Section 4.1 of Appendix B of the Operating License for Units 2 and 3 requires Southern
California Edison (
SCE) to report to the NRC within
24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> any unusual or important environmental events, which includes unusual fish kills.
Between August 19 and August 20, 2005, SCE removed an unusually large number of fish from the Units 2 and 3 intake structure. At approximately 1000 PDT on August 20, 2005, SCE estimated the quantity to be approximately 11,070 pounds (approximately 6420 pounds from Unit 2 and 4650 pounds from Unit 3). While the NRC has not specified a reporting limit for an unusual fish kill, SCE has internally defined this quantity as 4500 pounds. This unusual influx of fish is unrelated to plant operation and a heat treat of the intake structure was not being performed. However, there is a heat treat of the San Onofre Unit 2 intake structure scheduled for later today.
The licensee stated that the fish kill was apparently the result of a large school of anchovies that swam to close to the intake.
The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.