Fires are burning in California right now. These are global warming fires caused by vegetation getting insufficient rainfall. A lack of rainfall is caused by warming temperatures worldwide and locally.
The primary cause of global warming worldwide is burning fossil fuels. California has wind and solar, but we need a carbon-free source of energy that is always on because sometimes the wind goes away and the sun always goes down.
California has one nuclear plant left playing that vital “always on” role—Diablo Canyon Power Plant. But PG&E wants to close it. The reason: PG&E is a private business and there’s more money in replacing Diablo Canyon with natural gas plants. Another reason: Fossil fuel interests give millions in campaign donations to California politicians yearly. Utilities are required to do what’s good for people.
So something good for politicians and good for profit, but bad for the climate and local health is going to be done with the closure of Diablo Canyon. Public utilities are supposed to be controlled by citizens through our democratic government. A utility that’s good for people should stay in place and the governor has the power to do that, but natural gas contributes to political campaigns.
Call your state representative and tell him or her it’s not a good deal for you and your family, nor any family in California. You want Diablo Canyon to keep running. Tell the representative you want to know what he or she will do about it to help decide how you should vote in November. Say, “I vote for politicians who vote for what’s best for the people.”
William Gloege
Santa Maria
This article appears in Sep 3-13, 2020.
Of all the dangerous threats we face as a county, state, nation and planet, without a doubt plutonium production represents the most grave. Diablo needs to be shuttered yesterday. SLO County has an abnormally high incidence of premature childbirth linked to Diablo’s poisonous countenance. Diablo’s pollution makes desalination of seawater impossible. Diablo’s seawater cooling intake destroys larvae, which are plankton, which are baby fish. Do the math. 3 strikes and you’re out, Diablo. And for all you Diablo lovers and apologists out there, remember you’re on the Pacific ring of fire, with an earthquake fault directly below Unit 1.
Joey Racano, Los Osos
Mr. Racano needs to sharpen his critical thinking skills. Unlike burning fossil fuel, which compensates for the substantial intermittencies of both solar and wind – and dumps the waste products into the atmosphere we breathe, nuclear power safely stores its waste products until they can be used as fuel for the next generation of nuclear power reactors. The waste products are carefully guarded – and because of their safe storage, their radiation has never harmed anyone in the six-decade history of U.S. nuclear power production. That can’t be said for the mountains of coal ash at LADWP’s Intermountain Power Plant in Delta, Utah connected with California power production. Furthermore, the spent nuclear fuel decays to a level comparable to a good grade of uranium ore found in nature in 300 to 500 years.
BTW, Diablo Canyon already desalinates lots of seawater every day. SLO County began a study to expand the desalination station to help supply drought – parched southern SLO County. Then, there’s the phony claim of an active earthquake fault under Diablo Canyon. The reality is the 95% of the huge daily consumption of natural gas that California imports to generate electricity and other uses is imported from out-of-state via an aging and vulnerable bulk transmission and storage system. California’s active earthquake faults currently harm this natural gas infrastructure. Finally, most of the plankton, eggs, and larval sea life that is associated with DCPP operations is consumed by the filter feeders like barnacles and mussels that line the 10 foot by 10 foot cooling water tunnels leading to DCPP’s power deck. The filter feeders grow so well that every nine months, the tunnels are closed off so workers can scrape off the abundant mussels and barnacles. The loss is comparable to the actions of the filter feeders on a mile or so of rocky California coastline. The reality is that the SLO Tribune ran a cover story about the abundant fish and sea life catches from the waters near Diablo Canyon.
Gene Nelson, Ph.D. San Luis Obispo, CA
Wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard the same old tired sorry excuses I just heard from Gene Nelson, Ph.D. about Diablo. As far as the seawater cooling intake destruction of plankton, it sounds like Gene wants to sing the praises of a glorified barnacle farm. Nature doesn’t need humanity to feed the barnacles, Gene- it needs us to stop destroying the fish larvae. And while Diablo destroys only about 95% of the larvae it sucks in, when they slap a desal unit on the intake it ups that destruction to 100%. Another thing Gene missed, is the earthquake fault. Not only is there in fact one fault running directly beneath Unit one, but Mr. Ph.D. doesn’t seem aware of the studies done by Jim Brune (Awarded the seismology medal by the American Seismological Society, 1989) for his theory about En Echelon Faults. These are faults that run parallel to each other and so give vertical accelleration to seismic energy, just as an incoming wave slaps together with an outgoing wave at the shoreline and both wind up shooting straight up. These En Echelon faults offshore Diablo Canyon will cause seismic shocks Diablo could never hope to withstand.
Respectfully,
Joey Racano, Director
Ocean Outfall Group
Mr. Racano, a science fiction writer who lacks degrees in science or engineering is a self-proclaimed “expert” who denigrates people with actual, relevant expertise. Diablo Canyon provides the equivalent of more than five Hoover Dams of safe, abundant, reliable and emission -free to California 24/7 . In the middle of August, California’s solar plant output was substantially reduced because of the haze from wildfires. The winds were diminished because of the large high pressure area to the east of California. The rolling blackouts the state experienced would have been much worse without DCPP’s reliable power. Furthermore, DCPP’s desalination plant does not cause a measurable impact on the loss of larvae, eggs and plankton. Mr. Racano’s sea life loss statistics are not fact-based. There are abundant mussels and barnacles in the outfall above sea level because they got past the filter feeders and DCPP’s condensers.
Mr. Racano appears to not want to understand the careful characterization of the seismology around Diablo Canyon – and makes up his own active earthquake faults. Please refer to the April 28, 2015 SLO Tribune article, by David Sneed, “NRC reaffirms Diablo Canyon’s seismic safety,” In the posted comments to the article, this is the version of my comments that appeared in the NRC report released to the public regarding the 28 April 2015 meeting between the NRC, their consultants, and the owner of Diablo Canyon Power Plant.
The staff received a comment from Dr. Gene Nelson (Physical Sciences professor at Cuesta College and Government Liaison for Californians for Green Nuclear Power) via email during the meeting. The NRC staff inadvertently missed the opportunity to acknowledge Dr. Nelson’s comment during the meeting.
According to Dr. Nelson, Diablo Canyon has favorable site conditions, which attenuate or dissipate earthquake energy over relatively short distances. Due to these favorable conditions, the primary earthquake forces seen by the plant would be dominated by nearby earthquake sources and energy transmitted to the plant would be dominated by the small section of the earthquake rupture closest to the plant. Dr. Nelson stated that when considering the information presented at the meeting of overall plant ruggedness and the seismic hazard insights discussed above, Diablo Canyon will continue to operate safely – with generous safety margins – during anticipated earthquakes.
Gene Nelson, Ph.D. San Luis Obispo, CA