Nuclear Waste: San Onofre’s Heavy Lament By Jerry Collamer

Southern California residents are right to worry about the storage of “spent” fuel-rods at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), as Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi melts-thru to god knows where. To what horrific end, no one can predict. Fukushima is classified: worst industrial accident in the world – ever. Ever? And just because it’s not reported on the news 24-7, doesn’t mean Japan’s nuclear horror-show is over. It will never be over. Nuclear meltdowns don’t end.

Industrial Accident Risk: The New Worst

Worse yet – Fukushima is now a global disaster, on a scale far worse than Chernobyl.

Could SONGS become the next new worst?

Residents complaining in local papers rightly want SONGS’ 4,000-tons of forever-hot nuke waste (with 500lbs added daily) moved. But that’s not going to happen, ever. According to Fed-regulations, everything stays put at all 104 US nuke plants. Forever “hot” and forever “here.”

The “spent” fuel rod tonnage stored at Fukushima is the fundamental flaw, causing the ongoing nuclear catastrophe, triggered by a mega-earthquake, closely followed by a society ending tsunami, overwhelming the plant and a large swath of northern Japan. Like the region surrounding Chernobyl, Fukushima’s over-radiated landscape will remain uninhabitable.

Equal, if not of greater concern: the water table contamination there, and the ocean ecosystem, as radiation levels soar to unimaginable numbers Fuku’s “melt-thru” flows unrestrained and too hot to handle. Commenting residents here know full well, the same deadly ingredients in Japan’s colossal mishap exist here: big earthquake predicted / Tsunami zone (we’re in it) – an old nuke plant (SONGS) with a troubled workplace record / filled to overcapacity with ‘spent’ fuel tonnage, that’s not going anywhere but bad when the big one hits.

And it will hit. Will it hit exactly here? Does it have to?

Or, will a rumbling, tumbling, shock wave roll thru from elsewhere unleashing SONGS unholy terror.

What Edison must do now? STOP EVERYTHING. Shut SONGS. Then at least we stop producing 500lbs more a day of “spent fuel rod” poison. If SONGS halted operation today, no one would notice. It only produces 7.5% of Cal’s electricity. 7.5%, that’s all. If that. Not 50%. Not 25%. Not 15%. But a measly 7.5%.

We can save that much electricity by turning out a few lights at home. Google Fukushima. See how they’re doing over there. Then you’ll be as worried as our residents living here in San Clemente, in the shadow of SONGS. Mother Nature has sent us ample warning. This is California. Home to big, ugly quakes.
This debate is as serious, as serious gets.

Let’s Shut SONGS and Save San Clemente and Southern California NOW. What are we waiting for? Our own Fukushima – here? Someone voiced at last city council meeting, “How’s your property values San Clemente?” After “melt-down” – less than zero.