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On November 4, 2010, at approximately 1504 PDT, San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) was notified that scrap circuit breakers salvaged from the SONGS warehouse had alarmed a portal radiation monitor at a metal recycling facility in Los Angeles County. The monitor indicated a reading approximately 40% above background levels. Naturally occurring isotopes in the circuit breakers are suspected to have alarmed the portal monitor. The metal recycling vendor (Alpert and Alpert) called the Los Angeles branch of the California Department of Health Services, Radiologic Health Branch to obtain a special permit authorizing the return shipment to SCE. SCE is reporting this event in accordance with 10CFR50.72(b)(2)(xi). At the time of this report, Unit 2 was operating at 100% power and Unit 3 is defueled. The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

• * * UPDATE AT 0018 EDT ON 11/06/10 FROM SIMMON TO HUFFMAN * *

On November 5, 2010, employees of the San Onofre staff disassembled the scrap circuit breakers that had been sent from the San Onofre Warehouse to the Alpert and Alpert salvage yard on November 4. These high voltage circuit breakers contain arc chutes consisting of large ceramic plates that contain naturally occurring radioactive material. All ceramic materials were removed. Health Physics technicians then re-surveyed the circuit breaker casings by direct and indirect survey and verified that they did not contain any detectable levels of radioactive material. Indirect survey of the ceramic material demonstrated that they had no detectable levels of removable radioactive material. The California Department of Health Services, Radiologic Health Branch will be notified of these results. The licensee has notified the NRC Resident Inspector. R4DO (Howell) and FSME (Chang) notified.