NRC says FBI probe at San Onofre isn’t needed, despite reported violations

Federal nuclear regulators say there is no reason for the FBI to open a criminal investigation into how Southern California Edison has handled radioactive waste at the shuttered San Onofre nuclear plant, despite an inspectors’ report of multiple violations stretching over six months.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been conducting a special review of operations at the closed plant north of Oceanside since September, after Edison reported a near-miss accident that left a 50-ton canister filled with spent nuclear fuel precariously wedged 18 feet above the bottom of its storage cavity. The canisters are supposed to be carefully lowered into the storage cavity.

The NRC issued Edison a “notice of violation” in November, saying the utility failed to report the Aug. 3 mishap until September. Regulators also said the company did not establish appropriate safety measures from late January through early August.

These mistakes do not rise to the level of criminal behavior, the regulator said.

“The activities of Southern California Edison concerning the August 3, 2018, cask loading event at the San Onofre site have not met the criteria for referring the matter to the FBI,” spokesman David McIntyre said in a statement last week. “Rather, Edison’s activities involved potential safety violations solely within the NRC’s regulatory authority.”

The statement came after private-sector attorney Michael Aguirre asked the San Diego FBI to open a criminal investigation into whether Edison has complied with federal laws governing the handling of nuclear waste.

There are 3.6 million pounds of nuclear waste stockpiled at San Onofre.

An NRC spokesman initially told the Union-Tribune that the FBI lacked jurisdiction to investigate practices at the San Onofre plant, but he backed away from that assertion when pressed for legal citations.

NRC regulators say their review into what happened Aug. 3 is proceeding on pace and that the company response to date has been satisfactory.

Aguirre, a former federal prosecutor who for years has been investigating the 2012 San Onofre closure and subsequent decommissioning process, said evidence he provided the FBI shows Edison willfully and repeatedly violated portions of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act.

“There are compelling public interests that require an FBI investigation into whether the violations were willful,” Aguirre wrote in his Dec. 20 letter to Special Agent in Charge John Brown. “The violations were frequent during the period from January 2018 to August 2018.”

Aguirre declined to comment Friday on the NRC’s statement that no criminal behavior was evident in Edison’s handling of the waste.

The FBI, meanwhile, said it has received Aguirre’s request and is reviewing the materials. An FBI spokeswoman did not respond to the NRC’s comments.

Edison, which co-owns the facility with minority partner San Diego Gas & Electric, said it prefers that the ongoing review of the August mishap remain under NRC jurisdiction.

“Southern California Edison believes the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is the proper authority to oversee and determine matters relating to the Aug. 3 spent nuclear fuel canister-loading incident at San Onofre nuclear plant,” the company said in a statement.

San Onofre was shut down after a small amount of radiation leaked in 2012 and was closed for good the following year. The fuel transfer is a key step in the years-long process of decommissioning the plant.

Edison has been transferring spent nuclear fuel from the plant’s cooling pools to special steel-lined canisters, designed to keep it secure.

After the August accident, Edison halted the transfer but has said it wants to resume it as soon as possible.

Federal laws governing nuclear power plants require licensees to take extraordinary precautions in producing electricity and safekeeping the waste. The statutes allow for criminal penalties in cases where licensees willfully break the rules.

In his letter to the FBI, Aguirre said Edison’s record at San Onofre calls for more oversight than the NRC can provide.

“It is imperative that the FBI and Department of Justice make an independent decision on whether the violations were willful,” he wrote. “The investigation should begin immediately in light of the risk of spoliation of evidence.”

NRC spokesman McIntyre did not agree.

“The violations in question at San Onofre were regulatory in nature and did not rise to the level of a criminal violation,” he said. “Therefore, there was no reason to involve the FBI.”

The NRC report in November cited three specific violations and one apparent violation that may be subject to criminal penalties.

Specifically, NRC inspectors said the nuclear waste downloading process “often involved contact between the canister and other vault components.” That finding is important because damaged canisters may not be able to safely contain nuclear waste.

The NRC inspectors said Edison failed to account for the repeated misalignments in its corrective action program as required.

Edison also violated rules requiring workers to be properly trained and qualified, the NRC said. Between January and August “the licensee failed to establish an adequate program for training, proficiency testing and certification” of all personnel, the NRC said.

Instead, people were chosen for critical tasks based on factors other than their level of experience, the report says.

“The NRC’s interview with the foreman indicated that the rigger/spotter was selected primarily because of his low accumulated radiation dose,” the report said of the Aug. 3 incident.

The third violation cited by NRC inspectors -- failure to properly document instructions and procedures -- also can result in criminal penalties. Those conditions also persisted from January to August, inspectors found.

None of the violations has resulted in penalties for Edison so far. The NRC is holding what is called a pre-decisional enforcement conference Thursday to help determine when Edison would be permitted to resume the waste transfers.

jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald