Nuclear waste shipment to roll through Inland Empire

Later this year, several deliveries of low-radioactive nuclear waste will pass through the Inland Empire. The truck shipments will carry retired generator parts from the San Onofre Nuclear Station in San Diego County to a disposal site in Utah.

The slow-moving, 400-foot tractor trailer will ferry the nuclear junk in four separate road trips. The crew will travel at about 15 miles per hour, so it’ll make several stops along the 800-mile route.

The shipments are being escorted by the California Highway Patrol. The first journey includes a crawl through the Temecula & Riverside areas.

“The whole endeavor here will take about three weeks," says Southern California Edison project manager Craig Harberts.

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Harberts described the mission at a news conference at San Onofre. “We are prepared right after the first shipment to begin the preparations to perform the second shipment, so we’ll be reaching out to everyone we know.”

As a security precaution, officials are keeping quiet about when the waste will be shipped. They also don’t want gawkers gathering on bridges or roadways.

Harberts says residents will not be exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. “Now if you were to stand approximately 6 feet away from the lower assembly itself for 1 hour you would pick up approximately what you would receive in a dental X-ray.”

Officials hope to have all four nuclear steam generator shipments completed by the end of the year.