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Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
       Since San Onofre was shut down in 2012, the spent nuclear fuel has been cooling in the cooling pools. Lyman points out that the dry casks at Fukushima were not cracked open the earthquake and tsunami in March of 2011. The dry casks at Fukushima are not exactly the same design as the casks at San Onofre and there is no way to easily compare exactly what tsunamis at the two sites would do to dry casks. However, the integrity of the casks at Fukushima is an indication of the general safety of the dry cask system.
       Southern California Edison hope that all the spent nuclear fuel at San Onofre would be transferred to casks by the end of this year. Unfortunately, there were some accidents with loading the casks that forced a reevaluation of the design of the casks and the loading procedures. After loading procedures were revamped, loading of casks was authorize by the NRC this May. Restarting the loading process has not yet been scheduled.
        The epicenters of the earthquakes on July 4th and 5th near Ridgecrest, California were about one hundred and sixty-five miles from San Onofre. There was some minor ground movement and shaking experienced by the plant. Inspections following the earthquakes did not find any damage.
        In 2017, a study was conducted on folds and faults in the ocean floor near the San Onofre plant. The study found that The Newport-Inglewood/Rose Canyon fault zone runs between Newport Beach and La Jolla. The fault is broken into four segments which are separated by “step-overs.” Unfortunately, these step-overs are not big enough to prevent a fracture from running the entire length of the fault. It would be possible for the Newport-Inglewood/Rose Canyon fault zone to rupture from end to end with a maximum reading of 7.3 on the Richter scale.
       David Lochbaum recently retired from his position at the Union of Concerned Scientists. He has been studying the situation at San Onofre closely for years. He had raised concerns that a landslide could threaten the dry cask storage system at San Onofre. This concern was laid to rest when topographic maps of the dry storage site indicated that landslides were not a possibility.
      Lochbaum is also concerned about the possibility of deliberate sabotage at San Onofre. Holtec says that their casks were designed after the 911 attack in New York in 2001. They believe that their casks are better suited than their competitors casks to protect their contents from suicide aircraft, bombs carried in trucks and other possible attempts at sabotage. Lochbaum said in an email, “Bottom line — I am not worried about a seismic threat to spent fuel at San Onofre. I believe sabotage to be the primary hazard, especially now that SCE and NRC have taken steps to lessen the hazard from self-inflicted events.”
      There are still widespread concerns among the people who live in the area around San Onofre. And most people and agencies hope that the federal government will move forward with a permanent geological repository for spent nuclear fuel as quickly as possible. Lyman said, “Ultimately, spent nuclear fuel should be moved from interim storage to a deep geologic repository where it will be less vulnerable to natural disasters of all type.”