Laguna will ask feds to remove San Onofre nuclear fuel

The Laguna Beach City Council is demanding that the federal government remove nuclear fuel from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station — first to a temporary location until a permanent spot is identified.

The council approved a resolution Tuesday night that urges the Department of Energy to identify a permanent disposal site for the used nuclear fuel as required by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982.

The resolution, developed by Mayor Bob Whalen and Councilman Robert Zur Schmiede, also seeks to hold Southern California Edison responsible for the safety, security and damage for as long as the spent fuel remains on site.

Edison owns nearly 80% of the plant, which it closed in June 2013 after a degraded generator leaked radioactive coolant in January 2012 and another showed signs of serious wear.

Residents of a community group called Let Laguna Vote, chaired by Rita Conn, pushed for a citywide resolution at the Dec. 2 council meeting, concerned that spent fuel sitting in steel-lined concrete pools of water or concrete cases — called “dry cask” storage — remain vulnerable to damage from earthquakes, tsunamis or terrorist attacks.

Conn thanked Whalen and Zur Schmiede for writing the resolution, but questioned the decommissioning process going forward.

“We are specifically asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to not grant Edison’s requested exemption that will allow them to first spend ratepayers’ money on the decommissioning process and site restoration and then deal with the safe storage and ability to transport the waste,” Conn said.

“Why isn’t it already in Edison’s budget, the ability to transport, the ability to have everything there that we need? If they tear everything down first, there won’t be the water towers to put fires out. There won’t be the warning sirens. There won’t be the security.”

Of the $4.4 billion estimated cost to decommission San Onofre, Edison is budgeting $1.2 billion to manage the spent fuel, company spokeswoman Maureen Brown wrote in an email.

“We are budgeting for transporting of the fuel off site ... but [Edison] can’t move the fuel off site until there is a place for it to go,” she wrote.

At the council meeting, Tom Palmisano, Edison vice president and chief nuclear officer, said the company is on board with Laguna residents’ request to move the spent fuel off site as soon as possible.

“It’s unacceptable that the federal government, particularly the Department of Energy, has not provided a resolution to the long-term storage and disposal of high-level radioactive waste,” said Palmisano, a San Clemente resident.

Edison is developing plans to move used fuel underground.

Last week the company announced it had signed a contract with Holtec International to place spent fuel canisters, made of corrosion-resistant stainless steel, inside concrete casing topped with 24,000-pound steel and concrete lids, according to a news release.

Brown said the first canisters could go below ground as early as 2017, when Edison begins transferring fuel rods in the pools of water to dry casks.

Laguna’s resolution will go to Gov. Jerry Brown, Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa), but Whalen urged Edison to wield its clout with the federal government.

“What I would ask is that you be our advocates in Washington,” Whalen said. “You are a much bigger presence than we are back there, and I think your customers would say, ‘Put your shoulder to the wheel. Get back to the Department of Energy, get back to the Department of Defense.’ Bang some tables and try to make something happen. I think we are owed that as customers.”