On the docket in this episode we are taking you inside the courtroom to hear from former US Attorney and federal prosecutor, Chuck LaBella, who is working on the high profile San Onofre nuclear waste case. He’s been on the frontlines of a very contentious and heavily litigated battle against a potential Chernobyl-level like nuclear waste crisis in San Onofre, California.

In the 1960’s, The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), a nuclear power plant was built in San Onofre in a tsunami zone near the coast. The plant had to be shut down and begin decommissioning in 2013 after replacement of the steam generators failed, which meant the spent nuclear waste needed to be disposed of. Yucca Mountain, Nevada had been designated as the place for the storage of spent nuclear fuel. However, during the Obama administration, Nevada objected to their facility being used for out-of-state nuclear waste, which left nuclear power plants with no place to dispose of their spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive waste. The solution at San Onofre was to bury the 4000 tons of nuclear waste underground along the coastline, where it sits now. However, the cannisters that the fuel was buried are only guaranteed for a specified number of years, which is less than the life of the nuclear waste. All it takes is for a little bit of the waste to leak from the containers to trigger a major nuclear disaster.

Chuck is a former US Attorney and federal prosecutor, deputy chief of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Fraud Section, where he supervised white collar crime investigations and prosecutions throughout the country. Most significantly, he was responsible for the conviction of Las Vegas Home Owners Association crime kingpin Leon Benzer, the case led to 40 other convictions. He also served as the supervising attorney of the Department of Justice Campaign Finance Task Force. The task force was charged with investigating the possible illegal infusion of Chinese foreign money and the use of ‘’soft money’’ in connection with the Clinton-Gore presidential campaign. He now works in the private sector as Of Counsel at Barnes & Thornburg focusing his practice in leading internal investigations, white collar criminal defense and representing clients in business litigation.

Tina Denning is the Managing Director of the premier firm Denning Moores. She has over 20 years of experience practicing in the areas of construction law, business litigation and personal injury, and she litigates disputes from the claim stage through arbitration or trial and post-judgment collection efforts. https://www.denningmoores.com/christina-denning