Second Nuclear Load Passes Through Temecula

It's a bit of déjà vu as a giant convoy hauling the second of four out-of-commission nuclear generators from San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station starts to make its way through the Temecula Valley again.

It created a traffic nightmare for those traveling north on Interstate 15 near the Temecula Border Patrol checkpoint at around 1 a.m. Wednesday. The massive load is only permitted to travel at night and at speeds of no more than 25 mph.

"We move at night through California because of state rules about very large loads being off the roads during daytime to avoid interferring with traffic," said Gil Alexander, a spokesperson for Southern California Edison.

SCE operates the San Onofre plant, and replaced the four original generators from the 1980s, which now have to be disposed of.

The five-truck convoy left Oceanside Sunday night and stopped in Escondido before making its way up Interstate 15, Scott Andresen, another SCE spokesperson, confirmed.

With the transport comes low-level radiation that poses no risk to the public, Andresen said. One would have to stand near the truck for an hour to receive the same amount of radiation in a dental X-ray, he said.

If the convoy makes the same stops as the first trip in August, it should have parked for the night at the checkpoint, and will travel Wednesday evening through Temecula, where it will stop on Winchester Road in unincorporated Murrieta.

"I believe we are keeping the same route; it all depends on how far the crew makes it each night," Andresen said. "We take it day by day."

, Andresen said, which was within the three-week estimate for the 823-mile trip from Oceanside to a nuclear waste dumping site in Utah.

Once in Utah, the truck is broken down into seven pieces and shipped back to San Onofre, then reassembled to haul another generator.