Pro-Nuclear March in California starts June 24

Worldwide Clean Energy Decline

Clean Energy on the decline

A new organization,  Environmental Progress,  calculates that the percentage of electricity generated by clean energy sources is on the decline world-wide.  Fossil plants are being built all over  the world.  Yes, fossil plants are being built in the United States, too.  Natural gas plants are being built here.  The United States natural gas industry has tried to convince everyone that burning natural gas is good for the environment, but gas plants are still fossil plants.

Meanwhile, due to political (mostly) and economic (some) forces, nuclear plants are closing.  More fossil plants are being built. Therefore, the percentage of electricity generated from clean energy sources--- is declining worldwide.

As nuclear closes down, wind turbines do not and cannot make up the loss.  Fossil plants are doing it.  In the Northeast: closing Vermont Yankee meant more gas was used, and this led to 5% more carbon dioxide emitted from the electricity sector in New England.  That is what happens when a nuclear plant is closed.

The Purpose of the March

In response to the clean energy decline, three organizations are sponsoring a multi-day march in California, starting on June 24.  As their website says:

March for Environmental Hope

Because the Stakes Couldn't Be Higher

The three sponsoring organizations are
Mothers for Nuclear
Save Diablo Canyon
Environmental Progress
Two other groups are marching with them:
Californians for Green Nuclear Power.
Thorium Energy Alliance

(It is wonderful to see several groups actively supporting nuclear energy.  I hope this is a trend. They say trends often start in California.)

From Mothers for Nuclear

The March itself

The march seems very well organized.  Scroll down here to see the full official schedule, camping arrangements, etc.

• The march starts in San Francisco, with a march to Greenpeace and Natural Resource Defense Council headquarters. 
• Then the march moves to East Bay, with camping near Lake Solano. 
• Then the bicycle-city of Davis California. 
• The march finishes at the State Capital,  Sacramento, at a Lands Commission Meeting.  

The State Lands Commission is considering whether to renew Diablo Canyon's permits for ocean intake and outfall pipes. The Land Commission permits expire six years before the NRC license would need to be renewed.

Donate

Not all of us can be in California, but we can all donate to the march. If you can attend, this is the signup sheet.  The organizers are asking marchers to donate $25 a day for camping fees and food.  Not all the marchers will be able to do this.  Click the donate button on this page and perhaps donate enough for one camper for one day (or enough for two campers for two days, or...well, you get the picture).

Support the March!

Nuclear Safety: A Note to California

California is surely earthquake territory. When I lived there, I lived through the Loma Prieta Earthquake at my home in Palo Alto. Later, our son had the bad luck to be visiting Los Angeles during the Northridge Earthquake. I take earthquakes seriously.

Nobody takes earthquakes more seriously than the people who build,  run and evaluate nuclear plants. Recently, PG&E did a careful study of the earthquake risk around Diablo Canyon, and concluded that the public safety would not be affected by major earthquakes on the local faults. The NRC also requires new evaluations of earthquake risk when new information becomes available. Again, the evaluations show that Diablo Canyon is built safely.

For some reason, one of the anti-nuclear groups has decided these evaluations are insufficient. They want an evaluation of an earthquake right under the plant! Apparently, they don't know that earthquakes don't just happen in random locations. There's a reason people map faults, evaluate faults, and so forth! Don't let unscientific fear-mongering get in the way of keeping the public safe. Diablo Canyon is safe.

Yes, keeping Diablo Canyon operating is indeed keeping the public safe. California does not need more gas line explosions like San Bruno.  California does not need more carbon dioxide to feed global warming and drought. In other words, California does not need anti-nuclear scare stories for setting policy. Closing nuclear plants diminishes public safety by requiring more use of natural gas and causing more global warming.

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A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post urging people to write to the California Energy Commission. A volunteer group, Californians for Green Nuclear Power, was providing information to counter groups that wanted Diablo Canyon closed for "earthquake safety." I always wonder why anti-nuclear groups act as if nobody but themselves ever thinks about the seismic safety of a nuclear plant.

I wrote this comment to the Energy Commission, and I also placed it as a comment on my own blog post.  Recently, I decided that I wanted to give the comment a bit more visibility, so I am reposting it here.

By the way, old-timer Californians refer to the 1906 Earthquake as the "Earthquake and Fire. "  The fire did most of the damage.

San Bruno fire, caused by gas pipeline

Welcome to New Blog: Atoms for California

 Another Local Pro-Nuclear Blogger!

Welcome to the blog Atoms for California!

Okay, Meredith, I can just hear my readers say---California is not "local" to Vermont.   What are you talking about with "another local pro-nuclear blogger"?

California is indeed across the country from Vermont, but I want to welcome another locally-focused blog.  Every pro-nuclear blogger has his or her own area of interest and expertise--our blogs are not interchangeable. My blog list includes an amazing group of powerful pro-nuclear voices.  We need all these voices.

That said, I believe that locally-focused blogs can be particularly strong and effective. Local people know the history, background, issues, and chief players of their own locality.  For example, I am authoritative about what happens (and is likely to happen) at the Statehouse in Montpelier.  It would be hard for me to know very much about which type of reactor the Czech Republic is most likely to buy.

