“…The Biggest Nuclear Blunder Of All Time!”

By Brett Redmayne-Titley

“This is the biggest nuclear blunder of all time!” – Ray Lutz, Founder/Citizens’ Oversight.

A corruption of human conscience has permitted 3.6 million pounds of highly radioactive nuclear waste to be put in thin-walled steel drums and buried forever – out of sight – in faulty concrete … one hundred feet away and inches above the high tide line of … the Pacific Ocean.

After Fukushima?!

Yes. The latest and perhaps most egregious American example of public health, safety, and local democracy being sacrificed maliciously to unseen corporate masters is ongoing in the courts and on the streets of San Diego County, California. The fight has begun anew on behalf of 8.7 million southern Californians who, thanks to media complicity, know little to nothing about another pending nuclear disaster at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), mere miles away. This is not the first episode in this saga, but the third: Public Good vs. Southern California Edison Company (Edison) and its allied minions of supposed public servants.

The inherent national problem in effecting localized legislation and/or regulations that protect the local community while countering corporate methods that maximize profit in spite of public safety, were showcased in the San Diego County Board of Supervisors chambers on Wed. May 10, 2017. The large, plush, mahogany-paneled hall was taken over on this day by the members of the California Coastal Commission (CCC), a state agency established in 1972 via state proposition 20 and made up of twelve reportedly unpaid voting members (six chosen from the general public and six appointed elected officials) whose votes are the final say on all commercial and residential projects anywhere along the state’s coast lines, rivers, lagoons, waterways and estuaries. This panel has been historically notorious for denying construction project permits and has been draconian in its requirements for same. Their decisions over the years have been duplicitous and political.

During the first round of the multi-year story that finally resulted in the forced closure of SONGS in 2013, the original two regulatory agencies involved then, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission(NRC) and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), were actually at all times the adversaries of public safety, but the best friend of Edison. This day, as Round Three unfolds, the state’s CCC is Edison’s newest BFF!

Beyond all reason and past public outrage about Edison’s proposed disposal of the SONGS radioactive waste, the CCC has already issued Edison a permit to do as they requested: just bury the shit! This method was of course the most inexpensive method of disposal for the extremely toxic, nuclear waste for Edison – public safety be damned. Conveniently the CCC permit approval provides the way for Edison to legitimize, if not legalize, their deliberate creation of their eventual radioactive damnation of millions of souls, while removing all legal and financial liability.

As seen in similar collusion nationally, these conspiracies to defraud the public are best kept secret. This proved to be true, since it was revealed by Citizens’ Oversight that there had been many surreptitious late night private meetings between Edison and state CCC members before the permit was ultimately issued without any public comment. Here, this day in San Diego is the big chance for that public comment.

In moments, however, thus would begin the biggest problem of this day’s public forum. A problem bigger than buried nuclear waste. A problem for California residents and their environment as well as a crime repeated too often in other national environmental disasters across America: You (the Public) …Do… Not… matter!

“Excuse me! …Excuse me! Would you mind paying attention?!” boomed former San Diego City Attorney, Mike Aguirre, from the podium while standing before the CCC members. “I’m speaking to you. It would be nice if you would listen!”

Aguirre is a pain in the ass; hawkish, straight talking, unafraid and vociferous – Edison’s worst nightmare. To many in San Diego he is one of the very few public champions. And … Aguirre does not go quietly!

Leaving private practice, Aguirre became San Diego City Attorney from 2004-2008 and knows well the lack of moral compass in many politicians and civil servants. Previously, after years in the US Justice Department as an Assistant U.S. Attorney investigating pension racketeering which led to his appointment as Assistant Counsel to the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, he then entered private practice with a emphasis on pension securities fraud. His years fighting endemic political financial corruption on behalf of the public made him the perfect adversary to the existing San Diego City Council, which was rife with underhanded insider corruption when he re-entered public office in 2004. His tenure with San Diego was tumultuous, as he publicly and vocally challenged individual city council members, the mayor, city agencies, the San Diego Chargers football team and local developers over their many violations of public trust and finances, especially the city council’s illegal use of San Diego City pension funds.

But today the CCC, despite this being the forum for public comment, was not here to listen to the public. Aguirre was showcasing this problem now.

“Yes, I’m speaking to you!” Aguirre bellowed at Chairwoman Dayna Bochco, who was obviously still ignoring him, sitting sideways to his podium while scribbling away on some unseen papers. “This is an extremely important matter. It would be nice if you would pay attention!”

