SAN DIEGO — Three years after the closing of the San Onofre nuclear plant, the battle of what to do with the leftover waste continues.

Counter to Southern California Edison, former city attorney Mike Aguirre is proposing to come up with a new solution that moves the fuel elsewhere.

He said he wants the public utilities commission to set up a high-level group of experts to reexamine a better idea instead of settling for what Edison plans to do.

“The greatest nuclear threat that southern Californians is not from Iran but from Southern California Edison,” said Aguirre. “Edison wants to find the cheapest way to do it and run off with the rest of the money.”

Last year, Edison was allocated nearly $5 billion of taxpayer money to shut down the plant and deal with the leftover waste.

By 2019, the utility company hopes to transfer the fuel from steel-lined concrete to storage pools until the federal government removes the fuel from the site.

Aguirre, however, believes holding onto the waste is a bad idea, especially due to concern over a possible natural disasters or a potential terrorist attack.

“We have a potential Chernobyl right in our back yards,” said Aguirre. “This massive waste that under the wrong circumstance could kill millions of people.”

In response to Aguirre, Edison claims the storage design exceeds California earthquake requirements and protects against water, fire and tsunamis and is inaccessible to missiles.

“Our decision to move expeditiously to transfer the fuel also reflects feedback from community leaders who prefer dry storage of used nuclear fuel,” said Chris Thompson, Southern California Edison Vice President of Decommissioning in a statement.