No, Mr. Henry, the increased maintenance activity at the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant is not a conspiracy by public officials and PG&E (“The year the music died,” March 25).
Unit 2 was offline 25 percent of the time during 2020 and has been offline most of 2021 so far because of problems with the stator. While a failed stator would not cause a radioactive release, it would pose dangers to plant workers, and no electricity can be produced without it.
Recurring leaks of hydrogen gas caused shutdowns in July and October of 2020. The Dec. 2 closure was necessitated by excessive vibrations and lasted for several weeks. Unit 2 has only run a few days at a time in 2021, largely for purposes of testing whether PG&E has gotten the vibration problem under control.
And mind you, the ratepayers were charged nearly $100 million in 2019 to recondition the 30-year-old stator that still does not work reliably. Combine that with the fact that ratepayers are paying over-market prices for the energy produced at Diablo—$1.25 billion projected by PG&E for 2020—and you begin to wonder about a different conspiracy. Perhaps the California Public Utilities Commission and PG&E are in cahoots to keep this aging plant limping along until PG&E wants to close it in 2025.
Why not shut it down now and save us all a lot of money?
Jane Swanson
spokesperson
San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace
This article appears in Apr 1-11, 2021.
Real simple~ how are you going to replace this stable clean energy source for 5 million homes? Once this new alternative is built THEN shut down Diablo ~ not BEFORE.
Really simple. It appears this energy source from this plant is not at all stable, denwa.
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.
It should be emphasized that it was PG&E, the owner of the Diablo Canyon power plant, that made the unilateral business decision to shut down the plant in 2025. The plant owners were not ordered to shut the plant down. It’s by their own choice because they have calculated that the plant is no longer a viable business and presents an untold number of serious liability risks and responsibilities the company is eager to escape from. The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant is outmoded technology. More efficient, less toxic waste generating and safer designs have been developed. Nowhere in the world will there ever again be built a nuclear power plant with the more-than-half-a-century old technology that Diablo is saddled with. It’s time for the Diablo diehards to get real, let go and move on with the times.
BULLSHIT ALERT!!! rightword 2 is AGAIN putting out bullshit! The state of California legislated and regulated Diablo out of business. Clean nuclear energy IS viable and currently powering a HUGE portion of central coast homes. MORE NUCLEAR POWER, less rightword 2 posts!
Ther are millions of pounds of toxic radioactive waste being stored in temporary Storage facilities at Diablo Canyon, vulnerable to natural disasters and terrorism. According to the nuclear regulatory agency those facilities are not suited or safe for permanent storage. And there are no viable plans underway to store that waste in a safe permanent manner. Experts agree that that waste will pose a danger for at least 10,000 years and require proper storage and continual monitoring if the public is going to be adequately safeguarded.
Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant is based on outmoded technology. If there is a future for nuclear power, its not going to happen with the half-century old technology currently being used on the central coast. No way, no how. Technology has moved on. We need to move on also. It was PG&Es decision to close the plant. Ive seen no public efforts by PG&E top management to reverse their decision.
Not only that, PG&E management has a horrible record of safety when it comes to management of powerlines, resulting in awful, deadly fires throughout California.
Who is going to pay for 10,000 years of storage and monitoring of toxic radioactive waste?
If nuclear energy being produced at Diablo Canyon is so “clean“, why has it resulted in millions of pounds of radioactive toxic waste being stored there in temporary facilities, deemed by the nuclear regulatory agency as unsafe for permanent storage?
It will come as a revelation to some people that the central coast will do just fine without Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in operation. The people of the central coast should not feel as if they are held hostage by an outmoded nuclear power plant nor should they feel compelled to have to bow before it in supplication. Hundreds of Well-paying jobs will be created carry out the decommissioning and dismantling the old lady of the canyon.
Then let us turn our attention to new forms of energy generation that will be considerably more economically viable in the long run. And if nuclear power generation is going to be part of our future, lets make sure we use the best technology possible, not an inefficient plant based on designs that are a half century old
It does not help matters that Diablo Canyon was built on an earthquake fault and is only designed to withstand up to a 6.8 magnitude earthquake. Oops! Its sea water cooling system is vulnerable to tsunamis, the potentially devastating form of natural disaster that, judging by historical records, is overdue to visit our coastline once again.
Dry cask storage is air cooled and reportedly spews carbon-14 in unknown amounts downwind.
All nuclear power plants should definitely be shut down.