Closing Diablo Canyon would be a loss for California

March for Environmental Hope
In San Francisco June 24
From Mothers for Nuclear Facebook page

Diablo Canyon and Agreements

Closing Diablo Canyon would be a great loss for California air quality and grid reliability.  To be blunt about it: What are these people thinking?  

Well, they aren't thinking.  They are kicking the can down the road.  My post at Northwest Clean Energy blog, Closing Diablo Canyon a big loss for California, gives an overview of the PG&E agreement with anti-nuclear groups, how they are kicking the can.  I encourage you to read it.  

What are these people thinking?

The Southern California Grid has a rolling-blackout plan, even now, with Diablo operating.  According to the San Diego Union Tribune  "natural gas curtailments" could interrupt electricity service for as many as 14 days this summer.   Basically, gas supplies are constrained: in California, part of the constraint is the aftermath of the massive Aliso Canyon gas leak.

So, with California ISO considering its rolling black-out planning and gas curtailments, PG&E plans to close Diablo Canyon!  How did California get into such a fix, anyway?

Part of the answer is about requiring unrealistic renewable energy standards, and another part is having anti-nuclear groups at the planning table for the agreement, with pro-nuclear groups excluded (unless they are unions).  

Well, hey, I'm used to pro-nuclear groups being excluded.  When Jaczko met with  "citizen volunteer groups" in Brattleboro a few years ago, the Energy Education Project that Howard and I founded was not considered a citizen's group.  Howard and I sat in the peanut gallery, not at the table. 

The history and the actions

To understand the history of the Diablo Canyon situation, read my post at Northwest Clean Energy Blog.  Also, watch quick videos of the California Lands Commission hearing at Rod Adams blog post:  Showing Up and Speaking for Diablo Canyon in California.

To learn about actions you can take for Diablo Canyon, go to the Save Diablo Canyon or Californians for Green Nuclear Power websites.  These websites have links for donations, signing petitions, and for breaking news.  There are several other groups also active for Diablo Canyon. For more links, visit my blog post Diablo Canyon and What To Do About It.

Actions are more important than history. 

Much about politics, but little about fish.

Herring larva in drop of water
Matchstick for comparison

River Water, Sea Water and Nuclear Plants

My article Keeping cool under pressure describes the many ways that "water quality issues" are used by states to attack the continued operation of nuclear power plants.

 Vermont Yankee, Oyster Creek, Indian Point, Turkey Point, Diablo Canyon, and Columbia Generating Station have been accused of overheating rivers and/or causing the death of billions of fish.  Well, the death of billions of fish eggs or larva (larva are newly-hatched fish).  These accusations have closed down plants or made them far more expensive to operate.

My article appears in the May 10 edition of Nuclear Engineering International Magazine. The section about  Turkey Point is a separate call-out in that article, due to the unusual canal-based  cooling at Turkey Point. 

In reality, the reason most fish eggs don't grow up to be adult fish is--other fish.  Fish eggs are an important food source for fish, so fish lay thousands of eggs. An American Shad lays about 30,000 eggs per year.  A salmon lays a more modest number, around 3,000.  A fish egg usually does not become an adult fish, and this has nothing to do with power plants.  It's about other fish: the fish that like to eat fish eggs.   

Some links

I am always very pleased to write an article for an important magazine such as Nuclear Engineering International.  However, "read my article" seems a rather thin blog post.  So I finish this post with a couple of links that can supplement my magazine article.

