Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
About fifteen billion dollars has been spent on the construction of the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository in the Nevada desert. Shortly before it opened, the Obama Administration cut off the funding. This was partially a result of calls from then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other elected officials in Nevada who had a long record of opposing the facility. The Action Plan from SCE said that the owners of SONGS “take no position” on whether the Yucca Mountain repository should be completed and opened to receive spent nuclear fuel. The report did say that a “federal solution” offers the “most achievable path” to relocating the spent fuel at SONGS.
One possible solution depends on establishing interim storage facilities where spent nuclear fuel from SONGS and other nuclear power reactors could be stored until a permanent repository is found or reopened. The federal government could establish such sites but the report said that in order to accomplish this, there would probably need to be a change in the law. This would be time consuming. In addition, until there is an operating permanent repository, decision makers at potential temporary storage sites might be concerned that they may get stuck with storing the spent fuel indefinitely.
A pair of private companies have made pitches to construct interim storage sites for nuclear waste. One group has proposed building a facility in southeastern New Mexico that could possibility take some of the SONGS waste. However, the governor of the state strongly opposes the plan. In West Texas there is a company named Waste Control Specialists which has formed a partnership to expand an existing facility to store as much as forty metric tons of spent nuclear fuel. Unfortunately, the plan has received serious opposition from some politicians.
Others have demanded that SONGS spent nuclear fuel be sent to the Palo Verde Generating Station in Arizona, but the owners of that plant have said that they have no interest in taking SONGS waste. The SCE report has raised the prospect of SCE partnering with other utilities in similar circumstance to consolidate their spent fuel at a common site. The SCE report did say that there are a host of concerns about cost, ownership of the waste and licensing issues.
Some have called for moving the SONGS spent nuclear fuel to a higher elevation within the boundary of the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. However, Navy officials have rejected such suggestions. The report said that this option “would also entail significant facility construction and transportation costs.”
The SCE team concluded the second volume of the report by expressing the hope that “even in seemingly intractable situations,” change can happen, and they stressed “the importance of flexibility, persistence, continued corporate commitment vigorous engagement with a range of stakeholders and potential partners to keep pushing for progress.”
The SONGS Community Engagement Panel will discuss the SCE report this Thursday in a virtual meeting that will begin at 5:30 PM. A link is provided on the website of the Engagement Panel website: https://www.songscommunity.com/community-engagement/meetings/community-e...