New Times / News

Government reps worry about nuke waste

In a rare bipartisan effort, members of the state Legislature requested that a commission tasked with reviewing policies for managing nuclear waste make a stop in California.

California Sen. Sam Blakeslee, a Republican; Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian, also a Republican; and Congresswoman Lois Capps, a Democrat, sent letters to the federal Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, requesting it hold a hearing in California, given the state’s seismic issues.

“Placing radioactive waste in the presence of those forces and the examination of the potential consequences of such actions are issues we must treat with utmost care,” Capps wrote to the commission.

SLO County’s Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant and Southern California’s San Onofre power plant are undergoing a federal re-licensing review, which would produce an additional 20 years’ worth of waste, stored on-site in pools and dry casks. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ruled the waste may remain on site for up to 60 years after a plant’s closure.