Diablo Canyon: The owners of this power plant recently announced that the plant would close by 2025. This article describes the upgrade-your-cooling-system issues the owners would have faced if they had chosen to stay open.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/environment/article39459930.html

Indian Point: The plant has ristorph screens and proposes adding wedgewire screens.  Opponents continue to push for expensive cooling towers, but offer no reason to believe that cooling towers will be better for the fish. http://www.lohud.com/story/opinion/contributors/2014/04/26/indian-point-entergy-wedgewire-screens-cooling-towers/8238627/

Vermont Yankee: Vermont lost a lawsuit that asked the NRC to deny Vermont Yankee's license extension because Vermont Yankee didn't have the proper state-level water permit.  Even some of the plant opponents said that such concerns have to be raised before appropriate commissions, rather than in lawsuits. http://yesvy.blogspot.com/2012/07/vermont-loses-lawsuit-against-nrc-about.html#.V37lAjYXH3F

Oyster Creek: State of New Jersey closes plant, ostensibly to protect Barnegat Bay.
http://www.nj.gov/dep/barnegatbay/plan-oystercreek.htm

Columbia Generating Station: This blog post has an excellent graphic that compares the water use of the power plant with the volume of water flowing through its water source, the Columbia River, near the plant. https://northwestcleanenergy.com/2014/11/01/environmentalists-need-to-decide-if-science-matters-or-not/

Turkey Point: There is no evidence that any effluents from the plant  or the plant canals will  harm drinking water, or will affect Biscayne Bay.  Still,  some groups are suing the plant for causing vaguely-stated environmental harm. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/23/us/nuclear-plant-leak-threatens-drinking-water-wells-in-florida.html?_r=1

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I enjoyed putting these supplemental links together, but I do hope you will read the article itself: Keeping Cool Under Pressure. 

Diablo Canyon and What To Do About It

Rally for Diablo Canyon
Mothers for Nuclear,, Californians for Green Nuclear Power and others
June 17, 2016
San Luis Obispo
Photo from Californians for Green Nuclear Power

The Announcement and What To Do

Today, PG&E announced that it would not apply for a license renewal for Diablo Canyon, but would close the plant by 2025. The New York Times article this morning: California's Last Nuclear Power Plant Could Close.

 IF this agreement goes through, Diablo Canyon will stay open for another eight years before it closes.  Eight years is not tomorrow. This is not the time to despair and scuttle the ship.  Now is the time to take action! There are things we can do to help our nuclear plants survive.

Right now, we can do two things:  Sign a Petition and Make a Donation. I have done both.

Sign a Petition to the White House

A petition to the White House requests that the special benefits of nuclear power be recognized by federal government policy. The petition has 13,000 signatures, and needs 100,000 to get a response from the White House.  Sign it here to Keep America's Nuclear Power Plants Working for US!

Please sign it and circulate it!

Make A Donation to the March for Environmental Hope

California pro-nuclear groups are marching from San Francisco and Oakland to Sacramento,  in the March for Environmental Hope.  They will publicize the importance of nuclear power for California, and they will attend a meeting of the California Lands Commission. The Commission will be holding a crucial vote about Diablo Canyon.

The March is sponsored by Mothers for Nuclear, Save Diablo Canyon, and Environmental Progress.  Other groups will be marching with them: Californians for Green Nuclear Power and Thorium Energy Alliance.  

The marchers in California are doing this for all of us, for everyone who believes in nuclear energy as the safe, clean energy of the future.  Help them!  You can donate here, and help pay campground fees and so forth for the marchers.

 Commentary

Three excellent articles, worth reading:

Rod Adams at Forbes: NRDC Announces PG&E Has Agreed to Kill Diablo Canyon
James Conca at Forbes: Pro-Nuclear March In San Francisco to Protest Closing of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant
Michael Shellenberger at Environmental Progress: Why Diablo Canyon Will Live--and Why the Corrupt PGE-IBEW-NRDC Proposal Will Fail

And, just for fun, to see some of the stakes in this particular case, from the San Diego Times Tribune yesterday: Heat wave raises worries about power outages. To quote the article:

Rotating outages result when utilities, largely due to gas issues, don't have enough supply to meet demand.
"We would tell the utilities to turn off the power to a substation...until.... we can go back to balancing supply and demand in real time," Greenlee (of California ISO) said.
Outages can last from 30 to 90 minutes.
But Greenlee said as of Monday afternoon, the system was holding up.

