Southern California Edison (SCE) asked the California Coastal Commission to amend the company’s Coastal Development Permit on Monday in order to expand the interim used nuclear storage facility at the company’s San Onofre plant.
“Local community leaders and a wide range of stakeholders in California have told us they want San Onofre’s used nuclear fuel moved to dry storage as expeditiously as possible,” SCE’s Vice President of Decommissioning Chris Thompson, said. “We want to be responsive to that preference while continuing to safely manage this fuel until the federal government does its job and opens a used nuclear fuel repository.”
The state must approve the expansion of San Onofre’s Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation, which currently holds 51 canisters, before SCE can complete the scheduled transfer to dry storage in 2019.
Holtec International will provide the additional below-ground dry fuel storage technology for San Onofre if the permit amendment is approved.
