This recent letter is a classic example of irrational fearmongering (“Shut it down,” July 20). It is a typical hysterical rant where a person, propelled by some deep delusional fear, demands that the government and society do something entirely stupid just to make them feel better. Ordinarily it is not even worth the effort to address the concerns since such people are emotional by nature and therefore have little interest in facts or reality. Yet, I do think it important to point out to the general public the irrational nature of the fear, because in our society fear can be very infectious. America is no longer the home of the brave.
The primary assertion that there could be an earthquake that could affect the operations at Diablo Canyon is entirely true, but the statement that such an earthquake would necessarily “destroy life within a 600-square mile radius of Diablo Canyon Power Plant” is patently absurd. These issues were raised decades ago when Diablo Canyon opened, and it is still here doing fine. Over its operating life it has undergone regular seismic upgrades making it ever more resistant to seismic events, and in the event of any seismic activity it is designed to shut down automatically.
In fact, since its inception nuclear power has proven to be one of the safest forms of power production and the least harmful to the environment. Nuclear waste is compact and manageable, unlike the waste emitted into the atmosphere by fossil fuel production and the waste stream generated in the manufacture of solar panels and wind turbines. They are still trying to figure out how to recycle all that stuff because it is toxic. There is no alternative energy source that has a “zero harm output,” and there is not likely to be one until they can get the perpetual motion machine working. Nuclear fuel can even be recycled. For years, half the nuclear power produced in the U.S. came from fuel from decommissioned Russian bombs.
I too have written to the Public Utilities Commission on occasion asking them things like how they could claim that Diablo Canyon’s production would be replaced by renewables, when their own figures indicate that all California renewables together can only supply a quarter of the total power demand on an annual basis. The rest has to come from somewhere else, and in California most of that would be from the burning of methane gas, which is harmful to the environment. If the effect of methane lost to the atmosphere during production is factored in, natural gas is worse than coal in contributing to global warming. Regardless, any clean energy used to replace Diablo Canyon production would not be replacing fossil fuel production, so closing Diablo Canyon will inevitably cause considerable and senseless harm to the climate and the environment.
Finally, there are the social and economic issues that would result from the closure: the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in local tax revenue; the loss of about 1,500 high-paying jobs, and the inevitable relocation of more than a thousand families who have lived and worked in this community for decades.
In conclusion, I do offer one suggestion to the author: If you’re so damned scared, why don’t you just move instead of foisting your irrational fear onto others? We already have enough other stuff to worry about. It’s getting hard to keep up. Δ
Mark Henry wrote to New Times from San Luis Obispo. Send a response for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in 55 Fiction 2023.
“In fact, since its inception nuclear power has proven to be one of the safest forms of power production and the least harmful to the environment.”
Until it isn’t. Or hasn’t the commentator ever heard of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island or Fukushima?
At Chernobyl, over 100 curies of radioactivity was released into the atmosphere, about 400 times more than was released during the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There is still a 1,600 mile “exclusion area” surrounding the failed power plant.
While the government still contends that Three Mile Island was not a disaster and that no one was harmed, studies show a possible coverup considering the rates of thyroid cancer for people living in the area skyrocketed in the years after the plant’s core melted down.
And at Fukushima, the Japanese are still dealing with the fallout (no pun intended) of that accident which was caused by a tidal wave originating in the Pacific Ocean (gee, I wonder what ocean Diablo Canyon is near?). Months after the disaster the Japanese government said that much of the area around the plant would be uninhabitable for decades.
Now, I am not one who favors the shut down of Diablo. We need to transition as quickly as possible away from fossil fuels and until wind and solar can provide what we need, nuclear is a needed evil. But to criticize someone for pointing out that Diablo does indeed present an existential threat is absurd. I wish the writer had simply presented the facts about the current need for nuclear power rather than launching an ad hominem attack against the previous letter writer.
It’s this cavalier attitude of those who want to keep Diablo Canyon open that worries me most. Nuclear reaction is the most dangerous way to boil water (to power the generators). If you cannot acknowledge that fact, you should not be operating nuclear reactors. Understanding all the inherent dangers of nuclear power — and doing everything possible (such as replacing the embrittled reactor vessels of Diablo Canyon!) so that we don’t end up as a Central Coast Chernobyl — is key to keeping the damn place operating.
Morro Bay has the Tsunami problem. A Fukushima type Tsunami has been studied for Diablo Canyon PP. Due to the 85′ elevation or above of components tidal wave damage is localized at the intake structure.. At the sea level intake structure, a possible undersea landslide could affect Aux Saltwater Pumps in their submarine type vaults. So, that seems to be the biggest finding, IMO. Yes, both Diablo units will be off-line for months while the intake structure is mucked out and circulating water pumps are overhauled. Below is the link to the 4/24/2018 Tsunami Diablo report.
If you had my awareness, you would glean from that same report on page 82 bullet “5.7.5 No Credit for Offsite Power Recovery Sensitivity Case 14 ([16], Section 6.3.14): A sensitivity case was performed on the impact of crediting offsite power for seismic events. This recovery was set to fail and the SPRA was re-quantified. This recovery action has no impact on the SCDF and SLERF.”
That means to me the Morro Bay 230kV source to Diablo will not be so lucky to escape Tsunami damage since the switchyard sits ~12″ above sea level. That’s 161,000+ customers affected from a large scale outage at Morro Bay for hours to up 4 days to clear roads and build a shoofly bypass.
https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1812/ML18120A20…