SONGS and its Leftovers

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Editor,

The saga of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) is getting yet one more replay in the Jan. 8 issue of The Indy thanks to Marni Magda, another card-carrying member of C.R.A.P. (the Coming Radiation Armageddon Prophets).

Now that SONGS is shut down (not because it posed any imminent or future danger of turning into a mushroom cloud but because of technical bungles in the design of steam generators too expensive to fix) the C.R.A.P. members have taken to blithering about the used reactor fuel.

Taking turns at public jabber about the remnants of nuclear fuel being stored at the SONGS site are such undoubtedly worthy citizens as Ms. Magda, Audrey Prosser, Verna Rollinger, Dr. Roger Johnson, Bob Whalen, Rita Conn, Alan Boinus, Helen Caldicott, Elsa Breezy, Donna Gilmore and Larry Agran, all bent on creating worries, not solutions.

Not one of them ever makes reasonable proposals as to what to do with the stored waste; just that it must be moved. Moved where?

You might recall the odd news about the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository project. The reality there is that after spending billions upon billions of dollars on investigations of that site and on making preparations for eventual long-term storage of high-level nuclear waste, our muddleheaded and dysfunctional Congress fell for the political caterwaulings by the very Honorable Harry Reid (aided and abetted by his bosom buddy Gregory Jaczko) and killed the entire project.

So, now you have not only paid for a shuttered tunnel complex, but since Congress welched on the promise to have a permanent repository for nuclear waste, you are also paying additional billions upon billions to sundry utilities for breach of contract. Ultimate result: the U.S. has no foreseeably available long-term nuclear waste storage facilities, and SONGS and other nuclear power plants must store the used fuel on-site, goodness knows for how long.

Are all those tons of spent nuclear fuel dangerous? Of course. Are bicycles dangerous? Around 900 bicycle-related deaths happen annually. But, to date, in over 50 years of operation of US nuclear power plants, no person died from or was harmed by radiation related to those plants (same as at Fukushima) or their used fuel. Better safety record than riding a bicycle.

Yes, hopefully sooner than later the U.S. will rise to the occasion and create reasonable long-term nuclear waste storage sites.

 

Mindaugas E. Gedgaudas,

Newhall, Calif.

 

Physicist Mindaugas E. Gedgaudas is the founder and former owner of Pacoima’s Arc Machines Inc., which specializes in welding equipment used in nuclear power plants. He divides his time between Laguna Beach and Newhall.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. I personally question the intent of your letter. There is no reason to criticize political activists when their represenatives fail or stumble on their follow through. The only way for a political process to work is through practice, and through practice make mistakes.

    I would advise against using Fukushima as an example because that is what galvanized our fears against nuclear energy.
    The bicycle analogy is a abstract comparison in that bicyclist choose to endanger their mortality with little effect upon their immediate environment.

    It is obvious your discontent lies in process and red tape.
    I agree government bureaucracy closes more jobs than they open.
    In being specialized you limit your resources for opportunity.
    In your profession there are great opportunities if you just use your talent in the markets that are open not ruminant lost opportunity.
    As I am sure you are aware this situation is not just a local trend.

    “Terry Thornsley” was a structural engineer and gifted artist, I never heard him much complain.

    The wish the best of luck to you.

  2. Considering the fact that the spent fuel pool at SONGS is within shoulder-launched weapons from both highway and ocean, I’d say that situation is an attack waiting to happen.

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