What the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station looks like with demolition at 80%

Five years down, about three more to go to complete the dismantlement of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station .

“When we started in 2020, we said it would be about eight years,” said Ron Pontes, Environmental Oversight and Site Closure Manager for Southern California Edison . “We’re really on track with that, moving right along.”

Drivers zooming along Interstate 5 still see the two giant containment domes that rise 190 feet high at the site of the plant, known as SONGS for short. But a recent tour showed the Union-Tribune the extent of the massive deconstruction effort.

Nearly all of the above-ground structures are gone and piles of rubble, almost reminiscent of old photos of bombed out buildings from World War II, lie scattered around the scene as workers — some operating exca