Federal lawsuit aims to halt burial of deadly nuclear waste on beach
Complaint seeks to prevent beachfront burial of waste deadly to all life for at least 250,000 years.
GET THE COMPLAINT
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Today, Public Watchdogs announced that it is suing the United States Department of Defense, the U.S. Navy, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric on the grounds that the defendants lack the legal authority to bury nuclear waste on the beach at San Onofre State Beach Park.
The lawsuit, which was filed by environmental lawyer Cory Briggs of the Briggs Law Corporation on behalf of the nonprofit consumer protection group, Public Watchdogs, seeks a court injunction to prevent Southern California Edison’s December, 2017 burial of millions of pounds of deadly high- level nuclear waste. Edison intends to bury the lethal waste 108 feet from one of America’s most cherished surfing and swimming beaches. The waste is deadly for millions of years, but under the current plan, it will be stored in a system that is only warranted to last ten years (get a copy of the warranty).
Once completed, the San Onofre Beachfront Nuclear Waste Dump will be the largest privately operated high-level waste dump in the United States. Edison’s new dump is located in a tsunami inundation zone, on top of an earthquake fault line, and in the center of one of the most densely populated regions in the USA. Its proximity to the LOSSAN rail corridor, the second busiest in the country, and Interstate 5 also poses unprecedented regional economic risk.
Southern California Edison’s plans to bury the waste were recently accelerated after a lawsuit designed to revoke the permit resulted in a secretly negotiated out-of-court settlement.
A countdown clock showing the estimated date of burial is at the plaintiff’s web site at www.publicwatchdogs.org
GET THE COMPLAINT
For background or to arrange interviews, contact Charles Langley (858) 752-4600
Please do not bury nuclear derived waste in the vicinity of one of the most utilized and test pristine coastal areas between Los Angeles, Orange, and San diego counties. This is not sustainable and could endanger wildlife as well as public health and safety.
We can not bury it on this beach. These canisters will not be inspected for cracks , nor will they last very long. It’s a radiological disaster waiting to happen. Areva makes thick walled canisters that survived the Fukushima tsunami / nuclear disaster. They were just about the only things that held up. They are made stronger and thicker than the cheap ones we have now.
With the US Steel industry poised for a comeback, it might be time to challenge an American company to design the best container with the same properties as the kind that the experts are recommending be used. See sanonofresafety.org for more on the container issues. The closing of Diablo Canyon is on the horizon too, so the Steel Industry would be plenty busy if someone decided to go into the nuke waste storage business. Let’s face facts. Yucca Mountain might never happen. Many nuclear power plants like Pilgrim in Cape Cod and Indian Point in NYC will need new containers sooner rather than later. So let’s make the thick steel canisters priority #1 and get it in writing from Edison that they will pay to transfer San O’s nuclear waste from the Holtec canisters into thicker and far superior quality canisters once they are made. This stuff stays dangerous and hot for decades, so there will be plenty of jobs to go around.
I can understand why Charles Langley is upset here. The Coastal Commission really has no right to authorize a nuclear waste dump’s location. The seaside cliff will fall into the ocean and kill everything that is left of our commercial fishing industry if we do this project on the cheap. Edison wants to bury it and walk away. Seeing how their stock is rebounding, it has probably been done already. The local fishermen and seafood suppliers should let the Governor know how they feel about this. How are people going to run their Sushi bars if we have no fish in the sea? You never know when San Onofre’s property might fall into the abyss. One earthquake is all it would take. We have an obligation to our children and grandchildren who will live in this area long after we are gone to make some top rate canisters for the toxic mess they will inherit from the utility companies that made money creating it. That is who should be made to pay the costs. Shareholders, the top 10 shareholders not the employees who are offered ” clawback incentive pay” whatever the heck that means. I was reading the bylaws. Unless someone hacked my newsfeed, there actually is something called ” Clawback policy incentives” Are those the guys in the white van who drive by with their mini EMP device? Inquiring minds want to know.