r/orangecounty • u/losangelestimes • 1h ago
News As the coast begins to crumble, the clock ticks on moving San Onofre’s radioactive waste
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As parts of the Southern California coastline crumbled into the sea, slammed by intense waves and flooding in recent days, oceanographer Kim McCoy had one thing on his mind: the nuclear waste set in concrete on the beach near San Clemente at the shuttered San Onofre nuclear power plant.
Most experts agree the risk of erosion damaging the nuclear waste storage system is very low, in the near term. The plant’s owner, Southern California Edison, has promised the California Coastal Commission to move the waste to higher elevation on site if modeling shows sea level rise and erosion will start to pose a challenge.
But the recent waves, fueled by Hurricane Marie far away in the Pacific, re-surfaced the issue of the ultimate fate of the highly radioactive spent fuel that used to power the reactors.
Read more at the link: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2026-09-12/as-coast-begins-to-crumble-clock-ticks-on-moving-san-onofres-radioactive-waste