Report to members on Radiation leaks at the failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS)
By Public Watchdogs
Published on September 18, 2024
The following is an email report that we sent to our members and supporters on the three significant disclosures that were made by Southern California Edison at the September 5, 2025 San Onofre Community Engagement Panel virtual meeting.
Dear Public Watchdogs Supporter,
In case you missed it, Edison dropped three BIG bombshells during the September 5th meeting of the SONGS Community Engagement Panel.
The biggest bombshell was the failure to properly package 100 tons of radioactive equipment from the failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).
First Bombshell:
Radioactive tritium is in the water table.
Water samples from one of the test wells drilled at SONGS showed Tritium levels that were very close (within 10%) of exceeding the maximum allowable level, according to government regulations.
But according to Southern California Edison, you have nothing to worry about because the Tritium levels are trivial, and nobody gets their drinking water from San Onofre anyway.
Do you trust Edison to tell you the truth?
We’ve heard stories about “safe radioactivity” before. A great example is the discovery of “glow in the dark” radium by Madame Curie, a Nobel Prize Winner, who later died from radiation poisoning. At the time, radium was thought to be so safe that it was used to illuminate the dials of watches and clocks.
It’s too bad that radium kills. The hit 2018 movie Radium Girls is the true story of how young women who worked painting dials on radium wristwatches lost their jobs, their lips, their teeth, and sometimes their lower jaws before they finally died from cancer-related radiation poisoning.
Is Tritium as harmless as Radium?
“Harmless” tritium was also used to make glow-in-the-dark watch dials … until it was outlawed in 1998. In fact, eBay won’t even let you sell a used tritium wristwatch.
According to Arjun Makhijani, author of Exploring Tritium’s Dangers, tritium is truly nasty stuff:
“… one teaspoon of tritiated water (as HTO)
would contaminate about 100 billion gallons
of water … enough to supply about 1 million
homes with water for a year.”
So much for the “safety” of Tritium, yet the failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station appears to be floating on an aquifer of tritium-tainted water.
Second Bombshell:
Edison has plans to move the waste (again) inside the site boundary
Edison admitted that accelerated sea-level rise may be so severe that it that the entire nuclear waste dump will have to be moved to higher ground because it won’t be on the beach; it will be in the water.
Ironically, Public Watchdogs filed a petition to suspend decommissioning operations with the NRC on the grounds that site could be flooded with corrosive water from a variety of sources.
Such a move would require the construction of a new multi-billion dollar waste storage area, known as an “Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation” or “ISFSI.”
An ISFSI, by the way, is a weasel-word word that Edison uses in order to avoid calling it what it really is: A Beachfront Nuclear Waste Dump.
Third Bombshell: Failure to “package”
The official NRC Inspection Report noted that contrary to NRC regulations, on June 26, 2024, Edison failed to ensure that the shipment was “leakproof” and …
“… offered a package for shipment which was not
leakproof and not properly closed and sealed to
prevent release of radioactive content … [the fluid]
contained low levels of radioactive Cobalt-60 and
Cesium-137.”
In other words, Edison failed to “package” a highly radioactive component for shipping. That package was leaking polluted water onto the railroad tracks in San Bernardino, and possibly all the way to San Bernardino before it was discovered.
Edison has a history of deception at San Onofre
Ultimately, we may never know what really happened, or the true extent of the leak. We don’t know because Edison has cultivated a culture of lies and lying about their decommissioning activities.
You may recall that on August 9, 2018, Edison’s Chief Nuclear Officer, Tom Palmisano, (video) lied about a “near-miss” accident at SONGS, where a 100 ton canister of deadly nuclear waste nearly fell 18 feet inside of a steel and concrete silo … where it was left hanging precariously on a 1/4″ thick carbon steel protrusion on the side of the silo.
But instead of telling the truth about what the NRC called a “near-hit” and “near-miss” accident, Edison said that all work had stopped to “rest the crews.” This video also
explains the utter horror of Edison’s lies.
Our goal is to keep you informed
The latest radiation leak is another example of Edison’s reckless disregard for public safety, federal rules and possibly, federal laws. At Public Watchdogs, our mission is to expose the lies and deception, and to hold Edison accountable in the media, in the courts, and in the Halls of Power.
If you appreciate this work, and you think that this type of truth-telling has value, then please consider donating now. Even small donations, make a big difference to us, and what we are able to do on your behalf.
Thank you for taking time to read this email. I am truly grateful for your support.
Charles Langley
Executive Director
Public Watchdogs