Thin, ageing and annoyed, Bochco popped her head up, momentarily peering at Aguirre over her silver wire-trimmed spectacles with a pursed grin of supreme condescension. Bochco exemplifies the arrogance of America’s elite. Married to Hollywood big-wig Stephen Bochco and having only experience as an entertainment attorney she has no credentials in environmental issues, except for an obvious disdain for the public. She is the working example of the prostitution of conscience shown regularly in virtually all issues of public safety by those thus entitled.

Assuring Aguirre that she was indeed listening to him, she went back to her paperwork; head down. Another CCC member preoccupied himself with his breakfast snack, while another slowly ate an apple while enjoying the brightly light white ceiling above the lush wooden appointments of the Council Chambers. Not one CCC member, despite Aguirre’s protest, seemed to be paying close attention. Why would they? Their personal crimes of corporate sponsorship were to be covered up today, not examined in detail. Their crimes in supporting Edison’s massive profit at SONGS at the public’s expense were, to them, a done deal. The speaker: an inconvenience.

Moments before, in an all too common occurrence by public officials nationally, this day’s chance at public oration had been severely restricted by the CCC. Much to the surprise of the protesters who had gathered together an hour before to sign-up to each express their concern to the CCC, these public servants had already prepared their first surprise: public comment would be limited to a mere thirty minutes in total … and just two minutes per speaker!

The protesters quickly revised their plan. Collectively, all agreed to give their time to Aguirre and his co-organizer, Ray Lutz.

Lutz is the founder of Citizens’ Oversight which is the sole public entity interested in public safety and regulation of SONGS and the man whose organization was the spearhead of a collective public effort that brought together scientists, local politicians, civic leaders and the public, forcing the eventual closure of SONGS – barely – four years ago. Dogged in his leadership, Lutz is unfailingly polite, yet stern in his presentation of the facts at hand, while all the time showing patience and confidence to the face of his adversaries. He always has time to answer questions from the public and handles each question with the quiet charm of a dedicated mentor, showing the way. His demeanor, dedication and skills as an organizer while crisscrossing San Diego and southern Orange counties with public meetings were integral in having SONGS finally shut forever. Since the CCC permit to bury the radioactive waste was issued in October 2016, Lutz, has resumed his organizing and spoken at many town hall style meetings, alerting the public. However…

California Coastal Commission Chairwoman, Dayna Boshco

The protesters’ quick thinking would seemingly give Aguirre and Lutz fifteen minutes each to speak on their behalf. But on hearing this, the CCC quickly regrouped again over the protesters’ new tactic, informing all in attendance that – now – the CCC had instead decided to make it thirty minutes in total for all in attendance and all issues of public interest, including the separate issue of SONGS violations by the CCC itself. Therefore, with one minute to go before speaking, Lutz and Aguire and the concerned locals were thus told, “nice try”, as CCC Chairwoman, Dayna Bochco, informed them they would be limited to a paltry four minutes each.

Then the CCC panel, in their usual display of arrogance and public neglect, went back to sleep.

San Diego sheriffs began inching closer as the clock for Aguirre’s time – and the public’s – wound down to zero. His highlighted litany of public betrayal by the CCC reverberated from the hardwood-paneled walls of the chamber. The breadth of the utter ignorance by the CCC members of any concern for public safety was difficult to hear. Factually, as presented in today’s combined minuscule eight-minute allotment for public speech, this full body of the CCC is also guilty of a greater crime: Prostitution of Conscience.

Aguirre, snatching up his notes, moved from the podium and away from the obviously bemused sheriffs standing to either side.

Time had expired.

Round One: Conspiracy for a Profitable Disaster!

Edison intentionally misled the public and regulators in order to avoid a full safety review and public hearing in connection with its redesign of the plant. – U.S. Senator, Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

The depth of control Southern California Edison has exerted on all California state agencies for years is a working model repeated nationwide and worthy of close examination and concern. The three-round fight against the seemingly criminal for-profit operation of SONGS by Edison and their regulators; NRC, CPUC, CCC, and the media, began some eight years ago.

As documented by this reporter in the 2012 article, MELT DOWN?! Corporate Greed, Gov’t Corruption, and America’s Own Fukushima Disaster,” Edison’s operation of SONGS was rarely regulated so it did as it pleased, violating numerous state and federal laws at its leisure while reaping massive profits. With time, Edison became more arrogant in its dealing with the public, despite providing some of the most expensive utilities rates in the nation. All the while, yearly, SONGS lead the nation in safety violations.