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In other words:

Sign!
Donate!

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!

Reality: Natural gas, not "could'a, would'a, should'a" renewables

Diablo Canyon

"We could'a used renewables"

Oddly, that is a cry that nobody is crying, as nuclear plants shut down and gas plants spring up in their absence.  When nuclear plants close, natural gas plants take their place.

On this blog, I tend to write about Vermont Yankee. (Not surprising.)

At Northwest Clean Energy blog, I generalized the Vermont Yankee experience of nuclear-to-natural gas by looking at the Western U.S.  My post is Reality: Less nuclear means more natural gas.   I described the replacement of nuclear-electricity by gas-electricity that  happened when San Onofre closed. I look at what would happen if Diablo Canyon or Columbia Generating Station closed.

Yeah, you can guess.  Nuclear power is (or would be) replaced by natural gas.  More carbon dioxide and more air pollution will enter the atmosphere.

The final paragraph of that post is: We need to keep Columbia Generating Station and all other sources of low-carbon power. Because if we don’t, despite should’a, would’a, could’a … our current low carbon power will be replaced by natural gas.

I hope you will read the post.

Comments needed for Diablo Canyon

Diablo Canyon (from Wikipedia)

The California Energy Commission is asking for comments on its Integrated Energy Policy Report.   Somehow, this slipped by me....today is the last day for comments.

I urge you to comment and to defend Diablo Canyon.

 The comment link:

Here's the link for comments:
http://www.energy.ca.gov/2015_energypolicy/

Within the link, you can see the whole report.  Since this is the last day for comments, I will make your life easier by quoting relevant sections.

http://docketpublic.energy.ca.gov/PublicDocuments/15-IEPR-01/TN210069_20160128T104129_Energy_Policy_Report_Proposed_for_Adoption.pdf

 On page 238 of this document, you can see the following few sentences: Diablo Canyon continues to generate power under the current licenses, which are set to expire in 2024 and 2025., even as Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) works is working to address several regulatory and policy issues at both the state and federal levels in preparation for a possible relicensing of the plant in the near future. At the state level, the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) and the California State Lands Commission will be making critical decisions regarding Diablo Canyon’s use of once- through cooling and its land leases, respectively.....

 And on page 248, this: In May 2015 CPUC President Michael Picker sent a letter to Christopher Johns, president of PG&E, reminding PG&E that “review and approval of PG&E’s request for ratepayer funding related to license extension of Diablo Canyon at the California Public Utilities Commission...will involve a thorough assessment of the cost-effectiveness of the license extension for Diablo Canyon considering the plant’s reliability and safety especially in light of the plant’s geographic location regarding seismic hazards and vulnerability assessments.”...


What to say?

Oddly, despite the usual endlessly-long-energy-planning report, you can say something simple:

If Diablo Canyon closes, there will be more greenhouse gases in California.


Shellenberger response:

Where to get information for your comment? Michael Shellenberger has submitted an excellent comment on this subject, and you can easily mine his work for information. http://docketpublic.energy.ca.gov/PublicDocuments/15-IEPR-01/TN210106_20160201T072714_Energy__Environmental_Implications_of_Diablo_Canyon_Closure.pdf

You can also see his material at this website, where it is easier to download. http://static1.squarespace.com/static/56a279041a5203ba6b06966e/t/56afdbb186db431e6d55dccb/1454365621994/Diablo+v11.pdf

In his section on Environmental Consequences of Diablo Canyon closure, Shellenberger notes that:

Closing Diablo Canyon would be the equivalent of putting two million more cars on the road.   From the Shellenberger presentation:

Ahem. Do not be intimidated by the depth and quality of this presentation.  Diablo Canyon needs voices in its favor, and short posts are also important!

There are other pro-nuclear comments out there.  I encourage you to find posts by Gene Nelson, for example. In a few minutes, my own post should be up. 

