ML22119A242

Riv FOLLOW-UP Response: Question About April 11 San Onofre Event

ML22119A242
Person / Time
Site:	San Onofre
Issue date:	04/29/2022
From:	John Monninger NRC Region 4
To:	Langley C Public Watchdogs, Southern California Edison Co
John Monninger
References
Download: ML22119A242 (4)

Text

From:

Monninger, John To:

langley@publicwatchdogs.org Cc:

Morris, Scott

Subject:

FOLLOW-UP RESPONSE: Question about April 11 San Onofre event Date:

Friday, April 29, 2022 9:07:00 AM Attachments:

image001.png Good Morning Mr. Langley,

Im following-up on behalf of Scott Morris to provide you with additional information relating to your 3 questions. Here are the 3 questions and our response:

1. Is it the NRC's opinion that a formal event report [is] required for the April 11 accident at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS)?

This event is not reportable to the NRC. The NRC regulation for reporting events is 10 CFR 50.72, Immediate notification requirements for operating nuclear power reactors.

Section 50.72(b)(2)(xi) is the section of interest, and it states, Any event or situation, related to the health and safety of the public or on-site personnel, or protection of the environment, for which a news release is planned or notification to other government agencies has been or will be made. Such an event may include an on-site fatality or inadvertent release of radioactively contaminated materials. The NRC guidance document for 10 CFR 50.72 is NUREG-1022, Event Report Guidelines 10 CFR 50.72 and 50.73, (ML13032A220). On page 53 of NUREG-1022, the NRC provides the purpose for the section of interest (i.e., 50.72(b)(2)(xi)) - The purpose of this requirement is to ensure that the NRC is made aware of issues that will cause heightened public or government concern related to the radiological health and safety of the public or onsite personnel, or protection of the environment. The event at SONGS was associated with industrial safety rather than the radiological health and safety of onsite personnel, and is therefore not required to be reported under 10 CFR 50.72.

2. If the notice to the NRC was done "informally," or over the phone, is there a required NRC record of this sort of notification to the NRC?

This event did not involve a NRC regulated activity, and therefore, there is no requirement to maintain an NRC record of the courtesy notification.

3. "Suddenly" there are twelve additional canisters of GTCC waste from the spent fuel pools.

As Scott mentioned in his email below, there will be 12 canisters of greater than Class C (GTCC) waste transferred to the TN-NUHOMS ISFSI pad at SONGS. On April 16, 2022, SONGS completed the transfer of the 1st canister of GTCC waste, which was from the Unit 2 spent fuel pool. SONGS is working to remove the GTCC waste from the Unit 3 spent fuel pool for the next transfer of a canister to the ISFSI pad. There is no spent fuel waste in either of the pools. The additional 10 canisters, 5 from each unit, will constitute GTCC waste generated from segmentation of the reactor vessel internals and the equipment used to cut the reactor internals. This waste will be transferred to the

ISFSI pad for storage once it is generated later this year.

I hope this information is responsive to your questions. If you have any follow-up questions, please let us know.

Best Regards, John Monninger Deputy Regional Administrator U.S. NRC, Region IV

From: Morris, Scott Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2022 4:26 PM To: Charles Langley <langley@publicwatchdogs.org>

Subject:

RE: Question about April 11 San Onofre event

Dear Mr. Langley:

As always thanks for reaching out to me, and Im happy to share some insights regarding the questions you raise. As it happens, NRC Region IV has inspectors on site at San Onofre this week for routine decommissioning-related oversight activities, and among other things they are evaluating the circumstances regarding the worker injury along with associated reportability requirements. It wouldnt be appropriate for me to pre-judge the outcome of our inspectors review. If it turns out that Edison should have formally notified the NRC (we were informally notified) then we will pursue the appropriate regulatory next steps Formal notification generally means an official phone call to our 24/7 Headquarters Operations Officers (in NRC Headquarters) followed up by a written report, both within prescribed time periods from when the event occurred. Reporting requirements vary greatly depending on the circumstances. More to come!

Regarding your question about twelve additional canisters of GTCC from the spent fuel pools I have asked my staff to get the facts and specific details as I am not aware of the particulars. That being said, as you know the last of the used fuel from the pools was removed in 2020 and placed into dry storage. Several (not sure how many exactly) dry storage vaults were intentionally left empty with the intent to store GTCC waste in canisters for future offsite disposal my assumption is that the additional canisters to which you refer contain various highly radioactive reactor vessel internal parts that are currently being segmented in the newly re-purposed spent fuel pools using large underwater cutting tools.

As you can appreciate, these large reactor vessel internals need to be cut-up into smaller pieces to enable them to fit into the smaller multi-purpose storage canisters.

Once I hear back from my staff Ill pass along more complete information.

Respectfully,

Scott A. Morris Regional Administrator

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission / Region IV l+ E-mail: scott.morris@nrc.govl (Office: (817) 200-1225 l

From: Charles Langley <langley@publicwatchdogs.org>

Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2022 1:53 PM To: Morris, Scott <Scott.Morris@nrc.gov>; linda.howell@nrc.cov

Subject:

[External_Sender] Question about April 11 San Onofre event

Dear Scott and Linda,

I am hoping that one of you can provide insight into Southern California Edison's recent public announcement that there was yet another accident at the failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, and both of you have always provided us with excellent answers to complex and highly nuanced issues at San Onofre.

Questions:

1) Is it the NRC's opinion that a formal event report required for the April 11 accident at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS)?

Context: We recently learned (from the local newspaper) that the NRC was "informed" by Southern California Edison that a worker was injured in an event that occurred on April 11 at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Edison is publicly claiming that the NRC's regional office was notified, but I am not seeing an Event Report filed with the NRC. Does the NRC believe a report may be required to comply with NRC regulations?

2) If the notice to the NRC was done "informally," or over the phone, is there a required NRC record of this sort of notification to the NRC?

Context: As you are aware, Edison has a history of obdurate non-compliance with federal safety law.

Is this another example of Edison's regulatory attorneys claiming they do not understand regulatory law?

3) "Suddenly" there are twelve additional canisters of GTCC waste from the spent fuel pools.

Context: To the best of my knowledge, this "fact" was not previously disclosed to the media or the public. I'm hoping one of you can give some insight into this, because this was a "WTH" (What the Heck) moment for us, and Edison has a well documented history of what I would call "Lies of Omission," such as Tom Palmisano's statement that loading had stopped on August 3, 2018 to "give the crews a rest."

Edison has given the public the impression that all of the waste has been removed from the spent fuel pools. Moreover, the perception was that this was all of the material in the pools, and now, there are 12 more cans of high-level radioactive waste that seem to have appeared out of nowhere.

Example: This Union Tribune Story claimed that the "final" canister of nuclear waste was moved from the spent fuel pools on August 20, 2020. Paragraph #2 says "Shortly before 5 a.m., workers lowered the 73rd and final canister into its assigned enclosure at the north end of the plant, known as SONGS for short."

Then the story continues to state " 'The safe completion of this storage campaign (emphasis mine)...

ends the largest canister loading campaign ever in the U.S.,' Vince Bilovsky, Edisons deputy decommissioning officer, said in an email" Obviously, I am concerned that once again, Edison is actively deceiving the public about its decommissioning activities.

Charles Langley, Executive Director Public Watchdogs (858) 384-2139 Cell: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX www.publicwatchdogs.org Mail: 7918 El Cajon Blvd, No 310, La Mesa CA, 91942