[Shutsanonofre] Feds launch search for communities willing to take nuclear waste from San Onofre and other plants

[Ray Lutz]

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-06-09/getting-the-nuclear-waste-off-sites-like-san-onofre-feds-take-an-early-step-with-26-million-effort

With the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station as a backdrop,U.S. Energy 
Secretary Jennifer Granholm 
<https://www.energy.gov/person/jennifer-m-granholm>on Friday announced 
the Biden administration will spend $26 million in what figures to be 
one of many steps aimed at solving a decades-long problem: where to 
store the nuclear waste that has stacked up at commercial power plants 
across the country.

Saying “we all have to figure out the solution” to the waste issue, 
Granholm said a national search will be launched to find communities 
willing to take spent fuel rods from sites such as San Onofre on an 
interim basis until the federal government finds a permanent repository.

The 3.55 million pounds of radioactive spent fuel stored at the closed 
San Onofre nuclear power plant has long been a source of anxiety for 
some Southern Californians, who pass the iconic twin domes as they drive 
along Interstate 5. More than 9 million people live within 50 miles of 
the plant.

Some 73 canisters loaded with spent fuel assemblies have been lowered 
into vertical cavities at a storage site on the north end of the plant, 
behind a seawall a little more than 100 feet from the Pacific Ocean. An 
additional 50 canisters of waste rest horizontally nearby.

To identify potential sites, the Energy Department will fund 13 groups 
from different areas of the country to engage, set up workshops and 
elicit feedback from communities that may be interested in building 
interim facilities. The 13 groups — partnerships with universities, 
industry and nonprofits — will receive about $2 million each.

“Some communities don’t know what it means,” Granholm said. “They might 
be in, they might be out, but the bottom line is we have to form trust 
and be able to educate them and work with them on what their concerns are.”

Eventually, the Energy Department and the Biden administration want to 
find one to three communities for what the nuclear industry calls 
“consolidated interim storage” facilities.

According to a report released in April 
<https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-05/Consent-Based%20Siting%20Process%20Report-0424%203.pdf>, 
the Energy Department estimates the entire process of identifying, 
screening, selecting and then building an interim storage site will take 
10 to 15 years.

“In this phase, we’re beginning the conversation,” saidKathryn Huff, 
assistant secretary for the Office of Nuclear Energy at the Energy 
Department <https://www.energy.gov/ne/person/dr-kathryn-huff>.

Rep. Mike Levin talks to reporters at San Onofre
Rep. Mike Levin (D-San Juan Capistrano) speaks to reporters Friday at 
the San Onofre nuclear plant, flanked by Southern California Edison CEO 
Steve Powell, left, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, right of podium, 
and Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley.
(Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Rep. Mike Levin <https://ballotpedia.org/Mike_Levin>(D-San Juan 
Capistrano) accompanied Granholm on a tour of the San Onofre Nuclear 
Generating Station, known as SONGS.

“We finally have a plan when it comes to spent nuclear fuel across the 
United States,” Levin said. “Now we’ve got to execute on that plan.”**

Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the federal government has a 
legal responsibility to dispose ofthe roughly 89,000 metric tons 
<https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/energy-department-seeks-towns-willing-to-temporarily-store-nuclear-waste/>of 
waste that has accumulated at nuclear power plantsin 35 states 
<https://www.nrc.gov/images/reading-rm/doc-collections/maps/isfsi-facility-types.png>.

A giant underground permanent repository was near completion at Yucca 
Mountain in southern Nevada, but in 2010, theObama administration halted 
the project 
<http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/10/yucca.mountain.shutdown/index.html>, 
after years of opposition from Silver State lawmakers, including former 
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

With Yucca off the table, focus has shifted to finding interim facilities.



To avoid a repeat of Yucca, the Energy Department is now taking a 
“consent-based” approach to find communities that may be open to 
building a storage facility because of the prospect of more local jobs 
and economic growth.

“Anything that doesn’t include consent can easily be delayed or stopped 
completely,” Huff said. “And we really intend to arrive at a robust and 
durable solution here — something that will outlast this administration 
and move out into a longer-term commitment.”

But finding those communities may be difficult.

