David Davison, San Clemente
Regarding the article “Nuclear No More,” while Headrick and his sheep were crowing about their success in the shutdown of SONGS, 1,100 of his neighbors were contemplating a future of unemployment and the attendant turmoil that goes with it.
The biggest culprit in this sad state of affairs is Madam Barbara Boxer whose tireless sabotage of a SONGS startup has resulted in a state more susceptible to blackouts and more dependent on imported power (watch for your electric bill to rise), and all the spent fuel is still on site and will be for the foreseeable future, thanks to democratic senator Harry Reid and this scandal racked Obama administration.
Ironically, in the very near future, an environmentalist group will air a pro-nuclear documentary—Pandora’s Promise—where they question, in light of global warming, whether one can be an environmentalist and not pro-nuclear. Perhaps Boxer, Headrick and company did not get the memo.
Blaming Senators Boxer and Reid for a plant that has serious problems and is a threat to 8 million people and their property is the attitude we’ve seen for years. That attitude expresses itself in the ignorance of the dangers by the people who are most at risk in the area, because they have been uninformed and misinformed about the dangers. In my mind it is the result of journalistic malfeasance by the Times and Register, and those whose greed far outweighs their regard for our community. Also in my mind the plant is closed because Senator Boxer exposed that the plant has been running while the operators knew the plant was faulty, up to the point where it failed. Somebody in another post suggested that the plant was closed because of economic concerns. Huh. How about someone needs to be in prison for knowingly endangering so many citizens.
I didn’t say Reid had anything to do with San Onofre’s shutdown. Reid and this “scandal racked administration” were involved in the defunding of Yucca Mt. which is where commercial spent fuel was to be stored. Now it sits in spent fuel pools and/or dry cask storage on site at each of the nuclear power plants.
What makes you think the operators knew “the plant” was faulty? On what do you base that opinion? Other than the Steam Generator issue the plant has, what other “serious problems” are you referring to? As to Boxer, politicians do not have the best track record for honesty and that goes for all parties. The ignorance you speak of can be directly tied to the fact that the nuclear industry in general and SCE specifically, have been completely AWOL when it comes to debunking the baseless claims of anti-nuke activists. May I also say that getting your information from opinion pieces is perhaps not the best source particularly on a technical subject. Guess its all moot now.
I do not speak from ‘opinion pieces’. Part of my beef is that residents in the area are badly misinformed about the dangers. I’ve written about traffic flows in the case of an accident; there won’t be any, contrary to indication from the SCE safety pamphlet. It doesn’t talk about the loss of egress to the southeast toward San Diego, cutting egress from south Orange County and all train traffic down the coast. It completely ignores the earthquake hazard from the San Andreas fault that has build up stress for one hundred fifty years that scientists predict can break are approaching the breaking point because of the underlying characteristics of the rock that has prevented the fault from slipping in the first place. It’s predicted potentially to flatten L.A. Sure you want to be stuck next to a demolished nuclear plant with no egress? You can come with your own conclusions why none knew any of this, why none of this was told to residents, why most residents to this day are totally uninformed. And why whoever in our cities oked the safety brochures with no consideration apparently with the facts. You might also check out Barbara Boxer’s accusation re: the culpability of the SCE management in running the plant when it allegedly knew of the risks of a allegedly known technical problem.
There’s been a lot of anger in my voice, that there is so much ignorance, so much laziness that people don’t take the time to learn and think. Of course it is more difficult with the failed journalism. And of course my observations are from reality, think the zone of devastation around Fukushima.
Madam Boxer’s claim that SCE knowingly installed “failed” Steam Generators is preposterous! Is there any reader who would replace their old car, a car that still works but doesn’t get the gas mileage it once did, with an expensive new car they know will fail in the first year? SCE execs may be overpaid but they aren’t stupid. With a little common sense, one should arrive at the conclusion that Boxer is either a liar, or grossly misinformed, an ignorance that will cost 1100 people their jobs. Let’s not forget that these people are our friends and neighbors with children that go to our schools and who provide numerous hours of volunteer service to our communities.
What will replace the 2300 MW of electrical generation Boxer has thrown away? The Sierra Club has already sued the Feds over Calico Solar, a Solar generating plant in the Mojave, deciding the environmental impact was too great–and it would have produced only a fraction of SONGs. What about Natural Gas, and the green house gases they produce? Greenies and even some local residents complain about Fracking making this method politically in doubt as well. Unless you want the landscape covered in a forest of windmills that only produce power a portion of the time and that have their own environmental issues with leaking oil and killing birds, we’re left with nuclear and green house gas producing coal. So, apart from lightning, electricity just doesn’t fall from the sky to power your TVs–there is always some environmental trade off. Hence, the point of the documentary “Pandora’s Promise” produced by environmentalists who’ve gotten religion in addition to common sense. I don’t believe it is available to view out here on the left coast, but you can see the trailer and interviews with the producer who was himself, once anti-nuclear.
As far as the safety of SONGs, I can deal with that in a future letter but suffice it to say that SONGs has been safely producing nuclear power for 45 years. The shutdown was an economical decision driven by politics. Unit 2 is refueled and ready to start, any future blackouts due to insufficient power you can lay at Boxer’s door, a door labeled “out to lunch.”