LAGUNA NIGEL, Calif. (AP) - Southern California's San Onofre nuclear power plant was permanently closed in 2013, but the site remains home to 3.5 million pounds of nuclear waste that has nowhere else to go.

That problem was highlighted Friday at a congressional hearing in Laguna Nigel that examined the nation's struggle to build a long-term national repository to discard used radioactive fuel.

The nation is decades behind on developing the site, and Rep. Harley Rouda says one in three Americans are living within 50 miles of nuclear waste.

Rouda - a Democrat whose district is near the defunct plant - says the nation does "not have any more time to waste" to find a solution.

Nevada has been fighting for years to block the creation of a national nuclear-waste dump at Yucca Mountain.

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