University Library
Right of Way
University Library
Right of Way
Despite prolonged anti-nuclear activism by scientists, politicians, citizens, and others, nuclear power plants were constructed across the US in the late 20th century, including San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) and Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California. Both are in proximity to numerous population centers and fault lines, and use the Pacific Ocean for cooling. The anti-nuclear bomb and anti-nuclear power movements in the US preceded the environmental and social justice movements, but communities that surround nuclear power plants, including many in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties, are inescapably burdened with the persistent health and safety risks associated with them, thus raising numerous environmental justice issues.
Even if a nuclear accident or disaster never occurs, nuclear power plants inevitably produce nuclear waste, disposal of which has been hugely controversial in the US. Southern California Edison stores nuclear waste generated over decades of SONGS operation at the plant itself, which was decommissioned after a radiation leak in 2013. In 2025, Pacific Gas & Electric will begin decommissioning Diablo Canyon Power Plant, the last operational nuclear power plant in California. It plans to store its nuclear waste on site as well, thus continuing the risk of harm to surrounding communities.
On display in this case is documentation of activist and community groups working to minimize the risk of a nuclear accident or radiation leak and the resulting harmful effects on surrounding communities. This includes informational booklets about nuclear waste storage and disposal designed to help inform public policy, reports about siting for a nuclear power plant in Malibu that was never built, and an editorial response submitted to KNBC by anti-nuclear activist Dorothy Boberg.
Case 7, Hazardous Waste, is the flat case closest to the gallery entrance.
1
Booklet, "Managing Nuclear Wastes," 1974League of Women Voters of Los Angeles Collection
2
Booklet, "High-Level Radioactive Waste: Safe Storage and Ultimate Disposal," 1975Dorothy Boberg Collection
3
Booklet, "A Nuclear Waste Primer," 1981League of Women Voters of Los Angeles Collection
4
AEC's Staff Report Finds Malibu Project to be Safe," 1965Industrial Association of the San Fernando Valley Collection
5
California Radiation Control Regulations, 1973Dorothy Boberg Collection
6
Peace Conversion Times, June/July 1986Zero Population Growth of Los Angeles, Inc. Collection
7
"Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety: WIPP FACT SHEET," circa 1990Susan B. Nelson Collection
8
Flyer, "Los Angeles Drinking Water Threatened by Radioactive Contamination," 1996Juana Beatriz Gutiérrez Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA) Collection
9
"GUARD Response to 'Atomic Energy for California,'" 1977Dorothy Boberg Collection
