By Bart Ziegler
When announcing that the Biden administration has committed $26 million to search for sites to store the nation’s nuclear waste, U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm raised more questions than answers.
During a press conference June 9 at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, Granholm said the money would fund a national search to find communities willing to store spent nuclear fuel, including the 3.6 million pounds of deadly waste stored at SONGS.
She didn’t say where the storage sites might be. So far, governors from New Mexico and Texas have said no.
We wonder how the waste would travel great distances to arrive at the so-called consolidated interim storage sites and how the transportation would impact communities along the way.
The DOE estimates it could take 15 years to open the interim sites.
What does that mean for the permanent disposition of 89,000 metric tons of spent fuel piled up in 35 states? Will the federal government deliver on its obligation to open a permanent repository during our lifetimes?
Given the extraordinary challenges of dealing with radioactive waste, which can remain deadly for hundreds of thousands of years, why does the federal government continue to support nuclear energy development?
While Granholm’s speech covered the What — that’s the easy question — we continue to puzzle over the Who, When, Where and, in the case of continued reliance on nuclear energy, the Why.
During the press briefing, we appreciate the remarks and consistently strong advocacy of Rep. Mike Levin.
“We finally have a plan when it comes to spent nuclear fuel across the United States,” Levin said. “Now we’ve got to execute on that plan.”
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Ten years ago this month, a booming chorus of collaborators demanded that Southern California Edison retire the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station for good.
Fraught with mechanical problems and a radioactive leak, the reactors had not generated electricity for nearly 18 months.
In June 2013 at the San Diego County Administration Center, the Samuel Lawrence Foundation organized talks to call for the plant’s closure.
The talks included former Prime Minister Naoto Kan of Japan, who led the country during the Fukushima nuclear disaster.Â
Days after the meeting, Southern California Edison announced SONGS would close permanently.
Since then, our organization has pivoted to rally the community and pressure the utility and government officials to deal with the radioactive waste produced by nearly 50 years of operations.
The spent nuclear fuel, 3.6 million pounds of it, is stranded 100 feet from the ocean.
SONGS is halfway through an eight-year, $4.5 billion decommissioning program that calls for the waste to stay behind after the last of the plant is demolished and hauled away.
While the federal government is promising action, no one knows how long the radioactive material will remain at the water’s edge.
We’ll keep the pressure on, just like we did in 2013.
Learn more at samuellawrencefoundation.org.
Bart Ziegler is president of the Samuel Lawrence Foundation.
