Community Corner

Nuclear Waste Makes Business Boom

A giant truck carrying radioactive refuse parks in front of a pizzeria and sends people running -- toward the restaurant.

When Francesco Cusimano and his wife, Fillipa, woke up to find a massive truck covered with yellow "radioactive" signs parked outside their pizzeria, they were afraid it would chase away business.

Their fears were for naught.

Dozens of people gathered on the grassy hill next to their Murrieta restaurant, , to watch the giant truck lumber by at 10 mph. Meanwhile, customers packed the restaurant, sending the owners scrambling to fill orders.

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"It didn't hurt our business tonight," said Joseph Cusumano, co-owner with the similarly named Cusimano couple, as he rushed to top a pizza.  "It drew a lot of business to us."

Many of the customers pulled into the restaurant's parking lot to watch the radioactive giant lumber past, and then decided to eat there.

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"We were driving by, and I'm like, 'What is this thing?'" said Murrieta resident Michelle Henderson as she sat at the bar in Rustico.

She saw it parked in the area all day, she recalled, and when she saw the crowd of spectators gathered near the restaurant, she decided to pull over and ask some questions.

Admittedly, the truck was intimidating. It is a 400-foot-long, 192-wheeled monster hauling a massive blue canister holding a 758,000-pound nuclear generator from a power plant in San Onofre. The truck was headed for a disposal facility in Clive, Utah.

"It was really cool and kind of scary," said Henderson's husband, Paul.

The eatery is bustling on any given day. This local favorite opened seven years ago, and many of the customers planned to eat there that day anyway.

A big, blue canister marked radioactive wasn't going to chase away Travis Rosene and Lexi Brewer, who came for lunch from Carlsbad, a city about 15 miles south of the nuclear power plant that sent the waste away.

Seeing the plant's two giant domes looming on their horizon every day, they're used to being around nuclear equipment.

They even have a term of endearment for the plant. "We call it the boobies," Brewer said.

They were right not to worry about it; the load is barely radioactive, said Scott Andreson, a spokesperson for Southern California Edison, the company that organized the transport.

If somebody stood by the canister for an hour, they'd get as much radiation as they would getting a dental X-ray, Andreson said. "This has less than half of the radioactive level allowed by the Department of Transportation regulations."

If the waste didn't energize the restaurant's atmosphere, at least the bustling crowd outside did, according to some of the diners.

"People were running all over the road trying to take pictures," said Danielle Sedler as she ate at a table packed with her friends.

To read more about the truck and its route, click here.

So far, the truck's trip has been smooth. "We have not had any malfunctions," Andreson said. "Our first priority is the safety of the public and so we have gone a little slower."

Though Cusumano sighed in relief as he watched the radioactive behemoth roll away, in a way, he'll miss it, he said. "I don't want something radioactive out here on a regular basis, but if there were another spectacle that drew in the curious like that, it would be a welcome thing," he said.


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