A recent letter about Diablo Canyon proves that America is no longer home of the brave 

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 [email protected].