Escondido Sunrise Rotary; Meeting to Serve our Community via Zoom; and “Decommissioning the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station; Where to Place the Nuclear Waste?”…February 10, 2022
As we all try to conduct our professional pursuits in new ways, it’s appropriate to remind ourselves of who we are as a Serving Organization… Our accomplishments, our fellowship and the reminder of our many successes is valuable as we seek new opportunities to serve…
This meeting was held via Zoom due to the contagious Omicron variant of Covid… And, opened with a “virtual bell”…
Online meetings will continue through February…
As a Club, we honored our nation with a salute to our Flag led by Past President and Foundation Chair, Kevin Svetich…
And, an invocation was offered by Past President, Jack Anderson…
Guests and Visitors:
None this week
Now, some Sunrise Rotary member milestones…
Birthdays:
February 10: Mark Quick
10: Chris Leso
Anniversaries:
February 14: Judy and Tom Fitzgerald, 28 years… Congratulations!!
Rotary Anniversaries:
None this week…
Sunrise Rotarians Serving, and Announcements:
Mark you Calendars…
Note some service opportunities coming up…
San Pasqual Union School Entry Sign to Get a Facelift…
Past President, Rich Aeling described this project that will take place over two sessions; February 26 and March 12 are the preliminary planned dates for the work… More details to follow…
District 5340 Workshop on Ending Human Trafficking…
March 4 at Liberty Station, “A Collaborative Summit” will take place enabling our Rotary region to become more familiar with the issue of human trafficking in our region…
Support for Fisher House at Camp Pendleton
Thursday March 17, after our Rotary meeting, will be the delivery project for items supporting Fisher House at Camp Pendleton… More information will follow as to needed items… Past President, George Beitner shared information about items that are needed and opportunities to be part of the delivery of goods…
Local Rotary Events…
Area Rotary Clubs are celebrating…
The Bonsall Rotary is celebrating its 25th Annual “Wine Brews and Blues” event on May 14th
The After Five Rotary Club is having a fundraising gala event entitled, “The Great Gatsby” celebrating ten years of philanthropy; and honoring Rotarian and Retired Escondido PD Lieutenant, Al Owens with their first “Spirit of Community” Award… Saturday February 26th at the Morgan Run Club in Rancho Santa Fe… Past President, Rich Aeling has some tickets…
The Route 78 Rotary Club is hosting its 8th Annual Mariachi Festival with Tacos, Tequila and Concert on April 10…
Rotarians Having Fun and Serving…
All kinds of fun and service and fun…
Pictures are worth a thousand words…
Gazebo at Heritage Park in Downtown Gets a New Coat of Paint…
Past President, Rich Aeling led a group of volunteers in painting the gazebo… Thanks to George Weir for lending a hand with our Sunrise Rotarians…
Thank You Notes and Recognition…
President Richard shared a thank you note from the Aces Scholarship Program at CSUSM… Sunrise Rotary, along with Marcia Agnew’s company, contributed to the program supporting foster youth matriculating at the University…
Past President, Brian Murphy shared a Recognition Resolution from State Senator, Brian Jones, for Sunrise Rotary’s support for the “Furniture, A Wood Show” through the Escondido Arts Partnership…
Hi-Fives…
Playground Area for Serenity House; Supported by Sunrise Rotary, the Escondido Community Foundation and the “Cabins by the Lake” Charitable Fund…
John Schwab shared information about the installation of play equipment and benches at the Serenity House property… Serenity House provides support for women and their children overcoming addictions…
Program
Past President, George Beitner introduced John Dobken and Julie Holt from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station as they presented a program on the decommissioning of the facility…
John provided history of the facility; SONGS is the acronyms that describes the nuclear generating facility… The facility has been on the site on Navy-owned land for 50 years…
John Dobken speaking to Sunrise Rotarians via Zoom…
John spoke about the goals of the decommissioning effort, focusing on Safety, Stewardship and Engagement…
John described the primary reason for the decommissioning of SONGS in that a steam generator problem arose after a major overhaul and that the cost to return the generator to normal operation was not cost effective for the long term life of the facility…
All of the decommissioning efforts are governed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; the process is likely to last up to 60 years…
The plant was retired in 2013 and the effort to safely store and ultimately store and remove the spent nuclear waste is a 50-year cycle…
All nuclear generating facilities have set aside trust funds for ultimate decommissioning… The SONGS trust fund, built over time by a small charge to utility rate payers now totals around $4.5 billion… A third of that amount has come from customer sources…
In addition to dismantling much of the generation facilities, a new rail yard has been built for the transport of materials and waste off site…
Rail transport is expected to involve over 5,000 rail car loads over the life of the decommissioning process as material is transported safely to off site locations…
Recycling of the facility includes the removal of the concrete structures and their reinforcing steel, as well as the steel and titanium from the generation turbines… Over 2 million pounds of titanium is being removed and recycled…
Canisters of spent nuclear waste are currently being stored on site until they can effectively and safety be removed to an offsite location. The storage capacity is up to 100 years for the canisters of spent nuclear fuel…
A major concern is locating off site areas for disposal of the spent nuclear waste. Areas in Utah, Arizona and Nevada are likely, however issues with governmental approval have slowed the process… A coalition has been formed to force the Federal Government to make way for such off site storage…
Thanks to John and Julie for their explanation of this important project in our region…
The Opportunity Drawing…
Temporarily in hiatus while we are in an online meeting mode…
See you on line on February 17th…
Next Week’s Meeting:
Will be on line again as the Omicron variant is kicking up it’s ugly heels…
Our program will be Lindsay Boddicker speaking about the Adaptive Sports and Recreation Association…
Thanks for Attending Today’s Meeting…
Support for our Escondido Community …
Our great community and the success of its businesses is all of our responsibilities… Support the businesses that are doing all they can to survive during this challenging time… Take out some chow… Be ready to support them when the economy begins working again…
The ‘Giving Arch’ on Grand Avenue and Centre City Parkway reminds us that Escondido is a caring, giving community…
To all; be safe and be well…. God Bless those men and women that carry the load at our medical facilities, and God Bless our first responders… May our governmental leaders be wise, thoughtful and smart as this pandemic is overtaken by our hard work and collective support…
Online Meetings:
Technical Support for Online Meetings:
Our meetings will begin as a hybrid setting with in-person and on-line opportunities…The meetings will be technically managed by President Richard Agnew… Thanks for that Richard… And, Richard is prepared to support all of our attempts at joining the on-line meetings… Look for his email with details and links to log on to the upcoming Zoom meetings…
Watch for emails defining the next meeting. The system works fine, dependent upon your technical support available through your PC or laptop…
SEE YOU SOON…… ONLINE… Next meeting; Thursday, February 17; 7:30 AM… Check President Richard’s email for the Zoom Link…
