December 18, 2025

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Thank You for Your Support!!!

Dear Friends,

Thank you for growing with us through a year that demanded resilient and rigorous advocacy. With your support, the Samuel Lawrence Foundation strengthened the bond between environmental justice organizations and nuclear safety, even in the face of global challenges. Our focus remained on exposing the risks of radioactive spent fuel to ensure that public safety is never compromised by cost or convenience.

As we step into the New Year, we carry forward a renewed commitment to education and scientific integrity. The challenge of San Onofre requires persistent, informed pressure, and we are grateful to have you as partners in this work. We look forward to a year of meaningful contact and measurable progress in keeping our communities safe.

Thank you for your support, and we will see you in the new year!

2025 Highlights: A Year of Action!

2025 was defined by our commitment to translating complex nuclear data into visible and accessible community action.

April: Community Lunch & Learn – Hosted grassroots educational lunches, briefing neighbors directly on the radiological risks posed by onsite nuclear waste storage.
June: 3.6 Mile Run – Hundreds mobilized to run 3.6 miles, a symbolic action representing the 3.6 million pounds of nuclear waste stranded on our coastline.
August: Dance Start Program – Our program provided dance lessons to 3,000 children, fostering community connection through the arts.
September: Irvine City Council Testimony – Program Director Nadia Khawja testified before the Council, urging municipal leadership on waste relocation.
October: Paddle Out & SOS Screening – A powerful month featuring a "Paddle Out" at San Clemente Beach and a screening of San Onofre Syndrome.
November: Oceans for Bach – An acclaimed interdisciplinary event pairing pianist Danae Dörken with scientists Prof. Lynne Talley (Ocean Currents) and Prof. Jeff Severinghaus (CO₂ History), linking climate data with the arts.
December: National and State Advocacy – SLF engaged across the spectrum: addressing environmental racial justice at the Uniontown, Alabama dumpsite, and providing expert testimony to the California Coastal Commission (Diablo Canyon) and the Irvine City Council (San Onofre).

Irvine Council Stagnant

on San O Nuclear Waste

Throughout the last year, the Foundation has worked closely with Mayor Agran who has shown steadfast leadership on moving the nuclear waste at San Onofre.

Despite widespread public support, on December 9, the Irvine City Council narrowly rejected Mayor Agran’s motion to establish an independent technical team dedicated to accelerating the removal of San Onofre’s waste. Instead, the Council voted to join existing federal coalitions. While collaboration is key, SLF is disappointed that this decision favors bureaucratic alignment over proactive scientific leadership, effectively maintaining the dangerous status quo.

With 3.6 million pounds of waste, relying on stalled federal timelines poses a profound regional risk. As detailed in Voice of OC, Bart Ziegler, president and founder of the foundation, said in the statement. “Instead of pursuing proactive, forward-thinking governance, the Council has fallen backwards. Their choice to wait for someone else on this vital issue places our lives, communities, oceans, and economy at risk.”

SD County Supervisors Move Forward with Nuclear Waste Plan

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has set a 90-day deadline to plan the relocation of the 3.6 million pounds of nuclear waste at San Onofre. While we appreciate the urgency, the County's plan includes exploring nuclear reprocessing. This is a dangerous detour that creates volatile liquid waste and poses an unnecessary proliferation risk.

SLF is mobilizing our expert network to ensure the County's final recommendations are guided by the best science and not flawed technology. We are coordinating a joint letter with partner organizations and requesting immediate technical briefings with the Supervisors' offices. Our goal is to focus the final report exclusively on Consent-Based Siting: the only proven, ethical path to safe relocation.

If you or your organization wants to formally stand against reprocessing and support the push for safe relocation, please email Nadia@samuellawrencefoundation.org to sign on to our joint letter!

Despite SLF Safety Warnings,

CCC Approves Diablo Canyon Extension

Last week, the California Coastal Commission chose to abandon our coasts and instead voted to extend operations at Diablo Canyon for another five years.

It could have stopped an embrittled nuclear reactor at Diablo Canyon, ended the daily discharge of 2.5 billion gallons of seawater heated up to 20°F warmer than usual, and spared Californians a $1.4 billion forgivable loan to PG&E.

Hours of testimony from SLF’s staff, board, and president, and sustained objections from Mothers for Peace, the Environmental Defense Center, Surfrider, and many others, explicitly warned the Commission about Diablo Canyon’s location in one of California’s most seismically active regions, the absence of any safe long-term nuclear waste solution, and the severe, ongoing destruction of marine life caused by its obsolete once-through cooling system. The Commission disregarded this record and invoked an override provision, favoring corporate convenience and PG&E over its obligation to protect the Coastal Act’s environmental mandate.

The challenge now moves to the Central Coast Regional Water Board.

Looking Forward to 2026!!

As we close the year, the Samuel Lawrence Foundation moves forward with resolve and gratitude, clear-eyed about the risks and unwavering in purpose. In 2026, we will press harder than ever for decisive state action to move the deadly nuclear waste at San Onofre, insisting that public safety and coastal protection come before convenience and complacency.

We are also proud to announce our 2026 Nuclear Waste Symposium. Once again, we will convene leading scientists, policy experts, and advocates to confront the dangers of nuclear waste, examine realities of nuclear energy, and advance real solutions for meeting energy needs without sacrificing our oceans to radioactive contamination and leaks. Thank you for standing with us.

We warmly invite you to join the growing Samuel Lawrence Foundation family. Your voice, your support, and your commitment matter. Become a member today (at no cost!) and help us make 2026 the year we achieve real, long-overdue breakthrough progress.

Stand with us. Amplify the call. Join SLF and be part of the movement to secure a truly waste-free, protected coast for generations to come.

SLF Media Center Launched!

The Samuel Lawrence Foundation Media Center is a tool for journalists, researchers, and community members to explore, engage, and elevate the conversation around safe nuclear waste storage at San Onofre and across the nation. Create an account to gain free access to our white papers, press releases, reports, expert analysis, nuclear news, photos, videos, and story leads. Join now!

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