Edison and the entire US nuclear industry had every reason not be at all concerned with public safety. This is not surprising because Edison’s total liability is capped at an estimated and paltry $400million. In 1959, with the American Congress mad over the miracle of nuclear power, The Price-Anderson Act was passed to sweeten the pot. This law provided a statutory maximum total monetary liability of just $12.6 Billion (as of 2006) for the entire US nuclear industry!

But then, on Jan 31, 2012, this accumulated arrogance and the conspiracy between Edison and their regulators literally blew-up in their faces!

Suddenly one of the steam generators in SONGS Unit Three leaked very high-pressure radiation into the air as steam. This caused an immediate temporary shutdown of the Unit Three reactor and next the shutdown of Unit Two (Unit One was shut down forever in 1992). Both were next taken “off-line” in March. What was revealed upon close inspection of the four steam generators (two per Unit) was shocking. At least to the public. To Edison? Business as usual!

San Onofre nuclear reactors number two and number three, are located between north San Diego County and southern Orange County, California just five miles south from San Clemente. Forty-seven years-old, this nuclear power plant was designed to last forty years. Thanks to CPUC approval the four steam generators were replaced at a cost of $700 million and back-charged to the public. The previous steam generators, removed through the concrete dome of each reactor, had served without malfunction for the previous life of the plant.

It was subsequently revealed, however, that Edison, again with permission of the CPUC and NRC, had recently replaced the massive steam generators using deliberately fraudulently produced designs that were not exactly the same original design as Edison had stated. Despite CPUC having previously allowed Edison to back-charge the ratepayers for the steam generator replacements – thus allowing for decades more long-term profit – Edison had fraudulently provided these inferior designs to their manufacturer, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), in an underhanded attempt at even more free profit. In an effort to shift blame, Edison brought suit against Mitsubishi; however, documents released by Citizens’ Oversight on June 8, 2017 showed beyond doubt that Edison did provide fraudulent designs to MHI, knew of the defects, and incorporated them into the faulty design in order to save money on their manufacture. Business as usual.

In 2015, State Attorney General Kamala Harris had opened an investigation into manipulation by SONGS minority owner, San Diego Gas and Electric, and Southern California Edison. Proving the point, California state investigators searched the home of California utility regulator, Michael Peevey, and found handwritten notes, which showed that Peevey had met with an Edison executive in Poland, where the two had negotiated the terms of the San Onofre settlement leaving San Diego taxpayers with a $3.3 billion bill to pay for Edison’s fraud and the full closure of the plant. Following a national pattern, the investigation was closed amidst Harris’ 2016 run for the US Senate position, and never re-opened.

Citizens’ Oversight, who had to stop the post-closure $3.3 billion SONGS bailout given to Edison by the CPUC as a further reward for their proven fraud, released the full award document produced by the arbitration tribunal. Edison’s attempted Breach of Contract case against MHI again showed the arrogance of these corporate criminals. “Although [Edison] tried to blame the failure of the (steam generators), and ultimately the demise of the power plant, on MHI, the arbitration tribunal came out unflinchingly against [Edison] in nearly all claims,” commented Ray Lutz in a written statement.

Ultimately, SONGS was taken “off-line” when the results of a proper inspection of the four steam generators showed “unprecedented wear.” All had been replaced by Edison less than two years before the blowout using the fraudulent designs provided. Previously, Edison, in yet a further quest for even more public paid-for profit, had influenced the CPUC and NRC to extend its initial forty-year operation license for SONGS, to have the public pay for their steam generators, and … to continue to charge ratepayers for upkeep, maintenance, and operation costs – as if the defunct power plant was still online!

Despite the radiation blowout and the investigation’s results, public safety was cast to the winds. Edison quickly announced it had obtained CPUC and NRC approval to restart Unit Two of the substandard and damaged reactors, “under reduced pressure.” As with this day’s Round Three saga in San Diego, Edison then had marched on immediately with its plan to restart SONGS.

The regulations of the NRC did, however, allow for an “Adjudicatory Hearing” and “License Amendment” process after any plant shutdown. By NRC definition this mandates a public hearing with testimony by experts not aligned with NRC, the public, Edison, CPUC, and/or any other interested party, under oath, and before an NRC administrative panel of all five, presidential appointment NRC commissioners. As evidenced by this author in a previous article these same regulators were already under investigation for their own previous back-handed dealings and conflicts of interest at other US nuclear plants. So, both these regulatory agencies had of course not bothered with trivialities like the mandated hearing and allowed Edison to march on. What the public got from NRC and CPUC instead was a public meeting to discuss possibly having the mandated Adjudicatory Hearing.

