Shut down Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant before it shuts itself down

San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace has been the legal intervenor in all matters pertaining to safety at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power facility since 1973. Over the decades, Mothers for Peace has taken the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to federal court on several occasions and has sometimes won, setting important precedents used by other activist groups. Mothers for Peace strongly believes that the aging, unneeded nuclear power plant surrounded by 13 earthquake faults needs to be shut down now, not in 10 years.

Mothers for Peace appreciates the well-crafted Viewpoint by the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility’s executive director, Rochelle Becker, published in The Tribune on March 8. We appreciate state Sen. Bill Monning for bringing this matter to the attention of the public via his bill, SB 968, which would require PG&E to submit a study of San Luis Obispo County’s economic future without Diablo. However, a bill like this should be framed around developing a plan to assist the community transition through the closure process and should be solution-oriented rather than focusing on the negative impacts.

Another missing part of Sen. Monning’s bill is an analysis of the economic impact on the county and communities downwind should there be a sudden closure of Diablo Canyon caused by a radiation release, possibly one triggered by an earthquake. Not only would 1,400 jobs be lost, but also all major institutions and businesses would be severely affected. These include Cal Poly, Cuesta College, the California Men’s Colony, agriculture, wine, tourism, and real estate values.

March 11 marked the fifth anniversary of the initial catastrophe at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, a catastrophe the plant operator and the Japanese government had promised the public could never happen.

That glorious area once produced the finest rice in Japan. Now that crop is contaminated. It was the area where people from the city went to relieve their worries, to eat fresh seafood and to escape the pressures of city life. Today, it is a wasteland, and the tourist industry is devastated. About 100,000 evacuees from the area still live in hastily constructed emergency housing units and shelters.

Projected costs of remediation of the catastrophe at Fukushima are expected to top $500 billion dollars, but they haven’t even started to dismantle the reactors. Radioactive water still pours into the Pacific Ocean every day. There is no end in sight.

Looking at the closure of Diablo Canyon without looking at the effects of an accident amounts to putting our heads in the sand. Just last month, seven highly respected NRC nuclear engineers filed a petition with the agency asking for the shutdown of all nuclear facilities in the United States.

For several years, the NRC has been aware of a design flaw that leaves U.S. reactors, including Diablo Canyon, “vulnerable to so-called open phase events in which an unbalanced voltage, such as an electrical short, could cause motors to burn out and reduce the ability of a reactor’s emergency cooling system to function. If the motors are burned out, backup electricity systems would be of little help,” according to Reuters.

Let’s shut the plant down before it shuts itself down with economic and health consequences that would not be recoverable — ever.

This story was originally published March 26, 2016 at 11:44 AM with the headline "Shut down Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant before it shuts itself down."