San Clemente, Calif., Mayor Tim Brown has invited Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) to visit the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Plant (SONGS).
In a Feb. 7 letter to the lawmaker, posted this week on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission website, Brown said a visit by Harris “could result in sharpened policy push to recognize communities near nuclear stations that bear an elevated level of risk and this requires remedy.”
The San Diego County plant closed permanently in 2013, the year after it halted operations due to faulty steam generators installed in its two remaining active reactors. Majority owner Southern California Edison is transferring spent fuel from the two reactors to on-site dry storage. In total, including used fuel from a reactor that closed in 1992, about 3.5 million pounds of waste will remain in storage near the Pacific coast.
In an August 2017 settlement for a lawsuit against the waste storage plan, Southern California Edison agreed to take steps to find an off-site location for the used fuel. Ultimately, the Department of Energy is required to place the material in a permanent repository.
“Since DOE has failed to address their lawful obligations to create a permanent spent nuclear fuel repository or develop any other solution, Southern California and San Clemente, by default, have become a permanent waste repository,” Brown wrote. “This outcome ·is unacceptable to our residents and if demands remedy.”
SONGS is about 6 miles from San Clemente.
Brown noted that Harris’ staff has visited SONGS “and made themselves available” to work on the matter. His office said Harris had not as of Monday responded to the letter. Harris’ office could not be reached for comment this week.
In February, Harris introduced legislation that would prohibit the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from issuing safety and emergency preparedness exemptions while a nuclear power plant retains spent fuel in its reactor or cooling pool. The measure has been referred to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