Of course this public meeting, paid for by Edison with ratepayer cash at the ultra-posh, Monarch Bay Resort, in Dana Point, California, was merely a theatre of the absurd … a charade. Despite being attended by well over 1000 upset locals in the standing-room-only crowd, presentations by experts and demands for the required Adjudicatory Hearing, the outcome was assured before that night’s curtain revealed the actors and the villains seated before the highly animated crowd. Predictably, the NRC ultimately punted the problem using the typical political tricks: delay and avoid.

Edison had been using as excuse for its cover-up the other best tool of political criminals: denial. Over the course of the two-year public outrage at the radiation release and the revelations of likely criminal negligence and fraud, Edison denied all charges of wrongdoing despite prima facie allegations to the contrary. This worked nicely. The CPUC was the judge and jury of record for these adjudications, so mere denial was good enough for repeated acquittal.

In the days following this public meeting, the NRC rendered a no decision, other than to continue to consider the matter of possibly having the Adjudicatory Hearing. Of course, as this delay ground forward, Edison moved full speed to restart the faulty reactors, bolstered by CPUC approval.

For Edison and their shareholders all was again going smoothly as planned, but … then an even bigger explosion took place. In a seemingly deliberate attack, suddenly an adverse NRC ruling and documents from a US senator blew Edison’s plot to pieces, meaning that its previous deniability was suddenly cast to the winds like so much spent radioactive steam. The shit – Edison’s, NRC’s and CPUC’s corruption – had finally hit the fan.

First, on May 13, 2013, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board issued its decision on the Friends of the Earth hearing request filed in June 2012. Despite years of NRC stonewalling, it determined the current NRC process on the issues claimed by the public constituted a de facto license amendment that did require an Adjudicatory Public Hearing, for three important and independent reasons that the NRC and CPUC had so far ignored:

• The SCE proposal to limit unit 2 to 70% power is inconsistent with the license, so constitutes an amendment;
• Unit 2 cannot safely operate within the full license scope, so the license needs to be amended;
• Restarting the plant with the steam generator tubes in the current degraded state is outside historical experience, and the proposal to operate them at 70% power for a limited duration before re-inspection constituted the regulatory definition of “tests or experiments,” requiring a license amendment.

The same week, US Senator Barbara Boxer asked that the United States Justice Department to initiate a criminal investigation of Edison officials. After years of silence regarding SONGS, Boxer’s office suddenly released a 2004 letter by an Edison executive that clearly showed the deliberate fraud by Edison. Released to the public, this letter clearly expressed worries that the new steam generators, though similar, would not be “like for like” replacements and could lead to the “disastrous” issues that in fact led to the plant’s shutdown in 2012. In making the request for a possible criminal investigation, Boxer stated:

This correspondence leads me to believe that Edison intentionally misled the public and regulators in order to avoid a full safety review and public hearing in connection with its redesign of the plant.

Faced with a full NRC public hearing and the presentation of the damning communications that would prove its crimes, Edison threw in the towel. Electing to close the plant instead of prison time, the problem eventually went away. Kamala Harris, California Attorney General, a similar corporate concubine in the mould of the CPUC and the CCC – and governor Jerry Brown – never commenced the investigation. This left the objective observer to wonder: what punishment? What justice?

However, corporations are people – so we are told – and greedy people seldom sleep through their dreams of riches to be had. Edison merely sharpened its sword, waiting for the opening of the next round.

Round Two nearly ended early. CPUC, despite Edison’s fraud being the proximate cause of the SONGS closure, again violated public trust and quickly awarded Edison ten years worth of annual profit, all related shut-down expenses for having to close Unit Two and Three, with all these funds to be paid by the ratepayers! This amount is estimated at $3.3 billion as claimed in and represented by Aguirre’s firm, Aguirre & Severson, LLP. Here again Aguirre and Lutz are the sole members of the public standing in the way of this new violation and misappropriation of ratepayer funds to Edison by CPUC. Thankfully, Round Two continues in federal court.

SONGS closed for good on June 7, 2013. This was good for the locals; except for that 1800 tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel that will be on earth for at least the next 250,000 years.

So … where was Edison going to put it?

Round Three: Us vs. Them.

