A federal judged turned back a lawsuit filed by a public advocacy group looking to stop the operators of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station from continuing to transfer used-up nuclear fuel at the plant.

U.S. District Court Judge Janis L. Sammartino also tossed out motions by San Diego-based Public Watchdogs against Southern California Edison, the operator of the plant; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that oversees licensed facilities; Holtec International, the primary contractor at San Onofre; San Diego Gas & Electric, the minority owner of the plant; and Sempra Energy, SDG&E’s parent company.

In a 38-page ruling filed Tuesday, Sammartino dismissed the suit with prejudice, meaning Public Watchdogs cannot refile the same complaint.

“Southern California Edison is pleased with the ruling dismissing Public Watchdogs’ complaint, and denying their request for an injunction to halt fuel transfer operations at the San Onofre nuclear plant,” said John Dobken, spokesman for the San Onofre nuclear plant, known as SONGS for short. “The court’s decision ... allows (Southern California Edison) to continue moving spent nuclear fuel into a safe storage system.”


But Charles Langley, the executive director of Public Watchdogs, said the group’s legal fight may not be over.

“Public Watchdogs has asked its attorneys to evaluate an appeal” Langley said via email. “We believe the case has merit and that the evidence should be heard in a court of law. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has failed to protect the public from a looming nuclear waste disaster at San Onofre. The court did not dispute the facts or the dangers. Instead it dismissed the case for jurisdictional reasons.”

Former U.S. Attorney Charles La Bella was Public Watchdogs’ attorney on the case.

Edison and Holtec workers are in the process of transferring heavy canisters filled with spent nuclear fuel from “wet storage” pools at the plant to a newly constructed “dry storage” facility, where the canisters are lowered into cavities about 20 feet deep.


The lawsuit accused Edison of mismanagement and pointed in particular to an incident in August 2018 in which a 50-ton canister containing waste from fuel assemblies was left suspended without requisite support on the inner-ring of a storage cavity for about 45 minutes.

Workers eventually safely lowered the canister but the incident prompted a special inspection by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC. Eventually, the commission fined Edison $116,000.

Public Watchdogs, in its lawsuit, said the NRC “has repeatedly failed to exercise any meaningful oversight of SONGS” and said the walls of the canisters designed by Holtec are not thick enough — something the New Jersey-based company and Edison officials have long disputed.

The San Diego-based nonprofit further alleged storing the canisters at SONGS, located on an 85-acre chunk of land between the Pacific Ocean and Interstate 5, amounts to “an ever-present existential threat” and the canisters can lead to release of “lethal” and “deadly” doses of radiation.


But Sammartino said Public Watchdogs did not show it “or any of its members” have suffered physical harm. The judge used similar rationale to dismiss the group’s allegations about the Holtec-designed canisters.

The group also argued the storage plan constitutes a public nuisance under state law and violates strict products liability rules but Sammartino said those claims are preempted by the Atomic Energy Act, the federal law dealing with nuclear safety.

Similarly, Sammartino ruled the district court lacked jurisdiction to review NRC decisions about SONGS that Public Watchdogs objected to, deferring to federal law that gives discretion to agencies.

SDG&E owns about 20 percent of SONGS and it is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy.


Sempra attorneys argued the Fortune 500 company should not be part of the lawsuit because it is not the plant’s licensee nor its direct owner. Public Watchdogs said Sempra “is equally responsible” to SDG&E and the parent company is being investigated by the California Public Utilities Commission for the Aliso Canyon natural gas leak in late 2015 through early 2016.

But Sammartino dismissed the motion, saying an amended complaint from Public Watchdogs “contains no allegations supporting Sempra’s liability, either directly or vicariously.”

SDG&E spokesman Wes Jones said, “We agree with the ruling and look forward to continuing the decommissioning process.”

SONGS has not produced electricity since 2012 and Edison is about to begin the eight- to 10-year process of dismantling most of the plant.


But 3.55 million pounds of spent fuel dating to when SONGS was active remains on site because — as in the cases of nuclear facilities across the country — the federal government has not found a permanent site for the spent fuel to go.

Forty-one canisters at SONGS have been transferred from storage pools to the new dry storage site, with another 32 scheduled to be moved by the middle of next year.

