FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Public Watchdogs Resets Nuclear Countdown Clock.
The beachfront burial of nuclear waste equivalent to 700 nuclear warheads at San Onofre State Beach has been delayed until March, 2018.
Contact: Charles Langley (858) 752-4600
Today, the non-profit Public Watchdogs announced that it has reset its nuclear countdown clock for the internment of deadly radioactive waste on the beach at San Onofre.
According to the revised official schedule, Southern California Edison, the owner of millions of pounds of high level spent nuclear fuel, has delayed the internment of the nuclear waste on the beach at San Onofre State Park until the first quarter of 2018.
The waste, which is deadly toxic to humans for at least 250,000 years, will be stored in 5/8″ thick steel drums weighing up to 500,000 pounds. Each steel drum has a design life of 60 years, and is guaranteed by the manufacturer to last from 10 to 25 years.
The contents of the “dry casks” are currently being stored underwater in a spent fuel pool. The radioactive cesium in the spent fuel pool is the equivalent of more than 700 nuclear warheads.
8.5 million Californians live within the 50-mile plume radius for a nuclear disaster as defined by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The clock, which has been widely monitored by the media and Southern California policy makers, was originally set for an internment date of March 21, 2017. The date was based on statements made by Edison and confirmed by the California Energy Commission.
The new burial date is set for Saturday, January 13, 2018, and is based on public announcements by Southern California Edison.
According to Charles Langley, the executive director of Public Watchdogs, “This delay in the burial is a temporary reprieve.”
According to the dictionary, a reprieve is “the postponement of a death sentence.”
In related news, local Congressman, Darrel Issa, has announced that he is co-sponsoring the Interim Consolidated Storage Act for nuclear waste with Texas Congressman Mike Conaway (R-Texas). Conaway represents the 11th Congressional district which includes more than 30 sparsely populated counties in a broad swath of land covering mid-central Texas.
Movement of the waste is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Energy (DOE). President Donald Trump recently appointed Texan Rick Perry to head up the Department of Energy. Curiously, Perry recommended destroying the Department of Energy before he took office. The Department of Energy is budgeted to spend more than $19 billion on nuclear nuclear waste in 2017 (60% of the DOE’s budget.