"Panel Backs Fuel Storage Plan for California Nuke Plant"

"LOS ANGELES — The California Coastal Commission on Tuesday endorsed a plan to allow operators at the defunct San Onofre nuclear power plant to move tons of highly radioactive fuel from storage pools into steel canisters sheathed by concrete.

The unanimous vote underscored a challenge facing the U.S. nuclear power industry. With no long-term national repository to discard used fuel, utilities are faced with the question of what to do with it.

'That's the crux of the problem: the federal government has failed to designate a permanent repository' for used nuclear fuel, Commissioner Gregory Cox said.

Leaving the fuel in storage pools is "the worst of all the alternatives that are out there," he added."

Michael R. Blood reports for the Associated Press October 6, 2015.