The State | IN BRIEF / SAN DIEGO

Panama officials have denied Edison permission to move through the passage, and environmentalists worry about seabirds.

The Region

Southern California Edison officials acknowledged Thursday they face an array of obstacles that will probably stall controversial plans to move a 950-ton decommissioned reactor from the San Onofre nuclear power plant to the East Coast for disposal.

Last week Edison officials said they had hoped to ship the reactor to a South Carolina nuclear waste site starting in March, but problems at each stage of the proposed journey now make that unlikely, Edison spokesman Ray Golden said.

The Panama Canal Authority has denied Southern California Edison permission to move the reactor through the waterway, officials said Thursday. The reactor was to be loaded onto a barge at the Camp Pendleton Marine base next month and shipped to a burial site in Barnwell County, S.C.

Other obstacles have dogged Southern California Edison’s attempt to move the radioactive reactor, from disputes with the California Department of Transportation and rail line officials to opposition from environmentalists.

“This reactor is likely to become the garbage barge of California, wanted by no one and adrift at sea,” said Mark Massara, coastal programs director of the Sierra Club of California.

Canal Authority officials said they denied San Onofre officials permission to travel through the passage in December. The maximum weight allowed for radioactive material is 150 tons, and if there were an accident, the canal’s emergency cranes would not be able to handle the reactor, which weighs more than six times the limit.

Decommissioned nuclear submarines and other radioactive materials have been shipped through the canal at lesser weights. A prominent concern was the possibility that the reactor could fall off the barge and block the canal, Golden said.

“We were disappointed,” Golden said. But “you could certainly understand their need to make sure transit through the canal is not delayed in any way.”

Golden said the firm has offered to send salvaging equipment with the barge, and is urging the Canal Authority to reconsider.

The California Coastal Commission last week narrowly approved a request by Southern California Edison to move the reactor by truck 15 miles across a state park and beach lands at the Camp Pendleton base.

If canal officials change their mind, Golden said the plant hopes to move the reactor down the beach before March 31, the deadline set by federal wildlife officials who are concerned about rare nesting birds. Moving dates are also limited by the hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean.

If prohibited from using the canal, the company will either have to ship the reactor on a barge 11,000 miles around Cape Horn at the tip of South America, or ship it west, navigating around Asia and Africa in an even longer trip.

The barge probably would have to deal with rough winter weather if it heads south. Planning for either trip would probably delay the voyage until at least November.

The Region | IN BRIEF / SAN DIEGO

Operators of the San Onofre nuclear power plant won state permission Friday to move a decommissioned nuclear reactor by truck across a beach that environmentalists say is a critical habitat for the endangered snowy plover and other species.

The California Coastal Commission approved the request by Southern California Edison. It plans to make the 15-mile three- to five-day trip in early March. The project must be completed by March 31 to avoid the plover’s primary nesting season.

Orange County

SAN DIEGO — Operators of the San Onofre nuclear power plant won permission Friday to move a decommissioned nuclear reactor by truck across a beach that environmentalists say is a critical habitat for the endangered snowy plover and other species.

After heated discussion, the California Coastal Commission voted 7-5 to approve the request by Southern California Edison, which operates the plant 10 miles south of San Clemente.

The company will move the reactor by tractor-trailer across a state park, part of Interstate 5, dirt roads and beach land at the Camp Pendleton Marine base.

Edison plans to make the 15-mile trip, which will take three to five days, in early March. It must complete the project by March 31 to avoid the primary nesting season of the snowy plover.

The defunct reactor, which has been cleaned of high-level radioactive material, will be loaded onto a barge at Camp Pendleton and shipped to a burial site in Barnwell County in South Carolina.

The Coastal Commission in February 2000 gave Edison permission to use a rail line to move the decommissioned reactor. But the energy company abandoned the plan when it learned it would have to build a 600-foot spur line to reach the barge and cover insurance costs.

Other options, including building temporary piers near the San Onofre station or sending the reactor by rail, were ruled out as either environmentally damaging or disruptive to rail traffic.

The coastal panel’s staff endorsed Edison’s choice of truck transport as “the feasible, least environmentally damaging alternative.”

Several members of the commission complained they were being presented with a series of bad alternatives.

Mark Massara of the Sierra Club told the commission that San Onofre’s operators were behaving like “reckless penny pinchers.”

The move will require the closure of portions of San Onofre State Park for what Edison estimates could be a few hours. During the move, at least two lanes of southbound Interstate 5 will be closed. The utility said the truck could travel the 400 yards of interstate it needs to cross in 20 minutes.

Once the reactor reaches the beach, biological monitors will check for nesting sites. If any are found, the truck and its assisting convoy will be routed around them or halted entirely, company officials said.

To cross the sandy stretches and portions of creek beds and estuary, crews will build a temporary road of high-density plastic matting. More than 1,000 mats will be laid out for a one-mile stretch. Sections of mat will be moved by forklift to the front in leapfrog fashion as the truck moves south.

Edison said it will begin the project only if weather and sea conditions are favorable for the entire move. It will cross creeks and streams only if water levels are six inches or less.

Massara said the Sierra Club intends to offer a live Web-cast of the move.