Cities must join Irvine’s push for safe storage of San Onofre waste (Times of San Diego)

“Sept. 30, 2025, may mark the day communities in Southern California first took initiative to protect themselves from deadly nuclear waste stranded indefinitely at the decommissioned San Onofre nuclear plant.

With Irvine Mayor Larry Agran spearheading the effort, a special study session of the Irvine City Council convened to address the risks of 3.6 million pounds of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel stored in temporary canisters, out in the open, in an earthquake zone, and just 108 feet from the shoreline. The safety threats include terrorism, sea level rise, earthquakes, tsunamis, and cannister corrosion from exposure to moist, salty air.

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Agran’s proposal includes relocating the canisters away from the shore, onto higher ground at Camp Pendleton, and into a storage building both fortified to eliminate exposure to the marine environment and disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis and terrorism, and equipped to repackage the waste if the canisters fail.”

Read the full opinion published in the Times of San Diego by clicking here.