Let’s bury San Onofre’s nuclear waste at Trestles!

Words by Morgan Williamson 

The California Coastal Commission’s pissing off their coastal residents. What’s got everyone all riled up is yesterday they approved plans to bury 2,700 steel castes of spent fuel 125 feet from the sea wall at San Onofre Beach. In a state at the mercy of the San Andreas Fault (let’s not talk about the big one) it seems like better options should be available. The material according to a staff report at the San Onofre power plant is “consider high-level radioactive waste and must be stored securely for tens of thousands of years.”

Opponents on the issue say let’s send that shit to Arizona, and I’m inclined to agree with them. Between Arizona State University, dude’s in tanks and white sunglasses, sweltering heat, Sheriff Joe and ass-backward state laws (i.e: SB1070 which allows officers to stop anyone they suspect to be in the country illegally and ask for their ‘papers’ at any given time) California’s neighboring state’s value really isn’t going to depreciate from a little nuclear waste. And if we are going to bury it in the ground, which is seemingly the best option it may as well be in an area that’s not prone to flooding, earthquakes, on the coast or densely populated.

Dane Reynolds slicing a proper lowers wall. Photo: Jimmy Cane

“The federal government’s failed to design a permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel – something they’ve been working on for 20 plus years,” said Commissioner Greg Cox of San Diego. “I do have to conclude that the worst scenario is to leave this material in the spent fuel pools. That’s the worst of all alternatives out there. I wish there were other options available now. We may talk about another site out in the desert, but if that was a viable option, it would take 15, 20 years to get all the necessary approvals. We have a more immediate problem we have to deal with right now. I don’t like being in this position, but we must protect the public. I do think it’s the right thing to do at this point in time.”

The permit to bury this nuclear waste will last 20 years at which point they’re relying on Southern California Edison to essentially come up with a better idea, like moving the waste the Palo Verde nuclear power plant in Arizona. A plant that Edison happens to be a co-owner of. Or they could move it to a remote spot in the desert, they could even keep it in California, they wouldn’t have to move it that far. Anywhere east of the 5 and the 405 freeways would suffice. And while we’re at it, let’s revise this approval process. It’s silly for the approval of anything to take 15-20 years short of getting a drivers license and buying cigarettes.

One national disaster will leak all that radioactive material into the sea. However I fear our problems will be bigger than Trestles going nuclear at that point.