San Clemente City Council unanimously passed Resolution 13-53 regarding the urgency of removing the dangerous nuclear waste from San Onofre, based on geographic conditions and dense population. The resolution was submitted as a comment to the NRC Waste Confidence Generic Environment Impact Statement (GEIS). The NRC GEIS concludes it is safe to store the tons of nuclear waste at all nuclear plants indefinitely.

The city also sent a letter to the NRC requesting an extension of the deadline for GEIS comments to February 28, 2014 and sent letters to cities within 20 miles, asking them to support the same action.

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Please attend Tuesday’s 6:00 p.m. San Clemente City Council meeting to support the city taking a more active role in ensuring the safe storage and transport of San Onofre’s tons of nuclear waste.

The City Council will vote on whether to approve Resolution No. 13-53 regarding the City’s position on San Onofre nuclear waste and decommissioning.  It includes concerns about the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) that makes the outrageous claim it is safe to store nuclear waste at San Onofre (and all other U.S. nuclear plants) for hundreds of years or indefinitely.

The NRC GEIS concludes it’s safe to store nuclear waste on site indefinitely, even though the NRC currently will not approve transportation casks for “high burnup” nuclear waste and will not approve dry cask storage of high burnup nuclear waste for more than 20 years.  

Southern California Edison chose to use high burnup nuclear fuel because it made them more profits, yet it made us less safe, with no containers deemed safe enough to store the waste even short-term (over 20 years).

NRC photo

NRC engineers, such as Dr. Robert E. Einziger, and other experts say high burnup fuel is proving unstable and unpredictable. There is evidence high burnup nuclear fuel waste can cause the protective cladding around the enriched uranium fuel to become brittle, making it fragile and subject to shattering.  If it shatters, it can release dangerous levels of radiation into the environment. The industry has no technology to monitor nuclear waste inside the containers, so by the time they know there is a problem, it may be too late.

Some of the high burnup waste is so hot and radioactive, it can require a minimum of 20 years to cool in spent fuel pools.

The years of cooling depend on how long the fuel was burned in the reactor and the level of uranium enrichment. A recent Department of Energy (DOE) report (Table 7) shows San Onofre has high burnup fuel of 68 GWd/MTU (or 67,676 MWd/MTU) with a maximum uranium enrichment of 4.08%. This means the fuel would need to cool a minimum of 20 years.  See Table 2.12 of technical specifications for NUHOMS® 24PT4-DSC. Note: If Edison has a current inventory report that differs from this DOE information, we encourage them to share it with the public. 

See details at https://sanonofresafety.org/nuclear-waste/

Just showing up at this city council meeting will say a lot! The City Council needs to know how important this issue is to our citizens.

Special guest speaker:  For 26 years he managed the production of dry casks at San Onofre and now says, “We’ve got to get this waste the hell out of here!”  Storing the waste in an earthquake and tsunami zone is too dangerous.  And the salt air is corroding the metals of the stainless steel nuclear waste storage containers. 

How much waste is at San Onofre?

In the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, over 350,000 people were evacuated. An area the size of New Jersey remains contaminated.

San Onofre contains 89 times the amount of radiation (Cesium-137) released from Chernobyl.  See Robert Alvarez June 2013 San Onofre report.

Agenda: 12/17/2013 City Council Meeting Agenda

Agenda Item 9.B. City’s Position on Various Issues Relating to San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) (Pages 9B-1 through 9B-55)

Report from the Public Works Director/City Engineer concerning the City’s position on various issues relating to the pending closure of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).

Staff Recommendation

1. Adopt Resolution No. 13-53 entitled A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SAN CLEMENTE, CALIFORNIA, DECLARING THE CITY’S POSITION ON VARIOUS ISSUES RELATING TO THE PENDING CLOSURE OF THE SAN ONOFRE NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION (SONGS).

2. Authorize staff to send the letters contained in the Administrative Report, dated December 17, 2013, to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), our local Legislators, and the Cities of San Juan Capistrano, Oceanside, and Dana Point.

 City Website: Check the San Clemente City Council website for updates and details.

For government and scientific facts about nuclear waste (spent nuclear fuel), including the San Onofre nuclear waste, go to https://sanonofresafety.org/nuclear-waste/

The public can send comments directly to the NRC about the Waste Confidence GEIS

Comments are due by 12/20/2013. See the NRC Waste Confidence website.  All comments must include Docket ID No. NRC–2012–0246.