I have posted a previous blog entries about the San Onofre reactor near San Diego. The two operating reactors were shut down in January of 2012 because of unexpected corrosion in three thousand tubes following the replacement of four steam generators. Southern California Edison (SCE), the owners of the power plant, had contracted Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (HMI), a Japanese company, to build the new steam generators. SCE told the NRC that the new generators were exactly the same as the old ones they were replacing but it was later found that there were some design changes that contributed to the pipe corrosion. A computer simulation of the new generators did not reveal that there would be a problem with the tubes prior to the construction of the steam generators. SCE and MHI are fighting in court about who is at fault for the design failures.
After months of negotiations with the NRC, SCE concluded that it would not be able to afford to make the required repairs under the conditions demanded by the NRC. The final decision was made last month to decommission the power plant. There are outstanding bills of over five hundred million dollars. There is a great deal of argument about what bills should be paid and by whom. Whatever the outcome of the arguments it will take years if not decades to decommission and decontaminate the power plant.
The nuclear fuel has all been removed from the reactors but there remains a great deal of nuclear waste in the form of spent fuel rods stored in pools of water at the power plant. This waste must be dealt with in some way as the plant is decommissioned. Without a permanent repository available, the plant could be put into what is called “Safe Enclosure” where the plant is sealed up and the waste would be not pose a threat to public safety. The owners would continue to be responsible and subject to NRC regulation for decades until the waste is removed and the plant is demolished. A second option would be “Entombment” where the nuclear waste is moved into as small a volume as possible and then that space is surrounded by a concrete shell meant to last until the waste is no longer dangerous.
The impact of the closure is already being felt. The wholesale cost of electricity is projected to rise as much as sixty percent. Some residence fear that during peak power demands in the summer months, the electrical supply may become unreliable leading to brownouts and blackouts. Merchants are suffering from the lost business of people who used to work at the power plant. Seasonal workers and consultants accounted for a lot of local hotel revenues and rentals of houses and apartments.
California now has only one operating nuclear power plant at Diablo Canyon. Diablo Canyon has its own problems and may have to be shut down in the not too distant future. California State law prohibits permitting for any new reactors until the Federal Government has a permanent repository of nuclear waste. Since the Yucca Mountain Repository project was cancelled several years ago, the United States has been working on siting a new repository. Latest estimates indicate that there will not be a national repository until 2050 at the earliest. So the California law amounts to a ban on the construction of new reactors.
California is a big state with a lot of industry and one of the biggest economies among the states. If they can successfully make the transitions away from nuclear and fossil fuels, that will an inspiration to other states to shut down their nuclear power plants.