A proposed interim facility in southeastern New Mexico has been opposed 
by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, and the New Mexico Legislature earlier 
this year passed a billprohibiting the storage and disposal 
<https://www.ans.org/news/article-4833/new-mexico-sets-up-roadblock-to-holtec-storage-facility/>of 
radioactive waste without the state’s consent. The issue may end up in 
court.

A similar story is playing out in Texas. A potential storage project in 
the town of Andrews is touted as being able to hold as much as 40,000 
metric tons of spent fuel for up to 40 years, but Gov. Greg 
Abbotttweeted 
<https://twitter.com/gregabbott_tx/status/1324939516248010752>, “Texas 
will not become America’s nuclear dumping ground.” (For perspective, San 
Onofre stores roughly 1,610 metric tons of spent fuel on its premises.)

One of the concerns for communities considering building an interim 
storage facility: Will they get stuck with the waste for decades, should 
the federal government not find a permanent site?

“That’s why we want to have a discussion,” Granholm said, “to let [the 
communities] know what the law says, what the specifics are, get them 
comfortable. If they don’t want to do it, we don’t want to force it on 
anybody. We’re confident in the discussions that we’ve had at this point 
that there are communities that are willing to engage those discussions 
to have an interim site.”

There have been signs of progress in other countries.

Finland, for instance, is nearing completion of itsOnkalo spent nuclear 
fuel disposal facility 
<https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-finland-nuclear-catacombs-ready-house.html>that 
will permanently hold 6,500 metric tons of waste produced during the 
lifetimes of the country’s five nuclear reactors. Canada is scheduled to 
announce a location for a national repository inthe fall of 2024 
<https://thebulletin.org/premium/2023-01/final-countdown-to-site-selection-for-canadas-nuclear-waste-geologic-repository/>.

“We have not done this right in the United States in the past,” Granholm 
said. “We have said, ‘OK, Yucca Mountain, you’re it,’ without getting 
the consent of the community that is most affected. This is what we’ve 
learned from Finland and Canada. They had a process that was very 
respectful of communities ... and that’s what we’re going to do, too.”

As for the search for a permanent site to replace Yucca Mountain, 
Granholm said that will begin once authorization is approved. “The first 
step is [interim facilities] and then we’ll go on to that later.”

The location where the nuclear waste is stored at San Onofre.
A worker overlooks the site where 3.55 million pounds of nuclear waste 
is stored at the San Onofre nuclear plant.
(Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune)

On Capitol Hill, Levin has helped secure$93 million in funding in the 
last three fiscal years 
<https://levin.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-mike-levin-applauds-department-of-energys-new-plan-for-storage-of-spent-nuclear-fuel>to 
move consent-based siting along.

Levin andRep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall) 
<https://ballotpedia.org/Darrell_Issa>this weekre-introduced legislation 
<https://levin.house.gov/media/press-releases/reps-mike-levin-and-darrell-issareintroduce-legislation-to-prioritize-san-onofre-for-spent-nuclear-fuel-removal>that 
would give priority to remove spent fuel from decommissioned plants like 
SONGS that are in areas with large populations and seismic hazards.

“We know it can be done,” Levin said. “We can do it here and it will 
work here, too. It won’t happen overnight but we’ve finally got the 
momentum that we’ve lacked for the last 10 or 15 years.”**

San Onofre has not produced electricity since 2012 after a leak in a 
steam generator tube led to its closing. The plant is now being 
decommissioned and is in the fourth year of a$4.5-billion dismantlement 
project 
<https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-21/judge-tosses-out-lawsuit-that-sought-to-stop-san-onofre-nuclear-plant-dismantlement>that 
will take roughly eight years to complete and remove about 1.1 billion 
pounds of material from the site.

The plant’s two distinctive domes, each 190 feet high, are expected to 
be gradually taken down starting at the end of 2026 or early 2027.

Representatives of Southern California Edison, which operates San 
Onofre, said Friday that more than 80% of the canisters could be taken 
off site now if a storage facility existed and 100% of canisters will be 
ready to be shipped by 2030.

BUSINESS <https://www.latimes.com/business>CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT 
<https://www.latimes.com/environment>CALIFORNIA 
<https://www.latimes.com/california>POLITICS 
<https://www.latimes.com/politics>



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Ray Lutz
Citizens' Oversight Projects (COPs)
http://www.citizensoversight.org
619-820-5321
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