Atoms for California

Atoms for California is very impressive pro-nuclear blog, written by a man who truly knows the situation in California.  In the Author Disclaimer section of the blog, we learn that the blog author's father works as a senior nuclear engineer at San Onofre, and he himself works for the California Energy Commission.  The blogger makes it very clear that this is his personal blog, and has nothing to do with the Commission.

The Table of Contents provides a wealth of material, including a history of the Electric Program Investment Plan (EPIC) in California.   The "Objectives of this site" page is not a quick mission statement, but a nine-point program with statements such as Challenging the exclusion of nuclear power from California’s Loading Order.

This is a blog to read!

Advantages of Local Blogging

Local bloggers can grow local followings. Local bloggers can be well-enough known to be interviewed repeatedly by the local press.  I have often thought that every locality with a nuclear facility needs a local pro-nuclear blogger.  Every such locality has at least one anti-nuclear group with a web presence.  The reporters know where to find the anti-nuclear quotes.  We need to give the reporters a place to find the pro-nuclear quotes.

(The facilities themselves are like any big business--the press releases go through a LOT of review.  Which means the press releases are often dry, evasive and late to the party.  Bloggers have more fun, are usually more readable, and can give reporters a straight story in snappy sound bites.)

So--hats off to the local pro-nuclear bloggers! Hats off to Atoms for California,  Steve Aplin at Canadian Energy Issues, and Ben Heard at DecarboniseSA.  These blogs are not strictly local--after all the world is interconnected.  But they start with their local issues, and they have powerful local impacts. 

Think globally, act locally.  I hope more people will start blogging.

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Update: I rearranged this post a little in order to do a better job of featuring the Atoms for California blog.

And a hat-tip to Rod Adams for his welcome to Atoms for California. Rod got his post up first, as he often does.

I don't know where any of us pro-nuclear bloggers would be without Rod!

The Grid Operator Says: We Need Vermont Yankee for Reliability.

The 2013 Power Auction

About a year ago, the New England Grid operator, ISO-NE, had a forward power auction for electricity supplies in 2013. Vermont Yankee, unsure of its future, tried to drop out of the auction.

ISO-NE would not let Vermont Yankee drop out of the auction. ISO-NE can't ensure that Vermont Yankee is operating past 2012, but they insisted Vermont Yankee stay in the auction. This puzzled me, and I finally figured it out. You can read my extensive blog post, but the bottom line is:

1. Without Vermont Yankee, the grid would become unreliable.
2. When grid reliability looks like it is going down the tubes, ISO-NE must take action: it must order diesel generators, arrange for transmission line upgrades, etc.
3. These steps would mean millions of dollars of expense, and ISO doesn't want to start the process unless they have to.
4. So ISO had Vermont Yankee stay in the auction, therefore avoiding grid expense that may not be necessary.

A few months later, ISO-NE wrote a report about how transmission lines could become overloaded (or even melt) without Vermont Yankee.

I hope Vermont got the message.

Yesterday, the 2014 Auction: Vermont Yankee is Needed

If Vermont didn't get the message: this is another year, another auction, and the same message again.

Yesterday ISO-NE announced the results of the 2014 forward auction. Once again, ISO refused to let Vermont Yankee drop out of the mix. This time, the story was even more dramatic, in my opinion. According to Reuters, ISO received 201 requests to de-list (withdraw) from the auction. ISO granted 200 of these requests, representing about 1170 MW of capacity. It found that these withdrawals would not affect grid stability.

However, it did not grant one request to withdraw: Vermont Yankee. ISO found that Vermont Yankee withdrawal would affect grid stability and Vermont Yankee had to stay in the auction. As the Reuter's article continues: To prepare the grid, the ISO said it was working with power transmission owners to develop short-term "special operating plans" and long-term transmission upgrades in case the reactor does not continue to operate.

Do you remember the short-term "special operating plans" ISO implemented in Connecticut? Lots of diesels. I hope we can avoid this in Vermont.

ISO-NE is Sending Vermont a Message

Vermont Yankee is a unique plant, with an important role in stabilizing the grid. Closing it down will lead to unpleasant consequences of grid instability such as voltage drop, unplanned outages, or rolling blackouts.

California Dreaming

On the radio today, I was asked what "grid instability" really meant. It can mean brownouts, sudden blackouts, or rolling blackouts. Since I lived through the rolling blackouts (and other weird voltage stuff) in California, I was able to answer from personal experience.

For me, rolling blackouts meant you want to own a home near a police station or hospital. The grid managers kept such areas safe from blackouts. People who had houses for sale would advertise "home in hospital-protected block." Actually, there was a power-company code number for such areas, I think it was 728 or 528 or something. So the ad would look like this: 3/2, rdwd deck w spa, 728 pwr.

Ah, the good old days! (sarcasm alert) I didn't live in a protected area, so I lived with the fear and the reality of sudden, two-hour power shutoffs. Nobody would tell you in advance where they were shutting off the power, for fear of looters and criminals flocking around.

We forget how much electricity adds to public safety. Until someone shuts it off.

Though Enron was partially to blame for the California shortages, California's botched deregulation was also to blame. Enron couldn't have done its manipulations if the fundamentals of the California grid had been stronger.

Let's not be California. Let's not compromise our grid.

ISO-NE is sending Vermont a message for the second year in a row. I hope we are smart enough to get it.

The grid needs Vermont Yankee.

Transmission Line from Wikimedia.

P G & E Switchyard in San Francisco from Wikimedia