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Diablo Canyon should shut down now

June 21, 2016

Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant

Opinion by Jane Swanson and Linda Seeley

San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace (SLOMFP) learned this morning of Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s (PG&E’s) proposal to withdraw its application for license renewal for the two reactors at Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. The current licenses expire in 2024 and 2025.

PG&E’s proposal secures a date certain for the final shutdown of the last nuclear plant in the state of California. Since 2009, when PG&E submitted its license renewal application to the NRC, SLOMFP has opposed the operation of Diablo Canyon on safety and environmental grounds.

Mothers for Peace is also pleased that under the settlement, PG&E will replace the energy from Diablo Canyon with renewables. The settlement confirms expert testimony submitted by Mothers for Peace in 2015 – which PG&E disputed at that time – that the power from Diablo Canyon can easily be replaced with solar, wind, wave, and geothermal energy.

“We are pleased that PG&E now recognizes that renewables can replace Diablo Canyon economically,” said Mothers for Peace spokesperson Jane Swanson. Mothers for Peace also applauds the agreement’s provisions to provide economic protection for workers and the community.

Mothers for Peace remains very concerned about the safety and environmental risks posed by current operation of the reactor. As the principal watchdog organization over Diablo Canyon, Mothers for Peace opposed the issuance of a license to the earthquake-vulnerable reactors in 1973, and continues to advocate for strict safety enforcement before the NRC.

“During the next eight years, we will heighten our vigilance over safety at the reactors,” said Linda Seeley, spokesperson for Mothers for Peace. “Our work to safeguard public health and the environment is needed now more than ever. Every day that Diablo Canyon is online, PG&E is playing Russian roulette with the safety of our community

Among the issues that SLOMFP will be assessing with its long-time attorney, Diane Curran, are these:

·      Even with a firm shut-down date, Diablo maintenance must be not be deferred. This is an aging plant, designed in the 1960’s and built largely in the 1970’s. The need for maintenance is on-going.

·      Earthquake data are still being collected and evaluated, and the risk of an earthquake-caused release of radioactive materials into the ecosphere remains high. Mothers for Peace will monitor the data and refer them to our expert geologists. Mothers for Peace still maintains that the plant, built on active faults, should not have been licensed originally, and should cease operation based on what we know now.

·      The majority of the high level radioactive wastes remain in the spent fuel pools, where they are the most vulnerable to fire, whether caused by an accidental loss of cooling water or by an act of terrorism. Mothers for Peace will continue to push PG&E to transfer the wastes into the most robust dry casks available.

·      The NRC continues to require added safety protections as a result of the lessons learned from the Fukushima disaster. Diablo must be held accountable for meeting all those requirements in a timely way.

·      The damage to the marine environment caused by once-through cooling should not be allowed to continue for another 9 years.

Read PG&E’s Joint Proposal for shut-down.

Jane Swanson and Linda Seeley are spokes persons for San Luis Obispo County Mothers for Peace.

 


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Exactly how many of you members of Mother’s for Peace currently live off the grid? Drive automobiles that run on renewable energy? Heat your house with solar or utilize wind power?

Eat organic ONLY? Have a wood burning fireplace? Wear footwear made with leather or from synthetics made from petroleum products?

Do you eat “entrained” beef, lamb, pork, or poultry? Farmed fish?

Once again, hippocricy at it’s finest.


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This is only an opinion voiced by MFP…take it for what it’s worth.


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anti oil anti nuclear anti coal anti oil trains anti oil pipeline anti large solar fields that leaves the wind….windmills… technology from nearly the beginning of time. Oh wait…no one wants them off shore where they will do some good. You know at some point the sensible ones will need to stand up and shout these people down. If they want to live off grid fine I don’t.


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Heh, like all whacko green radical leftists they want massive depopulation and everyone left over to live in the stone age, never shave their pubes, and vote for Bernie Sanders.


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9% of California’s electricity.


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And the percentage of budgets for any entity that receives Diablo taxes? plus job percentages?


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Time for the babymaking Nimby’s to become self sufficient by generating their own electric power and shelling out ~$20K for their own personal rooftop solar installation.


Not only will each residential system take care of that household’s needs; each installation will additionally benefit the entire grid as it produces more power whenever that household consumes less than it’s system was designed for.


A win-win, proactive solution.


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So Mary there’s a special power line that sends the electricity from the plant to the GRID that bypasses your house or do you have a special filter to keep the nuclear electrons out? Make sure to use it when the state is importing electricity from greenhouse gas emitting sources. But then that’s probably ok since we aren’t producing it here.


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The electricity from Diablo is not used in our area. The dangers they refer to are so great that every property owner in this area has an exclusion on their homeowner’s insurance policy in the event of a nuclear event or meltdown. Not to mention that if an accident or terrorist act occurs we can all say goodbye to our health, especially for our areas’ children who are the most vulnerable to radioactivity. Thank you to the authors of this article for informing the public.


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You can make foil hats to protect yourselves or you can move if you don’t like it.


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Mary, was the power plant here when you moved here? Feel free to move someplace else…. perhaps Mexico would be more to your liking.


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Mary is correct – the electricity generated by the Diablo plant is transferred out of SLO County to other communities. Know your facts before casting stones!


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Mothers for higher bills, fewer jobs, less affordable housing, you are a disgrace to the general public. Other states are building nuclear plants and you get our closed. Property values are going to decline,there will be higher taxes, less good paying jobs, and all sort of financial problems thanks to these b^*(*&%^”s and all their tree hugging friends. So much for getting recycled water from Diablo as we enter into year #5 of this drought.


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The desalinated water was a political game piece to try to cinch the District 3 Supe race for Adam Hill. No wonder we never saw “reimbursement agreements” on any of the Zone 3 agenda’s…it was all a ruse.


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and to think they probably used electricity from Diablo to post their diatribes all these years.

I can’t wait for the crushing budget shortfalls and skyrocketing electric rates. Thanks moms


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