“Renewable” energy is probably useful for some small part of our consumption. However, when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine, it is not a solution, and our current level of battery technology will not enable it to do significantly more. Even if it could provide sufficient power for everything we do (which it cannot), it would destroy a great deal of our environment.
The French have supplied 70 percent of their electrical energy needs for 30 years by the use of clean nuclear energy. We have dozens of ships that are powered by nuclear generators. What possible justification can there be to deprive our society of the energy it requires when such a reliable and non-polluting source is easily available?
John Goodrich
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Apr 1-11, 2021.
There may be a future for nuclear energy, but outmoded power plants like the one at Diablo Canyon that produce excessive amounts of radioactive waste are definitely not part of a healthy future for the world. There are currently millions of pounds of toxic radioactive waste being stored at Diablo Canyon under “temporary” conditions that are not considered safe for permanent storage. The complete long-term cost of storage and monitoring of this waste is likely to exceed the value of all the energy the plant will produce. Realize, that the waste at Diablo Canyon will need to be stored and monitored for at least 10,000 years. Notice that officials at Diablo Canyon are hesitant to reveal to the public the annual cost of storing those millions of pounds of vulnerable toxic waste at Diablo. That waste and the way it is being stored, creates a serious risk for every resident of the Central Coast. And the long-term cost of that storage is astronomical. There are plenty of good reasons— including serious liability issues— that PG&E decided that it’s no longer viable to operate that plant.
Battery technology is advancing at a tremendous rate and industry leaders throughout the world have now concluded that renewable energy is financially more viable than non-renewable energy. Thus, there will be a tremendous move toward renewable energy in the coming decade and it would be wise financially and environmentally to go with that flow rather than trying to stop the tide. Fossil fuel technology is archaic and in many cases horrific. Black lung anyone? Oil drilling solvents in the local water supply?
Renewable energy is about to get a big boost, and the good news is that California legislators—including San Luis Obispo assemblyman Jordan Cunningham—have been sparked into action. AB 525, of which he is a co-author, lays out an expedited pathway for offshore wind energy that will make use of the Central Coast’s existing transmission infrastructure, bring needed jobs and opportunity to the region after Diablo closes, and mitigate environmental injustices. AB 525 will be heard in the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Energy Wednesday, April 7th, and SLO residents should be encouraged to write Jordan Cunningham and the Committee to voice support for this bill. The Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility Legal Fund is endorsing this important legislation.
If nuclear energy being produced at Diablo Canyon is supposedly so “clean“ as some suggest, why is it that we now have millions of pounds of toxic radioactive waste being stored there in temporary facilities deemed by the nuclear regulatory agency to be unsuited and unsafe for permanent storage?
It’s also disturbing to know that some Diablo Canyon power plant defenders are insisting that the only reason PG&E has chosen to close the plant is because they are unable to meet safety regulations in a financially viable manner. In essence, they are saying if we relax the safety standards then PG&E could afford to keep the plant operating and generating millions more pounds of radioactive waste despite having no viable plan of how and where to store it permanently in an acceptable manner. So we are left with millions of pounds of toxic radio active waste on the central coast vulnerable to natural disasters and terrorism. I’d say there’s a lot of good reasons PG&E has chosen to close the plant without being ordered by anyone to do so.
Support clean nuclear energy, keep Diablo Canyon OPEN!
Stop whacky liberals and their ‘green energy’ delusion.
A decrepit nuclear power plant that produces millions of pounds of highly toxic radioactive waste with no safe place to permanently store it should not in any way be considered “clean“.