Inside San Onofre Nuclear Power Fuel Pool and Spent Fuel Storage

Should be showing this stuff in schools to educate our youth. It's not that scary, and we are going to need more nuclear power plants built. You are providing a valuable service. 😄

The level of engineering that goes into this kind of operation is absolutely mind blowing.

I'm proud to say I worked at San Onofre for 35 years. The software used on site was developed over the years by a team of programmers. I designed, wrote and maintained the most recent version of the software that was (is) used to track worker exposure using electronic dosimeters and TLDs. The software also is used to control access the the Radiation Control Area, track radioactive sources checked in and out for testing instrumentation, etc. If we must have nukes, I feel good about my work to make it safe for the workers.

It's comical to hear people get all obsessed with green energy and electric cars but then they're totally against nuclear energy out of ignorance

NICE MOVE getting in there and Kudos to the staff at the plant for so graciously showing you around like pros! This is invaluable education for the public. Nice to see capable and open tour of such a place run by people that you'd want there.

The detection device has strips instead of buttons because they want your arms straight and as close to you as possible. The strips allow for the differences in arm length/ height between workers.

It blows my mind the great amount of science and engineering that goes into building these plants. To think that nuclear research has been going on before computers came along. Just incredible!

Dude you got some great access here. Respect to the Plant for allowing you in, this whole industry needs to take a lead from these guys on demystifying the industry if it's to dispel the fears

In a perfect world... SONGS would still be generating, and a huge desalination plant would also be onsite to create water and power from clean energy. Thanks for that cool tour and thanks to SCE for the in depth look. , and total access tour. Nice B-roll.

In 1979/1980, I was stationed at Camp Pendleton Ca which is across the highway from the plant. I got a part time job with Wells Fargo as construction security on the plant. I would spend 8 hours walking every part of the plant looking for smoke, fire, running water. Belief me, that is a huge plant. It was also extremely educational. My patrol area was the containments, control, and the turbine/generator area. It’s sad to see it’s being decommissioned considering the huge effort I watched during its construction.

Very interesting. Amazing how safe the places are and low the radiation is. Too bad the media is so ignorant about these places.

16:48 I worked there at SONGS several times over the years. I ran cranes at the unit 1 decommissioning project as well as unit 2 & 3 refuel outages. It’s a damn shame this place is being shutdown. A lot of great people worked here and were ALWAYS professional.

In 2001/2002, I worked with the DOE and NRC to do a cyber risk assessment. This was one of the plants we selected. Nice to see it again after 20 years.

My 2 years in the industry with hundreds of hours in the reactor building and around a lot of the hot stuff is less than 150mrem. I had to operate a valve that was 3000mrem/hr on contact. Got 2mrem in the 30 seconds to get to and turn the valve. It isn't that bad at all, if you fly a lot you pick up a lot more radiation than I do running around a nuclear plant.

I never knew much about radiation until I went through an OSHA trainer course with a nuclear physicist. We all had to give presentations specific to our fields. He covered the foundations of how radiation works, how it's stopped/blocked, and it was really eye opening!

Had the opportunity to work and camp at SONGS when Unit 1 was being decommissioned. Whole crews of intermittent workers for Units 2 and 3 were rotated in and out. Quite an amazing place cut into the coastline. Many diligent staff like what we saw here. During decommissioning every square foot, or less is taken into the D&D process.

I was an operator at San Onofre, neat to see it again. So sad they prematurely decommissioned it. I remember co-workers who needed overtime that purposely wore clothes that would set off the detectors, they had to sit around awhile to gas off! 😂

I had a tour of the Bruce Nuclear Plant back in the late 60's (Engineering class from U of M), and brought my home made Geiger counter. The spent fuel storage pool had a lower count than the ambient that I had at the university. So, yes, the shielding was good.

Thank you so much. My mom used to work in nuclear energy safety valves. I got to visit SONGS back when it was active. That was probably 25 years ago. It’s so cool to see how they are safely dry storing the spent fuel rods. Awesome video. Thank you for the time and education 👍

Great video. Been in the nuclear industry for 28 years in total. Started out mining the fuel and I am now a Power Plant operator at the world's largest Uranium Refinery. We need this great source of Clean Energy in order to energize our world.