The Churchill County Nuclear Waste Oversight Program sponsored a trip to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) for a group of advanced placement science students from Churchill County High School. SONGS is located in southern California and is jointly owned by Southern California Edison (SCE) (75% ownership), San Diego Gas & Electric (20%), and the cities of Riverside and Anaheim. Today, SONGS provides nearly 20% of the power to more than 15 million people in Southern California -- enough power to serve 2.75 million households.
The group arrived at SONGS at 8:00am were the received an orientation and introduction to SONGS. The group learned the operation of a nuclear power plant in many respects is similar to that of a coal, natural gas or oil fired plant. They watched an animation of a nuclear power plant showing the reactor, fuel rod assemblies, steam generation system and the turbine/generator system. All have a heat source that boils water.
Students tested the radioactivity of common materials to demonstrate the radioactivity of everyday items. After receiving safety guidelines and instruction they donned hard hats and boarded vans to tour the 40 acre compound.
San Onofre stores nuclear waste on site in above ground dry cask storage and the group were allowed to tour the dry cask storage area and the power plant control room. Currently, San Onofre is the only power plant that manufactures storage casks for use on-site. The tour ended with a presentation by the students of a Churchill County community survey regarding Yucca Mountain.
From Left to Right, Back row: Rachel Mills, McKinzee Woodhouse, Callie Bailey, Carman Tam, Lauren Ryon, Rex Massey. Middle Row: Rylan Stevens, Ariel Endacott, Guy Carter, Lynn Pearce. Front Row: Marisa Julian, Dixita Tailor, Alyssa Stephens, Rachel Vanderbeek, Norm Frey, Steve Johnson. Very Front: Buster Litton, Kevin Luiz.
San Onofre Orientation
Buster Litton as Radiation Man
Students test a lantern mantle for radioactive thorium, and cookware for uranium.
Alyssa Stephens & Rachel Mills with fuel rod
Red Rover in the park
School trip to southern California
The advanced placement science students visited the Ocean Institute at nearby Dana Point the day before touring San Onofre Nuclear Generator Station. 
Rachel Mills, Alyssa Stephens, Arial Endacott, Melissa Thomas, Ileigh Williams, Guy Carter, and Matthew Robertson prepare to board the Sea Explorer, and collect sea life.
The students boarded the Sea Explorer at 7:30am to participate in the floating lab which is an advanced lab course geared to compliment high school and college courses in marine science and oceanography.
The Floating Lab provides an introduction to biological, chemical, and geological sampling techniques. Student oceanographers apply sampling and search protocols for water quality and biological monitoring.
Lecture at Boat harbor
Navigation and Weather
The navigation and weather station introduced students to one aspect of data collection at sea. They used a wind meter, a Beaufort scale, cloud formation chart, and a barometer to monitor the weather off of Dana Point throughout their trip. Knowing the latitude and longitude and being able to calculate by triangulating compass bearings gave the students the necessary information as part of the data collection process in their field research scenario.
Sea Explorer: Students prepare to drag the ocean floor bottom with a large net to collect sea life, Left to Right, Amanda Weathers, Kate Pinder, Dixita Tailor, McKinzee Woodhouse, Katherine Withers, Alyssa Stephens, Rachel Mills.
Sea Life Collected
Secchi Disk / Forel-Ule
Students observed and recorded water clarity with a secchi disk. Since the ocean is a dynamic, complex living system and warm water currents can cause upwelling introducing nutrients to the upper level of the water column students learned numerical values are assigned to track the changes in clarity. The ocean color ranges from brown red to green to sapphire blue. Each color provides clues to the agents that are suspended in the water column. In addition to the data provided by these two pieces of equipment, plankton was also collected with a specialized net and together, these pieces of information formed a picture of the ocean dynamics for that day.
Water Chemistry
Students collected data about the water column by retrieving water samples with a Van Dorn bottle sampling from a specified depth. They gathered data about the pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and temperature. The data was then compared to the values received by the Hydrolab probe and discussed during the conclusion.
Students interpreted their results and discussed any deviations that were found.
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