The San Onofre nuclear plant that is located on the California coast has been described as the next Fukushima disaster that's waiting to happen. That's because there are millions of pounds of nuclear waste being buried underground at the site, only 100 feet from the ocean.

That nuclear waste might never be moved.

There were suggestions that inevitably those canisters filled with radioactive waste might be moved to New Mexico or Texas, but some are now questioning whether or not that will ever happen. And there are risks to consider with the canisters being so close to the ocean.

“If you are involved with high-level nuclear waste disposal, the first thing you think of is to keep it away from water, because the water allows the radionuclides to spread through the environment, causing all sorts of havoc, wrecking ecosystems, cancer, etc.,” - T. English.

Recently, lawmakers suggested that legislation (their “Spent Fuel Prioritization Bill) would be introduced to speed up the process of having that waste moved to a different location and there will be many who are glad to see that goal eventually achieved, if ever.

The group Public Watchdogs have reportedly labeled the waste site as a little more than a complete failure at this point.

Lawmakers have insisted that removing this waste should be a top priority at the moment for the federal government, but there allegedly isn't any such federal waste facility within the United States that's suitable for them to move it to. Considering the challenges, they anticipate that it could take at least a decade or more to accomplish the task and move it to a permanent location.

As for the location where the waste is currently being stored, it's estimated that more than 8 million people are living within a 50 mile radius. Those behind the clean-up project have insisted that the loaded canisters however, containing the 3+ million tons of nuclear waste, don't pose any risk to safety or public health.

As for the current storage conditions of that waste, it's been reported that the company tasked to produce those canisters that would hold the waste, redesigned the canisters without permission, and the watchdog group has criticized that they didn't receive proper oversight from the government in submitting those changes and as a result might have put the public at risk.

A Multi-Billion Dollar Clean Up

A US Dep. Of Energy fund has been established that's been accumulating interest each year, more than $1 billion annually, which now holds more than $43 billion and that's supposed to go toward the disposal of the waste.
Lawmakers have recently asked the government to fund their initiatives to try and remove that waste from the San Onofre station, they're asking for at least $25 million in federal funding. It still doesn't change the problem however of them allegedly not having a suitable permanent location to store that material.

However, they might be able to come up with something as it's been suggested that the Yucca Mountain that's located in Nevada could end-up being the final resting place for the waste if they can ever get it moved. The Yucca Mountain already has a nuclear waste repository, but Nevada lawmakers aren't happy about the plans and they've asked the government to stop trying to move the waste to that site.

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