San Clemente will seek audience with senator over burial of radioactive waste

SAN CLEMENTE The City Council will ask U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris to come to town, hear residents’ safety concerns and view where Southern California Edison is preparing to bury radioactive waste beside the ocean south of San Clemente.

A group of concerned Southern California residents spoke at a Jan. 16 City Council meeting at the request of San Clemente Green, whose leader Gary Headrick asked the council to request the senator’s visit.

“By default, we have become a nuclear waste site against our will and certainly without our consent,” Headrick said, quoting a letter he had drafted. “It is incumbent upon the U.S. government to address our needs completely, not only protecting our health and welfare by every means possible but also to ensure the value of all we own until the last canister is removed from our midst.”

Edison’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station was retired in 2013 due to problems with leaky steam generators. Edison is decommissioning the plant and has no off-site place to store 3.6 million pounds of radioactive waste, since the federal government has failed in 40 years to provide a promised repository in some remote location. Federal legislation is needed for that, officials said.

Councilwoman Lori Donchak said that she and Dana Point Councilwoman Debra Lewis already met with Harris’ staff to request a visit to south county. Donchak said she would be fine with sending a city letter conveying residents’ concerns about waste burial by the sea.

“We haven’t had a senatorial visit since 2012,” Donchak said. “I’m not sure what the letter would look like, but I think it’s definitely time for us to speak up, given the timing of the pools to dry cask.”

Edison stores San Onofre’s spent radioactive fuel in ponds until it becomes cool enough to be placed into dry casks and buried. Edison has secured approvals from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the California Coastal Commission on a burial plan and is preparing to begin burying the first increments of its radioactive plutonium and uranium.

Eleven speakers asked the City Council to seek federal intervention through a visit with Harris. Speakers complained that Edison’s containment system is risky and should be replaced, that burial shouldn’t be by the sea, that leakage would pose a danger to people over a wide area of Southern California.

“The issue is larger than San Clemente and it’s larger than Orange County or San Diego County,” said Torgen Johnson, who drove from Solana Beach to address the council. “We know that 30 miles to 50 miles away is really in our backyard.”

Council members agreed to direct city staff to draft a letter to Harris. Donchak said it is important for Harris to visit San Onofre and see how close the storage site is to the beach and the ocean.