Thank you to Sierra Club’s Gianna Patchen and Andrew Christie for informing us about on an obscure hearing held by state Legislators on PG&E’s Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant. (“Lawmakers must get real answers to questions about Diablo Canyon’s safety, necessity, and affordability,” Sept. 11). In their commentary about the hearing, Patchen and Christie state, “In the hearing’s most surreal moment, Laird asked the PG&E rep about the reactor vessel test they agreed to perform due to potentially defective welds and embrittlement of the vessel.” They point out that the test will not be completed until April 2026, yet PG&E touted that the tests will provide “confirmation of already determined [sic] that Diablo Canyon reactor vessels are safe for 60 years.” Since it is the public that is at risk from this old nuclear plant built on active earthquake faults, we don’t need plaudits from PG&E about safety. We need the truth.
Linda Parks
Los Osos
This article appears in Sept 18-28, 2025.
Nuclear is a potentially dangerous energy source, but with the existential threat that climate change is said to present, what choice is there? And with the great public resistance to the siting of power storage facilities, how can renewable sources provide the reliable 24/7 power we need?
5.0 earthquake off the Kamchatka Peninsula today, a little too close for comfort. It’s only a matter of time before we get one large enough to damage Diablo.
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us7000qx6g/executive