Wedged Nuclear Waste Canister Raises Alarm At San Onofre

SAN CLEMENTE, CA — A worker stood up and voiced concerns that one of 73 canisters of spent nuclear waste at the decommissioned San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station became stuck and could have fallen 18 feet during the transfer to a new dry storage installation.

David Fritch, a worker on the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation project stated that a nuclear waste canister was "caught on an inner ring" of the dry storage Cavity Enclosure Container.

Along with his concern that the wedged canister could have fallen, Fritch, an Occupational Safety and Health Administration safety worker, described multiple safety and training flaws with the transfer process of those nuclear waste canisters. Fritch also said "it was not the first time" a canister became stuck during transfer but transparency between work crews was missing.

Fritch claimed that "he might not have a job" after he spoke, but he made a promise to his daughter he would say something about the incident at the meeting.

Days later, Southern California Edison officials agreed that "performance errors" by workers from contractor Holtec International resulted in a canister containing nuclear waste getting caught on an inner ring of what is called a Cavity Enclosure Container on one of the pads at a newly constructed storage site.

Since February, operators of the plant have been transferring canisters from what is called "wet storage" to a newly constructed facility on the site of the plant, which is in the process of being decommissioned. Those transfers have now been put on hold, Edison officials said.

"At no point during this incident was there a risk to employee or public safety, and immediate lessons learned have already been integrated into our process," Edison officials said in a statement.

The canister loaded by a crew from Holtec on Aug. 3 got wedged but a Southern California Edison oversight team discovered the canister was not sitting properly, Edison officials said. The canister was then re-positioned correctly and placed at the bottom of the enclosure.

Edison experienced a similar issue in March during the transfer of spent fuel at the plant, which holds 3.55 million pounds of spent fuel.

Work was delayed 10 days after workers discovered a piece of shim -- a pin 4 inches by a half-inch -- came loose while a canister was being loaded.

Holtec and an independent engineering firm assured Edison that the canister's integrity was sound, officials said.

Some 50 canisters of spent fuel sit in what is called a "dry storage" installation at the plant. A second dry storage installation, recently constructed and approved by the California Coastal Commission, is in the process of transferring 73 canisters from what is called "wet storage."

Spent fuel is thermally hot and to cool it, nuclear operators place the fuel in a metal rack and submerge it in a deep wet storage pool.

Tom Palmisano, vice president, decommissioning and chief nuclear officer at SONGS, told the LA Times that the chance of the canister dropping 18 feet was “unlikely” but the canister is “designed to withstand that, but it doesn’t excuse it. So a serious, near-miss if you will, in terms of a rigging issue.”

The canister was set down properly within an hour of it being wedged, according to Palmisano, and “there was no risk” to the public or the workers involved. When the times asked Palmisano if he knew Fritch, the vice president told them:

“I’ll make sure with whoever he works for that he’s protected. He has a right to voice his concerns and that’s important. I credit him for bringing up an issue.”

Watch the entire meeting here.

City News Service contributed to this report.

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