It’s hard to imagine a worse choice for “interim dry storage” than the current site. – Dr. Tom English, former program manager, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Dr. English, addressing the CCC on May 11, 2017, stated clearly,

We learned from the melt-downs at Fukushima that it is essential to remove the high-level nuclear waste from the spent fuel pools. It just doesn’t make sense to keep them there forever.

Concrete Encasement of Nuclear Waste as Designed by Holtec

However, in San Diego at Round Three of local demand for democracy and public safety, this day’s events were going predictably. Edison’s corporate control was again being showcased by a new set of corporately afflicted public servants: the California Coastal Commission … and Chairwoman Bochco.

“Well…” said Ray Lutz flatly, half-turned towards the ever-frustrated audience of would-be speakers, a nervous grin on his face while observing two San Diego sheriffs creeping ever closer, “…then you’re just going to have to arrest me!”

Lutz and the public’s remaining four-minute speaking allotment had also just elapsed. Since the CCC chairwoman had more unseen paperwork to do, Bochco had commanded Lutz to stop speaking at exactly four minutes. This was nowhere near the time needed to appraise the CCC members of the litany of their latest failures and violations that the CCC and Edison had committed prior to this day’s round of the SONGS saga.

Examples of real public leadership are sorely lacking in this nation’s troubled times of corporate control. Purported activist leaders across America rarely have the cajones – the balls – to look power in the eye and say, “NO!” Lutz is the exception and, so, stood his ground … speaking quickly now. Looking about the hall, then returning his gaze at the CCC panel, he continuing to reel-off the remaining list of CCC indiscretions combined with Edison’s criminality. The marshals moved closer. They might not have been so eager if they, too, had known the truth applied their own homes and families.

Ray Lutz, National Coordinator of Citizens’ Oversight and an Engineer by profession, said in a written statement,

After careful review of the CCC permit, I became thoroughly convinced that the construction of this nuclear storage facility (ISFSI) at this location should be blocked, so we filed this lawsuit shortly after approval on October 6, 2015.

As originally listed by Citizens’ Oversight, the outrageous conduct of the CCC at Edison’s behest include;

• The high-level nuclear waste is extremely deadly, and will remain so for up to 250,000 years.
• The ground level of the storage is very close to the water level. And the ground water level within inches. Any increase in ocean levels and/ or tides in the next 100 years will likely raise the ground water to exceed the bottom of the structure.
• The Coastal Commission (CCC) admits that the coastline is likely to erode up to the storage, but they prohibited any improvement in the existing seawall that would protect the ocean.
• The storage location is near 8.4 million residents who live within 50 miles, a ten-lane freeway, an active railroad line, and is possible prime terrorist target.

There are already three better possibilities for disposing or storing the waste:

1. The Palo Verde Nuclear Plant, near Phoenix, AZ which is already licensed as a nuclear waste storage facility.
2. The Mojave Desert, far from civilization. According to Lutz and Citizens’ Oversight, “We investigated this option and suggested the railroad stop called ‘Fishel CA’. Our conclusion was that this specific location is perhaps too remote as services (roads, power, internet, etc.) are required, so more review is needed, but the general idea is very viable.”
3. Camp Pendleton Marine Corp. Base, adjacent where SONGS is already located. Moving the waste into the coastal hills a few miles away avoids all ocean dangers, is on a secure military base, and transportation risks are minimized, but is still located in an earthquake zone.

• The permit by the Coastal Commission is for 20 years. But the Commission knows the radioactive waste will be in place for at least 35 years. Worse, there is a Generic Environmental Impact Statement for such a storage area that allows it to remain in place indefinitely – for 100 years or more.
• The canisters currently being used are too heavy (60 tons each), when considering the possibility of their eventual transport, to be placed on conventional train cars or semi-trucks.
• The storage canisters are too hot and large to be compatible with any existing repository, and too thin to resist ocean-air corrosion for very long. The CCC is not concerned.
• Though the relatively thin 5/8” steel canisters will likely corrode in the ocean salt air, there is no CCC requirement for inspections in the 20 year permit period and adequate inspection technology does not yet exist.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography recently completed a study of the earthquake faults nearby SONGS and determined that the Newport-Inglewood/Rose Canyon fault is capable of a (very strong) 7.4 magnitude earthquake. Earthquakes frequently result in ground liquefaction.

Worse, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Mark Lombard, unlike canisters used elsewhere worldwide the canisters cannot be visually inspected, and according to Holtec, nor repaired or maintained and have no early warning prior to a radiation release. Each canister contains about as much Cesium-137 as released from Chernobyl. Waste can explode if exposed to air. A 2015 Sandia National Laboratories report states once started, cracks can penetrate the canister wall in less than five years.

