January 15, 2026

NUCLEAR SAFETY | VOLUNTEER | PROGRAMS | DONATE | SUBSCRIBE

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Thank you for making 2025 such a powerful year of engagement and progress. Together, we helped refocus media and government attention on the San Onofre nuclear waste crisis. With your continued support, 2026 promises even greater impact.

~Bart Ziegler, Samuel Lawrence Foundation President

LAST MINUTE EVENT IN

ONE HOUR

At 11:00 AM PST, join the discussion, "We Can Currently Meet Energy Demands Without Nuclear," moderated by Alec Baldwin and featuring Stanford Professor Mark Z. Jacobson and Radiation and Public Health Project’s Joe Mangano. It will address why renewables can meet current and future energy needs and why nuclear can't. New data on elevated cancer and mortality rates near US nuclear plants will be presented. The event is free, but registration is required. We hope you make it.

Sign Our Letter to Take Action

on San Onofre

Our San Diego County Board of Supervisors face a stark problem: what to do with San Onofre’s 3.6 million pounds of nuclear waste, the planet’s deadliest poison.

Spurred by Jim Desmond’s leadership, county staff only have 53 days left to write a report with solutions including reprocessing. Last week, SLF bought together Board Member Dr. Peter Andersen and Dr. Ed Lyman (world expert on nuclear waste from UCS) to meet with the county staff and educate them on the issue. We presented safer alternatives and underscored that reprocessing is dirty, dangerous, and expensive. For one, it takes up to ten years to reprocess one spent nuclear fuel rod. The permitting processing alone will take more than a decade. Meanwhile, San Onofre’s canisters are already halfway through their 25-year warranty.

Together, we can find an alternative solution for the waste. SLF will continue engaging with the Supervisors, Irvine Mayor Agran, Congressman Levin, and other government officials to spur action.

Please sign our joint letter urging the Board to explore more viable solutions, and share with your friends and family to sign.

SIGN LETTER

So What is Reprocessing Spent Fuel?

Nuclear “reprocessing” simply creates another deadly waste stream to contain and manage. The waste remains radioactive, and still requires permanent disposal. Reprocessing introduces even more safety, security, and cost risks.

Dr. Tom English shared reprocessing has a long track record of breaking down in the real world. General Electric’s Morris, Illinois project ran only 15 minutes before equipment clogged and the facility was shut down. Reprocessing would mean moving weapons-usable materials through the economy. Reprocessing doesn’t fix the problem. It just multiplies the forms of waste and the long-term risks that must be managed.

RISKS OF REPROCESSING

Program Spotlight:

Barrio Botany in Schools

Barrio Botany is planting more than gardens—it’s growing joy, curiosity, and confidence in San Diego’s most under-resourced schools. We work with about 3,500 kids in the city’s 30 highest-poverty elementary schools, where many families juggle food insecurity, health challenges, housing instability, and too much exposure to environmental toxins.

Our answer? Dig in. We help kids eat better, learn where food comes from, boost academic success, and grow emotionally. Turns out, tending plants is pretty great for growing humans too.

Case in point: the Banana Bonanza 🍌🎉

Using bananas grown in their own school garden, Sherman Elementary students:

Learned how bananas grow
Guessed the weight of the bananas and learned how size affects price
Took home fresh bananas for their families
Set prices for their farmstand (future CEOs at work)
Earned $80—all from one cluster of bananas

From soil to snack to small business, these kids are learning that good things really do grow when you plant the right seeds. To learn more, contact Christina Abuelo at 858-210-2628 or barriobotany@gmail.com

LEARN MORE

New EPA Regulations:

Profits Over Lives

This week, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signaled it may change how it writes air-pollution rules by focusing on what rules cost industry, and no longer assigning a dollar value for prevented illnesses and lives saved in the agency’s official calculations. If that approach spreads, it will become easier for powerful industries, including energy, to argue for weaker protections, even when the health stakes of poor air quality are well-established.

Dead Lobsters Ashore San Onofre

The year kicked off with a mystery as the media covered a strange phenomenon: hundreds of dead spiny lobsters washed ashore at Trestles and San Onofre beaches. It’s unclear what happened to the lobsters, but they have brought attention to an important issue: We do not yet fully understand the marine ecosystem impacts of the 2.5 billion gallons of heated wastewater discharged daily from San Onofre nuclear power plant. While it probably brings little comfort to the lobsters, we give them a high five (claw?) for highlighting one of Southern California’s most important and often overlooked challenges

New York’s Nuclear Energy Plan Will Explode Electricity Rates

Last week, Dr. Joseph Romm, who oversaw the Department of Energy’s efficiency/renewables and nuclear portfolios, delivered a presentation on his new paper warning that when nuclear is pitched as a near-term “fix,” the public often ends up paying long before any benefits arrive. Romm also flagged surging demand from data centers as a driver of increasing electricity costs.

His bottom line was that the fastest path to protecting households is scaling proven tools–efficiency, solar, and increasingly affordable batteries–rather than doubling down on costly, slow-to-deliver bets.

For California, Romm’s takeaway is that expensive, slow, and complex nuclear pathways don’t reduce near-term risk and they can raise bills while the waste stays put.

WATCH HERE

Gearing Up for 2026 Events

We’re planning our 2026 Symposium (tentatively in August), bringing experts together to translate the San Onofre risk into real-world solutions and next steps. This year, we'll also host two big community events: our 3.6-Mile Run/Walk (tentatively June) and our Paddle Out (tentatively September). Keep an eye out for more information!

Thank You to Our 2025 Donors!

We are deeply grateful to everyone whose generosity made the Samuel Lawrence Foundation’s work possible in 2025. Your support powers our advocacy, education, and community engagement and helps us translate complex scientific and environmental challenges into clear, meaningful action.

Together, we’re strengthening public understanding, advancing environmental justice, and building momentum toward safer, more equitable outcomes for communities near and far.

Please donate to help us expand our impact in 2026!