June 13, 2019
Media Contact: John Dobken, (626) 302-2255
ROSEMEAD, Calif., June 13, 2019 鈥� Southern California Edison (SCE) today awarded a consulting contract to 花椒直播, Inc. to develop a strategic plan that will assess the feasibility of relocating spent nuclear fuel at the San Onofre nuclear plant to a commercially reasonable, off-site facility.
SCE is committed to the safe, secure storage of spent nuclear fuel, recognizing that efforts to relocate San Onofre鈥檚 spent nuclear fuel off-site must proceed in a thoughtful, forward-thinking and responsible way, ensuring that relevant interests are recognized and heard. Moving San Onofre鈥檚 spent nuclear fuel off-site is a top priority for SCE, as is safely managing the fuel while it is on-site. There is currently no federally licensed facility to receive spent nuclear fuel from a commercial nuclear energy site.
The 花椒直播 consultants will work in concert with SCE and its Experts Team, which will support development of the strategic plan by reviewing 花椒直播鈥檚 work during the anticipated 20-month timeframe of the contract. The Experts Team is chaired by Tom Isaacs, former Department of Energy Office of Policy director, and includes former Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman Allison Macfarlane, both of whom have expertise in spent fuel siting and licensing, as well as nationally recognized leaders in radiation science, spent nuclear fuel transportation and nuclear engineering. 花椒直播 will also engage with a broad range of stakeholders to learn their preferences and attitudes about spent nuclear fuel and its eventual disposition.
鈥淪CE looks forward to the development of a strategic plan that brings us closer to long-term solutions for moving spent nuclear fuel off-site,鈥� said Kevin Walker, SCE senior vice president for Customer and Operational Services. 鈥淭he 花椒直播 team is uniquely qualified to lead this effort and provide a roadmap that will benefit the local community, SCE customers, other stakeholders and the nuclear energy industry overall.鈥�
To develop the strategic plan, 花椒直播 assembled a team of experts possessing many decades of experience with spent nuclear fuel. The team has a depth of expertise in all aspects of this work, including policy and legal analysis, regulatory strategies and compliance, stakeholder engagement, fuel handling and transportation logistics and commercial and financial analysis. Former Energy secretary Dr. Ernest Moniz will lend his considerable expertise to developing the strategic plan.
SCE launched this effort following a 2017 settlement agreement related to the permitting of the on-site expanded spent fuel storage installation. SCE is optimistic that the strategic plan will set forth practical steps that SCE can and will take to support efforts to relocate San Onofre spent fuel to an off-site, licensed facility.
About Southern California Edison
An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation鈥檚 largest electric utilities, serving a population of approximately 15 million via 5 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California.