The Day We Lost Southern California: A Future History

By Roger Gloss

Many Southern Californians heaved a sigh of relief when the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), an aging, trouble-prone nuclear power plant next to the Pacific Ocean, was permanently shut down in 2013. Others, less informed, were more or less neutral on the subject of nuclear energy and how it is produced. Few realized then - or now - that 1,600 metric tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste still languishing at the site poses a truly existential threat to life in Southern California as we've come to know it. This threat only grows over time. The Day We Lost Southern California: A Future History tells, in stark terms, what might well happen in the alarmingly near future if nothing is done to more safely store the spent fuel rods left over from the plant's operation. We risk sudden mass displacement of millions of people, total loss of property, and collapse of California's economy with severe impacts nationwide. We also risk thousands of deaths and incalculable long-term damage to the human health of millions. Seen through the eyes of journalist Michael Powell and Neal Prakash, fictional mayor of Irvine (the largest city close to SONGS), the story becomes personal. Readers of all stripes will find themselves in here, and hopefully understand why they have a vital stake in how this entire matter actually plays out.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DCYZWVFD
• ISBN13: 9798333425348
• Release Date: August 2024
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 49 Pages
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.1" x 5.3"