Officials push to remove nuclear waste from San Onofre as sea levels rise

Officials say they're getting closer towards removing nuclear waste from San Onofre amid the threat of rising sea levels along California's coastline. The nuclear plant, the south of San Clemente, closed in 2013. Fox 11's Rachel Aragon was on site to bring us an update. Officials in Orange County and San Diego County are looking at permanent ways to safely remove spent nuclear fuel off the Southern California coast. This comes as coastal erosion and high tides are becoming more common. In the coming months, crews are going to begin taking down the containment domes behind us. For decades, the iconic domes at the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant have served as coastal landmarks for those driving along Interstate 5. But they could be completely demolished by the end of next year, as the decommissioning of this shuttered nuclear power plant is nearing the finish line. It's time for the federal government to establish a durable path to move used nuclear fuel from sites like San Onofre to a federally designated facility. local and federal officials convened at the site Wednesday to discuss its future and zero in on a permanent solution to get the spent nuclear fuel off the Southern California coastline there's no immediate danger to the community but this site was never designed to hold spent nuclear fuel indefinitely federal leaders say one of the more encouraging developments came in July when the U.S. Department of Energy announced five states signed agreements to explore becoming host sites to store the spent nuclear fuel the other recent development we now have something called the Atlas Rail car system that's the first of its kind built to safely move spent fuel through existing commercial rail lines but one of the other motivations to move the spent nuclear fuel from the site sooner than later are the recent storms and high tides eating away at the Southern California coast we understood the hazards that would exist whether those are earthquakes as you mentioned sea level rise tsunamis Southern California Edison assuring the public that the canisters holding the spent nuclear fuel are safe and designed to stand up against mother nature it's driving the more extreme weather and we're looking out not just 10 20 but 50 years even in analyzing as sea level rises as you have tsunamis or you name the different things that the designs will withstand all of those changes and officials say the major decommissioning work at the San Onofre nuclear generating station should be complete by the end of 2028. Reporting in San Clemente, I'm Rachel Aragon, Fox 11 News.