Opinion: Cities must join Irvine’s push for safe storage of San Onofre waste

Dry canister storage of nuclear waste at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station File photo courtesy of Southern California Edison Sept may mark the day communities in Southern California first took initiative to protect themselves from deadly nuclear waste stranded indefinitely at the decommissioned San Onofre nuclear plant With Irvine Mayor Larry Agran spearheading the effort a special survey session of the Irvine City Council convened to address the risks of million pounds of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel stored in temporary canisters out in the open in an earthquake zone and just feet from the shoreline The safety threats include terrorism sea level rise earthquakes tsunamis and cannister corrosion from exposure to moist salty air Because plenty of of the fission products of nuclear reactors like Cesium- are highly radioactive and extremely long-lived spent fuel requires isolation for hundreds of thousands of years Each of San Onofre s canisters contains about one-third the Cesium- as was published during the Fukushima nuclear tragedy The canisters were not designed for long-term storage and lack methodology to monitor in real time for radiation leaks or canister degradation The nuclear waste will remain at San Onofre for the foreseeable future because of the federal cabinet s failure to create a permanent geologic repository for the nation s commercial spent fuel as mandated by law In response a few lawmakers are hoping to convince communities in Texas and New Mexico to amass the waste in consolidated interim storage facilities until a geologic repository materializes So far such efforts have been blocked by those states out of fear of becoming de facto permanent waste dumps For us living near San Onofre it is critical to understand that even if a group somewhere consented to hosting interim storage the earliest one could open would be - according to the Department of Vigor Then it could take a insufficient more decades for all of San Onofre s spent fuel to be relocated because of competition with other nuclear plants to transfer their waste too This means we should be planning for this nuclear waste to remain at San Onofre until at least Agran s opening remarks emphasized the responsibility of every level of governing body including local jurisdictions to protect its citizens He is calling on Irvine to commission the improvement of a plan to move San Onfre s spent fuel into a safer storage configuration until the federal regime can take possession of it Agran s proposal includes relocating the canisters away from the shore onto higher ground at Camp Pendleton and into a storage building both fortified to eliminate exposure to the marine habitat and disasters like earthquakes tsunamis and terrorism and equipped to repackage the waste if the canisters fail There is urgency to relocate the waste now while the canisters retain enough structural integrity to be moved Components of the proposal have been informally endorsed by several nuclear safety experts with whom I have consulted privately in working alongside Agran A prior chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Dr Gregory Jaczko topped the evaluation session s speakers list His concerns included the renewal of official permits allowing San Onofre s spent fuel to remain stored as is He supports efforts on the local level to move forward to a better interim storage remedy A presentation followed from Dr David Richardson a UC Irvine professor of environmental and occupational fitness Though he primarily researches cancer risks from radiation exposure he explained how a radiation release also greatly alters people s relationship to the setting affecting property values use of gardens and deciding where to live He has consented to assist in advancing a plan for San Onofre Dan Stetson chairman of the locality engagement panel for the decommissioning of the San Onofre plant described the panel s purpose as providing a venue for the constituents to engage in what are often spirited discussions with Southern California Edison He stressed that the company and the population are both focused on the safe storage of the fuel and its prompt removal The panel s fix however is finding communities to host interim storage The final presenters were representatives of Southern California Edison Frederic Bailly the chief nuclear officer and Manuel Camargo the principal manager of decommissioning Bailly explained Edison s view that the spent fuel storage is safe where it is and that there is no credible scenario that could product in the release of radiological material beyond the site Camargo however stressed the company s energetic advocacy of getting the spent fuel offsite and explained that amendments to existing law would be necessary to make way for interim storage About members of the constituents filled the council chambers The commentors from the society were unanimous in voicing concerns about leaving the spent fuel as is The session closed with poignant testimony from Councilmember Mike Carroll who recounted his personal experience in exposing biohazardous administration research in New York which resulted in the shutdown of a laboratory He enumerated various shortcomings he sees in how San Onofre s spent fuel is currently stored A council vote on Agran s proposal will take place soon His hope is that with Irvine taking the lead other jurisdictions in Orange and San Diego Counties will join in to keep everyone in Southern California safe Sarah Mosko is a trained neuroscientist and psychologist who enjoys researching and writing about environmental problems and solutions She resides in Laguna Beach