Safe Onsite Storage of Spent Fuel
San Onofre has detailed plans for safely managing and storing spent nuclear fuel. We are committed to ensuring the spent fuel at SONGS is ready to be shipped to an off-site location when one becomes available.
SCE transferred all the spent nuclear fuel at San Onofre to robust dry storage systems: sealed stainless-steel canisters that are housed in reinforced steel-and-concrete structures. Passive dry storage of spent nuclear fuel is the safest form of on-site storage. By eliminating reliance on actively cooled spent fuel pools, the risk of NRC-analyzed accident scenarios that can result in an off-site release of radiological material drops to zero.
Below you can learn more about how SCE and the Federal Government are working to relocate the spent fuel at SONGS to an offsite, licensed facility; how we store spent nuclear fuel at SONGS; and, how we inspect and maintain our dry storage systems.
Working Toward Off-site Storage and Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuelar Fuel
SCE recognizes that efforts to relocate San Onofre’s spent nuclear fuel to an off-site facility must proceed in a thoughtful, forward-thinking, and responsible way, ensuring that relevant interests are recognized and heard.
SCE is doing its part and now the Federal government is ramping up its efforts to one day allow us to return the land at San Onofre to the U.S. Navy.
Learn more about our efforts
Dry Fuel Storage at SONGS
San Onofre has two systems for dry fuel storage. The first is an Orano-NUHOMS horizontal storage system. SCE began loading fuel into this system from Units 1, 2 and 3 in 2003. It holds 50 canisters of spent fuel. SCE completed loading fuel into the Holtec UMAX system in 2020. It holds 73 canisters of spent fuel from Units 2 and 3.
Learn more about how we store spent nuclear fuel
Inspection and Maintenance of Spent Nuclear Fuel Canisters
SCE has developed industry leading approaches to spent fuel canister inspection and maintenance. We will properly maintain the canisters for transport to a federally licensed off-site location, when available.
Learn more about our inspection and maintenance programsSouthern California Edison is committed to finding solutions that move spent nuclear fuel away from our coastline to interim or permanent Federally licensed facilities. We are encouraged by the recent progress being made and will continue to advocate strongly on behalf of our customers and community until the spent fuel is relocated.
Frederic Bailly, SCE VP of Decommissioning and Chief Nuclear Officer
