This Long-Closed SoCal Landmark Is Getting Demolished, Rep. Says

OCEANSIDE, CA — The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station — whose massive dome structures incited tongue-in-cheek jokes for decades — will finally be demolished, U.S. Rep. Mike Levin recently announced.

Levin (D-Carlsbad) hosted a news conference on Oct.28, where he outlined plans to remove all remaining nuclear waste from the facility.

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Full demolition will be done by the end of 2027, Levin said.

"When I convened the SONGS Task Force in 2019, there was no clear path to move nuclear waste off our coastline," Levin said in a statement. "Today, we can point to real progress at San Onofre and growing momentum at federal level."

The power plant — which is located just west of Interstate 5, north of Camp Pendleton and south of San Clemente — opened in 2918 and provided carbon-free electricity to the region before it was permanently shuttered in 2013.

However, roughly 1,600 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel remains stored at the facility in time ceramic pellets packed into large steel canisters and secured in concrete vaults, according to KTLA.

Activists have claimed that radiation is constantly seeping from the concrete vaults, KTLA reported.

SoCal Edison — which manages the plant — disputed that the storage of nuclear fuel is safe and effective, elected officials said that other risks may compromise the storage, such as rising sea levels and potential earthquakes.

"For too long, our communities have lived with the uncertainty of storing spent nuclear fuel along our coastline without a permanent solution in place," Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said. "With rising sea levels, coastal erosion and seismic risks, we cannot afford to let this issue languish."

Of San Onofre's 62 structures, 52 have already be destroyed, Levin said, and more than 700 million pounds of material have been removed.