DATE:
December 9, 2025
01
TO:
Board of Supervisors
SUBJECT
Title
EXPLORE OPPORTUNITIES TO RELOCATE THE SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL AT THE DECOMMISIONED SAN ONOFRE NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION (SONGS) TO AN OFF-SITE LOCATION FOR REPROCESSING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (DISTRICTS: ALL)
Body
OVERVIEW
Throughout the United States (U.S.) there are currently 95 licensed commercial nuclear power plants (reactors) in operation, generating roughly 20% of the nation's electricity. Additionally, close to 20 commercial nuclear reactors in the U.S. have been permanently shut down and are either undergoing or have completed the decommissioning process, which includes dismantling, site cleanup, and environmental restoration. The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) located in the northwest corner of the County of San Diego (County), adjacent to San Onofre State Beach and approximately 10 miles south of the City of San Clemente, was operated from 1968 to 2013. It ceased all nuclear operations in June of 2013 due to excessive vibrations and other issues that degraded tubes in the steam generators. SONGS is currently in year five of an eight-year dismantling process of facilities and equipment at the site.
The fission process in which power is derived from a nuclear reactor (e.g., splitting uranium nuclei) produces radioactive waste, typically referred to as spent nuclear fuel (SNF). These are highly hazardous materials left over in the fuel assemblies from the fission reactions that took place in the core of the reactor. To protect the public and the environment from radiological contamination and minimize the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation, these materials must be stored extremely carefully and with the highest-level security. To ensure the proper and safe long-term storage of the nation's SNF it must ultimately be relocated to a deep geological repository (repository) several hundreds of meters below the Earth's surface. Such a facility would provide a stable,...
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