King tide waves crash into SONGS
Gary Headrick
A King tide at San Onofre causes additional damage to the front seawall adjacent to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) at San Onofre State Beach in San Diego County, California.
Another deadly hurricane season is upon us. What if it went nuclear?
Hurricane’s Warning: From Petit-Goâve to San Onofre
The deadly, catastrophic forces of nature offer stark lessons in the fragility of infrastructure, lessons brutally reinforced by Hurricane Melissa. The Category 5 tore through the Caribbean, leaving a trail of destruction the likes of which the island of Jamaica has never known. In its first hours, Melissa took in and spat out anything in its 185 mph path. It next entered Haiti, where almost instantly, 25 lives were lost in the coastal town of Petit-Goâve, where the La Digue river burst its banks, sweeping through the streets without warning. First reports were slow to come out of Jamaica, where the hurricane was a powerful reminder of the island’s energy vulnerability, knocking out power to over half a million customers on a grid still heavily reliant on imported fossil fuels. Although Jamaica has a history of nuclear research and has recently flirted with the idea of small nuclear reactors for energy independence, these natural disasters underscore the need for resilient power—a requirement that brings the discussion back to the long-term dangers of nuclear technology when faced with nature’s fury.
Small town sits idle in flooding aftermath
An aerial view of a small town in the aftermath of a devastating flood. Mud, rocks, and debris litter the affected hillside.
Small town sits idle in flooding aftermath
An aerial view of a small town in the aftermath of a devastating flood. Mud, rocks, and debris litter the affected hillside.
Close-up of a corroded nuclear waste canister
Close-up of a corroded nuclear waste canister, illustrating the risks associated with high-level nuclear waste storage at decommissioned sites like the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and other facilities worldwide
Close-up of a corroded nuclear waste canister
Close-up of a corroded nuclear waste canister, illustrating the risks associated with high-level nuclear waste storage at decommissioned sites like the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and other facilities worldwide
The Coastal Threat: San Onofre’s Buried Crisis
The intersection of extreme weather and nuclear risk finds its clearest example on the coast of California at the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). Despite the plant's decommissioning, the site now serves as a precarious, de facto burial ground for 3.6 million pounds of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel. This waste, deadly for millennia, is stored in thin-walled canisters mere feet from the Pacific Ocean, exposed to seismic hazards, potential tsunamis, and corrosive salty air. This unacceptable reality fuels a nationwide movement led by the Samuel Lawrence Foundation (SLF), the generally recognized main non-profit dedicated to demanding that the nuclear waste issue be solved. SLF acts as a persistent community and scientific voice, tirelessly releasing white papers, holding “Paddle Out for Peace” events and lobbying officials to highlight the imminent danger posed by this coastal storage. Their mission is a safety movement that no political group publicly opposes, yet it lacks any sense of urgency in politics, from either side of the aisle.
High tide hits SONGS at Dog Patch
Diane Edmonds
Waves hit SONGS at high tide at Dog Patch, a surf spot in San Diego County, California.
High tide hits SONGS at Dog Patch
Diane Edmonds
Waves hit SONGS at high tide at Dog Patch, a surf spot in San Diego County, California.
San Onofre (SONGS) front seawall damage
Diane Edmonds
San Onofre (SONGS) front seawall damage adjacent to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
San Onofre (SONGS) front seawall damage
Diane Edmonds
San Onofre (SONGS) front seawall damage adjacent to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
The AI-Driven Urgency and Political Inertia
For Bart Ziegler, President of the Samuel Lawrence Foundation, the need to relocate this waste has never been more pressing. Ziegler, a trailblazer guiding the Foundation's endeavors, feels the urgency escalating, particularly as electricity demand is skyrocketing to power massive new data centers that support Artificial Intelligence. Efforts to build new nuclear plants are becoming more prevalent, according to Ziegler, but we cannot responsibly discuss a nuclear renaissance unless we also confront the fact that new nuclear power generation will create even more deadly, long-term waste with the same lack of a permanent storage solution. Moving forward with plans for new nuclear energy plants without a permanent solution to long-term storage issues is an insane moral and existential failure.
Deanna Polk (left) and Bart Ziegler (right) pose at an SLF event
Diane Edmonds
Activist Deanna Polk (left) and SLF President Bart Ziegler (right) pose together at 'Radioactive Waste: Growing Threats, Emerging Solutions Symposium," on July 24th, 2024, at UC San Diego in San Diego, California.
Deanna Polk (left) and Bart Ziegler (right) pose at an SLF event
Diane Edmonds
Activist Deanna Polk (left) and SLF President Bart Ziegler (right) pose together at 'Radioactive Waste: Growing Threats, Emerging Solutions Symposium," on July 24th, 2024, at UC San Diego in San Diego, California.
Deputy Mayor shows up for San Clemente.
Diane Edmonds
Journalist Jeremy Lindenfeld (left) interviews Deputy Mayor Mark Enmeier (right) at the Paddle Out for San Onofre event at T-Street Beach in San Clemente, CA on October 11th, 2025. Enmeier addresses policy aspects regarding the removal of 3.6 million
Deputy Mayor shows up for San Clemente.
Diane Edmonds
Journalist Jeremy Lindenfeld (left) interviews Deputy Mayor Mark Enmeier (right) at the Paddle Out for San Onofre event at T-Street Beach in San Clemente, CA on October 11th, 2025. Enmeier addresses policy aspects regarding the removal of 3.6 million
The Foundation maintains that until a permanent, technically defensible, off-site repository is established for the existing waste, plans for new nuclear construction must be halted. While the political establishment acknowledges the problem—which has cost taxpayers billions in failed federal efforts and ongoing utility lawsuits—it has shown chronic inertia, repeatedly kicking the can down the road. The SLF stands firm: the lessons of Melissa’s destructive power demand that nuclear waste safety be a prerequisite, not an afterthought, for the future of energy. For more information about the need to make solving the nuclear waste issue a top national priority, visit the Samuel Lawrence Foundation website, make a donation, get involved in your own community, and make your voice heard in Congress.
#SamuelLawrenceFoundation #nuclearwaste #SONGS
Damaged front seawall of SONGS at low tide
Diane Edmonds
The front seawall of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) sits, damaged by years of erosion, at lowtide alongside San Onofre State Beach in San Diego County, California, United States.
Damaged front seawall of SONGS at low tide
Diane Edmonds
The front seawall of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) sits, damaged by years of erosion, at lowtide alongside San Onofre State Beach in San Diego County, California, United States.
