‘Mothers for Nuclear’ need to look at big picture of Diablo Canyon’s closure

Mothers for Nuclear co-founders Kristin Zaitz and Heather Matteson are being good mothers in their Viewpoint article arguing against closure of Diablo Canyon nuclear plant (“The best deal for SLO County? Keep Diablo Canyon open,” Nov. 16). They both in fact work for Diablo Canyon (see their website) and want to keep their children well-fed on nuclear revenue.

Of course, their arguments for Diablo as “clean” energy follow the usual industry line, which is: don’t ever mention the horribly toxic stew of nuclear waste being continually generated and stored on-site, which remains unsafe for the rest of us and our children’s children for tens of thousands of years. And don’t mention the Shoreline, Hosgri and other active faults which bracket the plant, creating significant risk for damage and a catastrophic nuclear accident for all of us and our children.

Zaitz and Matteson seem like nice young people based on the large picture The Tribune chose to include with the article. But until they present a balanced discussion of the issue, we can only assume they write their defense of Diablo out of simple self-interest. I suggest for the sake of their children they start re-tooling their expertise to master truly clean energy technologies such as solar and wind.

This story was originally published November 22, 2016 at 9:04 PM with the headline "‘Mothers for Nuclear’ need to look at big picture of Diablo Canyon’s closure."