All of these facts would normally be great pause for serious concern by any public agency that did actually respect public safety, rather than the share price and annual dividend of their corporate masters. But in exceptional America, duty to the public seems as lost as the facts they and their media brethren hide so well from view. Indeed, the majority of the CCC commissioners had improper secret ex-parte meetings with Edison while the two major area newspapers, The Orange County Register and The San Diego Union-Tribune – both owned by conservative, anti-environmentalist media conglomerate, tronc, inc. (formerly Tribune Publishing) willfully failed in their public duty as well.

As if the previous facts at hand were not bad enough, in the past two weeks it was also revealed by Citizens’ Oversight that Holtec, the manufacturer of the spent fuel storage facility for Edison, asked to be allowed to inspect the exhaust ports on the lids of the spent fuel storage cavities once every 30 days instead of the currently mandated once every 24-hour frequency. In a further effort to avoid costs for Edison, Holtec said they should be allowed to let the temperature in the storage containers to rise over the normal limit of 400°C (752°F) up to 570°C (1058°F). The details can be seen in the attached documents provided by Citizens’ Oversight.

The documents also include comments regarding the loading of the transportation casks should the waste be moved to an off-site location. There are significant concerns regarding whether the canisters, at 120,000 lbs. each, would be able to be removed from their cavities on the beach. CCC is willfully ignorant of the common sense cause and effect of salt water and steel equaling corrosion.

Bad news for the public continued to mount when last month it was revealed that the concrete to be used by Holtec is substandard for that purpose and likely to degrade far too quickly. With Edison and Holtec fighting hard to avoid routine and thorough inspections, quality concrete would seem to be vitally important. Not to Edison. Nor the CCC.

Well, four minutes was not enough time for Lutz to peel-off this on-going rap sheet of criminality and conspiracy. Two marshals now stood on either side of Lutz as he tried to finish his long list. With a magnanimous wave of her hand, CCC chairman Bochco, looking up again from the other so-important matters below her gaze, dismissed the marshals for the moment with a sideways flick of her wrist, as Lutz speed up his impassioned oratory. Lutz and his public had won Round One; barely. Round Two is currently in question. Aguirre and Lutz share a great deal of the credit for these public challenges. The CCC, however, as shown on their faces don’t care for the opposition here, today, in Round Three. They also do not like facts. Nor Lutz and Aguirre.

Like most public officials nationally, the CCC doesn’t like the public. Similar to the Robber Barons of old, the public are once again expendable pawns, beneath concern and/or contempt. Merely, “A Technical Barrier to Trade.” As documented previously by this reporter on-scene, directly from SONGS, Porter Ranch Methane Gas blow-out; Mayflower, AR tar sands spill; and the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations (TPP), rarely do state and federal agencies do their job: regulate US corporations. They prefer instead their regulation of the public’s interest, involvement and outrage. This plays out nationally again and again as a dark comedic charade once properly known as: the will of the people.

This is shown too often in these and other environmental tragedies across the USA. This current reality in San Diego county is not merely a failed production, it is in reality a call – a demand – for action, a cry that MUST grow louder … to the point of a scream, a howl, an unflinching demand for a return to sanity and, a return of … human conscience!

The public fight to have Edison’s CCC permit – SCE Permit 9-15-0162 – revoked will return to court on Friday, July 14, 2017 in the courtroom of Superior Court judge, Judith Hayes, in Dept. #65 of San Diego’s downtown court. According to Aguirre and Lutz, Edison has entered into negotiations regarding a compromise as to public safety and the storage of the waste. However, with the national track record of US court defending the public being that of the CPUC, NRC, and CCC, public attendance – and public outrage – is mandatory!

This saga of American exceptionalism present, as shown so clearly in the ongoing war that is SONGS in San Diego, CA, has one – and only one – ever darkening, national American translation….

You, (the Public)…DO…NOT…matter!

Rise-up! It is time.

-THE END-

About the Author: Brett Redmayne-Titley has published over 150 in-depth articles over the past seven years for news agencies worldwide. Many have been translated. On-scene reporting from important current events has been an emphasis that has led to multi-part exposes on such topics as the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations, NATO summit, KXL Pipeline, Porter Ranch Methane blow-out and many more. He can be reached at: live-on-scene((at)) gmx.com.

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