This half hour interview of Paul Blanch on Facing the Future Television explains why a radioactive release at the failed beachfront nuclear waste dump at San Onofre is, in his words, “inevitable.” The current location contains 3.6 million pounds of eternally deadly radioactive “spent” nuclear fuel, stored 108 feet from the beach in a tsunami flood zone, on top of earthquake faults, in temporary canisters that…
This story is republished under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. To view the original article as it appeared in the San Clemente Times, click here. Ironically, Edison dropped its last canister of radioactive nuclear waste into the ground on the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, which occurred at 4:15pm Pacific Time, August 5th (8:15am Japanese time, August 6th). By Shawn Raymundo,…
On Christmas Eve, 2019, the California Public Utilities Commission formally refused to approve a $400 million-plus funding request from Southern California Edison, the owners of the failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The Commission action will delay SONGS funding for at least 120 days, and was issued on the same day that Public Watchdogs filed a form Advice Letter protest with the Commission. “It is our hope that the Public Utilities Commission will review SCE’s profligate spending requests in full and open public hearings,” said Charles Langley, the Public Watchdogs executive director. “The public has a right to know how the public’s money is being spent.”
Article Originally Appeared on Latimes.com By JEFF MCDONALD OCT. 10, 2019 5:57 PM Environmental activists who settled a lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission and Southern California Edison after the utility agreed to make “commercially reasonable” efforts to relocate millions of pounds of nuclear waste are now asking a judge to enforce the deal. The Citizens Oversight community group and activist Patricia Borchmann filed a motion in…
Two recent scandals confirm that public safety is not top priority of either the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) or SoCal Edison as they lurch forward with a faulty engineering design for removing spent nuclear waste from cooling pools and loading into dry storage at the now shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. According to Charles Langley, executive director of PublicWatchdogs.org, salt from the Pacific Ocean will cause the thin-walled metal cans to fail quickly …
Holtec had two violations, the NRC said: failure to establish adequate design control measures of components important to safety, and failure to perform evaluations before making changes. A base civil penalty of $36,250 was considered and rejected due to Holtec’s “prompt and comprehensive” corrective actions, which outraged some critics. “The failure by the NRC to fine Holtec for breaking the law shows that it isn’t serious about protecting the public’s safety,” said Charles Langley, executive director of Public Watchdogs, in a statement.
Owners of the failed SONGS nuclear plant have been fined for violating Federal radiation safety laws. The fine is a wrist-slap which proves the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is incapable of enforcing the laws protecting the public from future nuclear radiation accidents. The failure of the Nuclear regulatory Commission to enforce Federal safety laws, and its history of weakening existing laws portray an NRC that is a victim of regulatory capture, where formerly powerful regulators are required to kow-tow to the whims of mid-level managers at Southern California Edison.
Public Watchdogs criticizes the NRC for not “putting boots on the ground” in its recent report, and for conducting a sham inspection. Get our letter of protest explaining why it is a sham here. Preliminary NRC report finds a host of ‘deficiencies’ after incident at San Onofre nuclear plant By ROB NIKOLEWSKI OCT 20, 2018 | 11:20 AM | SAN DIEGO – republished under the Fair Use provision of U.S….
Nina Babiarz and Charles Langley of Public Watchdogs interview on KUSI news with Lauren Phinney about the eighth anniversary of the Fukushima radiation disaster that displaced 100,000 people in one of the largest evacuations in world history. Could a similar nuclear disaster happen in San Diego at the site of the failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, where millions of pounds of deadly nuclear waste — …
Public Watchdogs’ TV Commercial warns public of radiation danger DATELINE, February 25, 2019: SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – A nuclear safety watchdog group has released a new television ad that says the nuclear waste stored near the beach at San Onofre is a disaster waiting to happen. Public Watchdogs based in San Diego has a 15 second TV ad that features shots of the…
Advocacy group buys airtime to oppose San Onofre nuclear waste Jeff McDonald February 25, 2019, 4:55 PM A San Diego advocacy nonprofit began airing new TV commercials Monday to warn about the potential dangers of storing nuclear waste from the San Onofre plant at the beach. The spot opens with traffic zooming along Interstate 5, north of Oceanside, past…
The worst possible place to store nuclear waste is 108 feet from the beach at San Onofre State Beach Park Tom Elias is the only syndicated columnist (28 newspapers) that I know of who actually takes the time to understand and report on complex infrastructure issues such as San Onofre’s nuclear waste, and the possibility of storing the waste at Yucca Mountain. In this story, Will…
On August 3, 2018, a 100,000 pound thin-wall cask filled with deadly irradiated nuclear fuel got caught on a flange while being lowered into the steel-lined concrete vault of the waste storage site, known as an ISFSI (independent spent fuel storage installation). The cask got stuck on a ¼” guide ring for about an hour over an 18-foot drop.
Public Watchdogs asks “What are we paying them for?” Nuclear Regulatory Commission begins ‘special inspection’ of San Onofre nuclear station Rob Nikolewski, September 10, 2018 4:55 PM A team of five inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday began what is expected to be a five-day review of how a 45-ton canister loaded with spent nuclear fuel ended up getting suspended 18 feet from the floor…