CNN Story here

Have you noticed ashes from the raging fires on the hood of your car, the leaves of plants, even inside your home? Imagine trying to avoid them, cleaning them out of the environment, keeping them out of your lungs and nose. What you are seeing is the distribution pattern of radiation in the event that there was a massive release of radioactive particles from our nuclear power plant.

You might say, “The plant has been permanently closed. There is nothing to worry about”, but that simply is not true. We are facing a potential threat that exceeds even the worst effects of most fires, like losing a family member, a best friend, your home and all of your worldly possessions. Our hearts go out those who have been suddenly, unexpectedly evacuated, facing the possibility that they will have to start all over again when the fires subside. Hard to imagine, but it could be much worse.

My point is not to minimize what those in immediate danger are facing. It is to illustrate just how huge the catastrophe could be for all of us who are now only seeing the ashes, smelling the smoke, tasting the acidic flavor of whatever is burning miles away. The “inconvenient truth” is that these same fires that rage out of control right now, could actually destroy the only protection we have from a nuclear disaster, worse than Chernobyl and Fukushima.

If fires take out the power lines coming into the nuclear plant, pumps which cool radioactive waste, (89 times the amount that was released in the Chernobyl disaster), would no longer function. Back up batteries and generators might protect us for a few precious hours, but when they are exhausted, water could quickly evaporate from extremely hot fuel rods stored in the overcrowded pools, leading to spontaneous combustion, spewing radiation into the environment from an uncontrollable fire. Those ashes you see now represent the permanent contamination that would be here to stay for perhaps thousands of years.

So while you are hoping and praying that the fires don’t take away your most precious things, you might want to include San Onofre in your wishes. And if we get through it all right, you might also want to attend the next public meeting regarding storage of nuclear waste.

Southern California Edison’s Community Engagement Panel will host its second regular public meeting Thursday, May 22, at The Hills Hotel in Laguna Hills located at 25205 La Paz Road. The meeting is scheduled to last from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The panel met on May 6th in San Juan Capistrano in a workshop focusing on storage of nuclear waste but was not open to public comment. This time, they will let us express our concerns and raise valid questions that must be answered before they make San Onofre a permanent nuclear waste site.

Show up and be counted, even if you have no desire to speak up. Every person matters.

SEE YOU THERE.

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