Edison Gets OK on Moving San Onofre Reactor

Operators of the San Onofre nuclear power plant won permission Friday to move a decommissioned nuclear reactor by truck across a beach that environmentalists say is a critical habitat for the endangered snowy plover and other species.

After heated discussion, the California Coastal Commission voted 7-5 to approve the request by Southern California Edison, which operates the plant 10 miles south of San Clemente.

The company will move the reactor by tractor-trailer across a state park, part of Interstate 5, dirt roads and beach land at the Camp Pendleton Marine base.

Edison plans to make the 15-mile trip, which will take three to five days, in early March. It must complete the project by March 31 to avoid the primary nesting season of the snowy plover.

The defunct reactor, which has been cleaned of high-level radioactive material, will be loaded onto a barge at Camp Pendleton and shipped to a burial site in Barnwell County in South Carolina.

The Coastal Commission in February 2000 gave Edison permission to use a rail line to move the decommissioned reactor. But the energy company abandoned the plan when it learned it would have to build a 600-foot spur line to reach the barge and cover insurance costs.

Other options, including building temporary piers near the San Onofre station or sending the reactor by rail, were ruled out as either environmentally damaging or disruptive to rail traffic.

The coastal panel’s staff endorsed Edison’s choice of truck transport as “the feasible, least environmentally damaging alternative.”

Several members of the commission complained they were being presented with a series of bad alternatives.

Mark Massara of the Sierra Club told the commission that San Onofre’s operators were behaving like “reckless penny pinchers.”

The move will require the closure of portions of San Onofre State Park for what Edison estimates could be a few hours. During the move, at least two lanes of southbound Interstate 5 will be closed. The utility said the truck could travel the 400 yards of interstate it needs to cross in 20 minutes.

Once the reactor reaches the beach, biological monitors will check for nesting sites. If any are found, the truck and its assisting convoy will be routed around them or halted entirely, company officials said.

To cross the sandy stretches and portions of creek beds and estuary, crews will build a temporary road of high-density plastic matting. More than 1,000 mats will be laid out for a one-mile stretch. Sections of mat will be moved by forklift to the front in leapfrog fashion as the truck moves south.

Edison said it will begin the project only if weather and sea conditions are favorable for the entire move. It will cross creeks and streams only if water levels are six inches or less.

Massara said the Sierra Club intends to offer a live Web-cast of the move.