be some inspections that the NRC is planning to do sort of unannounced. Speaker 1: 05:50 And do you know how many canisters have been transferred so far? Any idea when work might wrap up? Yeah. So 29 have already been transferred and there are 44 remaining. And socal Edison says they expect the final transfer to happen in the last quarter of 2020. And what's the longterm storage side? What's the plan there? Yeah, so that all depends on federal regulators. Uh, the, the US Department of Energy has been given this task of finding a permanent storage solution for spent nuclear fuel for all of the nuclear reactors across the country. And there simply isn't a solution yet. So, TBD. All right. I've been speaking with KPBS science and technology reporters. Shalina chat, Lonnie, she, Lena, thank you so much. Thank you.