The central problem with an aging nuclear power plant is what to do with the radioactive materials once its been shut down. In June of 2013, Southern California Edison was forced to halt functionality of its San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).

After years of alleged mismanagement and human error, Senator Barbra Boxer and Friends of the Earth, a political activist group, filed a legal petition with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to stop San Onofre from ever opening back up.

The last nail in the coffin for San Onofre was when they spent over $670 million assembling two faulty steam generators. SCE asked the NRC if it's second unit could run at 70 percent capacity but they were turned down in fear of a malfeasance suit.

Now that San Onofre is officially closed, the question remains how long radioactive materials will litter the Southern California coastline. Today when driving down the I-5 south the two large containment domes of San Onofre are still tragically visible. The deconstruction of San Onofre will cost more than $4 billion and could potentially last decades.

The two containment domes of San Onofre will eventually be taken down, leaving radioactive fuel rods, which will have to be housed in rows of statue-like capsules. It is not known for how long the fuel rods will have to be left on the beach.

Senator Boxer refuses to let the San Onofre 'meltdown' slide into the cracks of history. On Monday, Boxer requested key documents from the NCR that would hopefully shed light on the follies that besieged the plants faulty machinery. SCE is suing Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the maker of the steam generators, for providing them with inadequate equipment. Mitsubishi contends that they are only liable for $136 million, which is only a fraction of the original cost.

The NCR has no obligation to turn over any documents to Senator Boxer. They are an independent regulatory committee that is protected from being forced into disclosing important documents.

The truth of San Onofre is that we may never know exactly what went wrong and who's to blame. The issue remains that radioactive materials will lay in San Onofre for decades to come. Nuclear power is an effective energy source but aging plants around the country should use San Onofre as a case study of what not to do.