San Onofre was the second to last plant to operate in California, but there was a minor radioactive leak that was its reason for closure back in 2012. The place has been sitting for years, but now is being taken down. The only thing that will remain will be the dry storage. The twin domes are going to be taken down in 2024-25. All the steel and concrete that makes up the plant will be assessed for radioactivity and then shipped out of state. Most of the waste will go to Utah, but the higher level stuff will go to Texas at a facility. All of this trash is going out via the railway and the non radioactive components are being thrown in landfill in Arizona and other states. The decommission cost estimate is about 4.4 billion in 2014 dollars. All of it is covered by the ratepayers who pay for power. The transfer of fuel into canisters is still going on (wet storage to dry storage) should be done transferring soon. 

I am fairly certain that I have driven past the domes before. It is weird to think that something that was decommissioned almost 9 years ago is still giving us problems today. Many of the people advocating for the use of thick-walled canisters to avert leakage don’t realize that these canisters are not licensed in the U.S. and it isn’t a simple change. I personally think nuclear is a good idea and has great potential for reaching our goals, but after listening to this, I have more questions. Is it this expensive because it is an older plant (second gen) and so it wasn’t built to be easily taken down. Will all future plants be as difficult to decommission? It’s also crazy to think that this one plant will be broken up into all of its primary materials and shipped all over the country and maybe even internationally.