Drive down the I-5 between San Diego and Los Angeles, and you can’t miss them. Two massive, smooth concrete hemispheres sitting right on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. To some, they look like giant "boobs" in the sand—a joke that’s been around since the 1960s. To others, the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant (SONGS) is a cautionary tale about engineering hubris, environmental litigation, and the terrifyingly long tail of nuclear waste disposal.
It’s quiet now. No humming turbines. No steam.
But the silence is deceptive. Even though the plant stopped generating electricity over a decade ago, it remains one of the most contentious 84-acre patches of dirt in California. You’ve got millions of pounds of radioactive spent fuel sitting just feet away from a rising tide and a major fault line. It’s a situation that makes people nervous, and honestly, rightfully so.
What Really Killed San Onofre?
Most people think a meltdown happened. Or an earthquake. Actually, it was much more boring—and much more expensive. It was a plumbing problem.
Back in the mid-2000s, Southern California Edison (SCE) decided to replace the steam generators in Units 2 and 3. These are massive components, basically the heart of the heat exchange system. They spent roughly $670 million on new ones designed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The goal was to keep the plant running for another few decades.
It didn't work.
In January 2012, a tiny leak was detected in a tube in Unit 3. When engineers opened things up, they found something shocking. The tubes were vibrating against each other and wearing thin. This wasn't supposed to happen for 30 years. It was happening in less than two. The design was fundamentally flawed.
The "vibration-induced wear" was so severe that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) stepped in. After eighteen months of legal bickering, protests from groups like Friends of the Earth, and skyrocketing repair estimates, SCE threw in the towel. They retired the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant for good in June 2013.
The 3.6 Million Pound Elephant in the Room
Getting rid of a nuclear plant isn't like tearing down an old shopping mall. You don't just bring in a wrecking ball and call it a day.
The biggest headache is the "spent" fuel.
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Inside those domes were uranium fuel rods. Even though they can no longer sustain a chain reaction to power a city, they are still incredibly hot and lethally radioactive. For years, these rods sat in deep cooling pools. But pools require active power and pumping to keep the water from boiling off. That’s a risk.
So, the plan shifted to "Dry Cask Storage."
Essentially, they put the waste into stainless steel canisters, which are then lowered into a massive concrete monolithic structure called the Holtec HI-STORM UMAX system. It's basically an underground honeycomb of steel and concrete. Right now, there are 123 of these canisters sitting on the beach.
Total weight? About 3.6 million pounds of nuclear waste.
Critics, including the San Onofre Safety organization led by Donna Gilmore, argue that these canisters are too thin. They worry about "stress corrosion cracking" caused by the salt air. If a canister cracks, you can't exactly patch it with duct tape.
Why not just move it?
That’s the trillion-dollar question. There is nowhere for it to go.
The federal government was supposed to build a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Political infighting killed that. Then there were talks about "consolidated interim storage" in New Mexico or Texas. Those states aren't exactly rolling out the red welcome mat for California’s nuclear leftovers.
So, for the foreseeable future, the waste stays at San Onofre. It’s a "de facto" high-level waste dump on a beach, in a subduction zone, next to a freeway that 150,000 cars travel every day.
The Dismantling Process: A Slow-Motion Demolition
If you pass the site today, you'll see cranes. Lots of them.
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The decommissioning of the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant is a multi-billion dollar project managed by Songs Decommissioning Solutions (a joint venture between AECOM and EnergySolutions). They are literally cutting the plant into pieces.
The "internals" of the reactors—the highly radioactive metal parts—are being cut up underwater using remote-controlled tools. These pieces are then shipped by rail to a disposal facility in Clive, Utah.
The domes themselves? Those will eventually come down. But it’s not happening tomorrow.
The current schedule suggests that the major structural demolition won't be finished until around 2028 or 2030. Even then, the "North Jetty" and the cooling inlets will remain. And, of course, the waste storage pad will stay guarded by armed security and monitored by radiation sensors until the federal government figures out a permanent solution.
Environmental Irony and the Grid Gap
There is a weird irony here that climate scientists often point out.
When San Onofre went offline, California lost about 2,200 megawatts of carbon-free baseload power. That’s enough to power 1.4 million homes. To fill that gap, the state had to rely more heavily on natural gas plants. In the year following the shutdown, California’s carbon emissions actually went up.
It’s a tension that defines the current energy debate.
- Nuclear is carbon-free but produces permanent waste.
- Natural gas is reliable but warms the planet.
- Solar and wind are clean but don't work at 2:00 AM when the wind stops blowing.
Groups like the Surfrider Foundation have a complicated relationship with the site. On one hand, they want the waste off the beach. On the other, the "bubble" of restricted water around the plant actually created a sort of accidental marine sanctuary for decades because fishing and boating were restricted.
Misconceptions You’ve Probably Heard
You'll hear people say the plant is "leaking into the ocean."
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Technically, the plant is allowed to "batch release" treated wastewater. This water is processed to remove most radioactive isotopes, though it still contains Tritium (a radioactive isotope of hydrogen). These releases are regulated by the NRC and monitored. While groups like Public & Environmental Health Examination (PEHE) raise alarms about the cumulative effects of Tritium, the official stance from the California Coastal Commission is that these releases meet safety standards.
Another one? "The plant is on a fault line that will cause a Fukushima-style disaster."
It’s true that the Christianitos fault is nearby. However, San Onofre was built to withstand a 7.0 magnitude earthquake directly beneath it. The Fukushima disaster was primarily caused by the tsunami flooding the backup generators, not the shaking itself. San Onofre’s seawall was reinforced, but since the plant is no longer operating, the risk of a "meltdown" is effectively zero. There is no active reactor core to melt. The risk now is purely about the integrity of the storage canisters.
What Happens Next?
The future of the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant site is a waiting game.
Southern California Edison is legally required to return the land to the U.S. Navy (the actual owners of the land, which is part of Camp Pendleton) once the decommissioning is complete. But the Navy doesn't want it back until the nuclear waste is gone.
Since the waste isn't going anywhere soon, we are looking at a "stalled" landscape.
The domes will vanish. The skyline will change. The surfers at Trestles—the world-famous break just a stone's throw from the reactors—will eventually have a clear view of the bluffs again. But underneath the sand and behind the fences, the legacy of the atomic age will remain.
How to Stay Informed and Take Action
If you live in Orange County or San Diego, this isn't just an engineering curiosity. It’s your backyard.
- Monitor the Radiation Levels: You don't have to take the utility’s word for it. The C-10 Research and Education Foundation and other independent bodies often track sensor data. SCE also maintains a public-facing "Decommissioning" website with real-time updates on canister loading and site work.
- Support Federal Legislation: The only way the waste leaves San Onofre is through an act of Congress. Look into the "STRANDED Act" (Stimulating Transitional Resources for Communities with Abandoned Nuclear Facilities). It aims to provide compensation to communities stuck with "interim" waste.
- Attend Community Engagement Panel (CEP) Meetings: These are held quarterly. They are often dry, technical, and full of acronyms, but they are the only place where the public can grill SCE executives and Holtec engineers directly.
- Understand the Tsunami Maps: If you live in a coastal zone, check the updated inundation maps from the California Geological Survey. Even without an active reactor, knowing the evacuation routes for San Clemente and Oceanside is just basic common sense for any coastal resident.
The story of San Onofre is far from over. It’s just moving into a slower, quieter, and much more expensive chapter.