Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth called the radioactive release of steam from the San Onofre nuclear plant on Feb. 1 near San Diego a sharp reminder that a Fukushima could happen here.
The organization has called on California Gov. Jerry Brown to develop a plan for dependable, clean energy that will allow the San Onofre and Diablo Canyon nuclear reactors to be shut down.
“The recent leak of radioactive steam at the San Onofre nuclear plant is a grim reminder of the fact that what happened in Japan last spring could happen in California,” said Friends of the Earth’s climate and energy director, Damon Moglen. “Both reactors at San Onofre are down yet households’ lights are still on. This undercuts the claim that those reactors are essential for reliable power supply.”
California’s two nuclear plants, at San Onofre and Diablo Canyon, are of a similar age and design to the Fukushima plant involved in the radioactive disaster in Japan. They sit near major earthquake faults, directly on the Pacific sea coast. Millions of Californians live within the California reactors’ 50-mile danger zone—the radius established by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as unsafe during the Fukushima disaster.
“The question of whether these 30-year-old reactors plants should be allowed to continue beyond their 40 year design lifetime should be answered by an action plan to construct reliable, clean facilities to replace them,” Moglen said. “We call on the California government to require utility owners to develop such a plan and implement it as a matter of urgency.”
The reactors at San Onofre have been shut down unexpectedly twice over the past half year, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has found a laundry list of safety deficiencies at the reactors.
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According to Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) data, San Onofre has the worst safety record of all U.S. nuclear power plants. And Southern California Edison, the operator of San Onofre, punishes employees for reporting safety problems. See this NRC safety allegation data, information from whistleblowers, and other facts about San Onofre at http://sanonofresafety.org/
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and other government agencies and elected officials have had years to deal with the problems at San Onofre and have been ineffective in doing so. It’s up to the citizens of California to shut down this and the other California nuclear plant (Diablo Canyon in San Luis Obispo). Please sign the California Nuclear Initiative petition. We need to gather over 500,000 signatures by April to get this on the November ballot. To download a petition, go to http://californianuclearinitiative.com/cni-petition/
A meltdown at either one of these plants could bankrupt California, create permanent dead zones and damage a major part of the food supply for the nation. Steam generators are a critical part of a reactor and can cause meltdowns. These generators were installed only a year ago and shouldn’t be having these problems, but Edison makes over a million dollars a day to keep the plant running. They make the profits, we pay for their mistakes. It’s not worth the risk.
Right on the beach… How high is the Tsunami wall?