California’s two existing nuclear power plants have more problems than just their dangerous operations. Now the California Secretary of State has cleared an initiative that would shut down the plants until the federal government figures out what to do with the spent fuel, a process that may take 35 years or more to complete. Over 500,000 signatures are required to place the initiative of the 2014 ballot. The initiative is sponsored by Ben Davis Jr. who helped write an initiative that shut down the Rancho Seco nuclear plant near Sacramento in 1989.

Problems– San Onofre plant located just a few miles south of the city of San Clemente has been shut down after a nuclear leak escaped into the atmosphere last year. Though its operators claimed it wasn’t enough radiation to hurt the local population, elevated levels were found in plankton at nearby Corona del Mar beaches. Some said it was from Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. Not all were convinced.

At Diablo Canyon engineers want to do sonar testing to determine the plant’s safety during major seismic activity. Such testing could damage the navigation and communication systems of endangered whales. There’s enough concern about the structural safety of the plant, however, to be alarmed. Californians continue to be bombared with nuclear fallout from Fukushima over 5,000 miles away. It may take a decade or more to repair the damaged Japanese nuclear facility that continues to operate.