nuclear-news

But after nearly half a century living with a radioactive neighbor, San Clemente is now adjusting to a future without the San Onofre nuclear power plant, whose proximity has long shaped life here in ways big and small.

Last month, Southern California Edison announced that the nuclear plant, which was closed in January 2012 when a problem with its new steam generators led to a small leak of radioactive steam, would shut down for good………..

As more of the aging nuclear reactors around the country are closed — four reactors, including the two at San Onofre, have been retired this year — more communities around the country may soon find themselves in circumstances similar to San Clemente’s. The dismantling of San Onofre’s reactors will be among the largest decommissioning of nuclear power plants in the country. Experts say it will likely take at least a decade.

But the effects of the plant’s closing are already reverberating. ………….Last week, when the power went out at Lily Tally’s home in San Clemente, she worried that erratic electricity service — especially in the summer, when demand for power is highest — would become more common. She said she and her husband were now planning to put solar panels on their house.

Still, she said she was relieved that San Onofre was closing. Interstate 5, the only road out of town, runs beside the plant’s trademark twin domes. So Ms. Tally and her husband kept their S.U.V. ready in case they needed a different escape route. They planned to drive with their two young sons through the nature preserve east of town.

“It was always in the back of my mind, especially with the earthquakes here,” Ms. Tally, 35, said. “Safety-wise, I do feel better now. …

today, attitudes toward nuclear energy in California are different. State law bans the permitting of new nuclear facilities until the federal government built a permanent disposal site for nuclear waste, which effectively amounts to a moratorium on new plants. The only other nuclear plant in the state, Diablo Canyon on the Central Coast, has also been operating since the 1980s………….

This week, the last of the nuclear fuel was removed from San Onofre’s reactors. Activists hope the state will soon be free of nuclear power. But the nuclear waste, which still remains at San Onofre, continues to concern local officials. And the federal government is no closer to establishing a national storage facility for nuclear waste than it was when San Onofre’s reactors were built.

“We still have the nuclear waste issue to address,” said Linda Donchak, a San Clemente city councilwoman. “This is not an issue unique to San Clemente. This is a national issue. The waste needs to go somewhere where it will be permanently taken care of.”

While the nuclear waste remains on-site and the plant is being decommissioned, the emergency sirens will stay in San Clemente. But for many residents, just the knowledge that the plant is no longer splitting atoms has already offered some peace of mind. Over the years, many had turned to gallows humor to quell their fears….http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/us/californians-consider-a-future-without-a-nuclear-plant-for-a-neighbor.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0