Don’t blame anti-nuke activists; PG&E decided to close Diablo

Pro-nuke people like David Deick (Letters, Sept. 21) want to blame anti-nuke activists for “forcing” Diablo Canyon to shut down, but it was PG&E’s assessment that shutting it down will be better for them financially than to keep it running. What corporation would shut down something that was economically viable?

Take the wages of workers. The average worker at Diablo makes over $150,000 a year. A solar installer’s average annual income is around $40,000. In so many ways, renewables are cheaper, not to mention a heck of a lot greener.

PG&E’s proposal for closing down Diablo publicly acknowledges that at least half of Diablo Canyon’s power is no longer needed. In addition, federal law requires that the plant have a “one-for-one backup” at all times, which is dedicated to reserve duty in case of an outage. When Diablo closes, it will no longer have to depend on old, high-priced facilities to provide backup power.

For Diablo to extend its license, it would most likely have to change its once-through cooling system. Estimates for new cooling towers are between $1.5 billion to $11 billion!

Ratepayers should be demanding that Diablo go offline immediately so that our rates can come down and we can move into a real 21st century power generation mode of clean, renewable energy.

This story was originally published October 4, 2017 at 7:11 AM with the headline "Don’t blame anti-nuke activists; PG&E decided to close Diablo."