Ah.  Here's my comment. http://docketpublic.energy.ca.gov/PublicDocuments/15-IEPR-12/TN210164_20160205T085145_Meredith_Angwin_Comments_Less_nuclear_means_MORE_natural_gas__K.pdf

However, don't worry.

Just get your post out there.  Select "Nuclear Power Plants" in the select menu at the right, and go forward. Support Diablo Canyon!

Nuclear Blogger Carnival 269, Here at Yes Vermont Yankee

Once again, we are proud to host the Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers, right here at Yes Vermont Yankee.  The Carnival is a compendium of nuclear blogs that rotates from blog site to blog site, and it is always a pleasure and an honor to host it.

Nuke Power Talk - Gail Marcus
Climate Change and Science

At Nuke Power Talk, Gail Marcus reports on an article that echoes a theme she's been concerned about for years--that some actions taken in the name of conservation, or of combatting climate change, are actually short-sighted or counterproductive.

Neutron Bytes - Dan Yurman
Entrepreneurial Startups Tackle Advanced Nuclear Reactor Designs

Almost three dozen firms representing $1.3 billion of investor money are pursuing technological innovations in the field of nuclear energy. A June 2015 report by the Third Way, a Washington, DC, think tank, details the mix of firms includes small startups and big-name investors like Bill Gates.  All are placing bets on a comeback for nuclear energy working to get their respective technologies to market in an increasingly carbon-constrained world.

Northwest Clean Energy Blog - Meredith Angwin
Small Modular Reactors for the Northwest

Recently, the Washington State legislature has allocated money for a study of siting Small Modular Reactors (SMR) in the state.  Energy Northwest has an agreement with NuScale for future use of their reactor. At a recent meeting in Boston, NuScale reported on its plans for obtaining an NRC license.   In this post, Meredith Angwin describes the meeting and NuScale's plans.

Neutron Bytes - Dan Yurman
Greens target license renewal for Diablo Canyon nuclear plant

Seismic issues and demands for cooling towers are potential points of leverage

This month the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) kicked off the restart of the  license renewal for the twin 100 MW Westinghouse PWR type nuclear reactors at the Pacific Gas & Electric  Diablo Canyon site located on California’s Pacific Ocean coast 200 miles north of Los Angeles.

Green groups see the development of an environmental impact statement (EIS), required as part of the license renewal decision process, as a key opportunity to raise two sets of issues.  The first is seismic safety and the second is a demand for the plant to go from an open loop to closed loop cooling system by building cooling towers.

Make no mistake about how these concerns are presented by the California environmental movement. It is stridently anti-nuclear and has just one objective, and that is to end the operation of the reactors.

Yes Vermont Yankee - Bruce Parker Guest Post
Vermont Utilities Buy Nuclear Capacity from New Hampshire: Guest post by Bruce Parker

Now that Vermont Yankee is closed, Vermont utilities have asked the Vermont Public Service board to approve new contracts with Seabrook.  Post by Bruce Parker includes details of the utility requests, interviews with utility executives, and an interview with Guy Page of Vermont Energy Partnership.

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

Write a Note for California

Diablo Canyon from Wikipedia

Citizens For Green Nuclear Power

In California, Californians for Green Nuclear Power is supporting the continued operation of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear plant. This citizen's group is entirely volunteer and self-funded.  Several of them recently carpooled to Sacramento to testify in front of the California Energy Commission.

Now you can help them, help the nuclear industry, and help Diablo Canyon!  But you have to do it by 5 p.m. today. (California time).

A group called Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility has accused Diablo Canyon of not being seismically safe because the plant supposedly did not analyze the effect of a huge earthquake…directly under the plant!  The Alliance does not acknowledge that scientists analyze earthquakes by analyzing the result of earthquakes due to faults, not earthquakes that that they assign to occur at random locations.

Please submit your comments here.  DO IT TODAY!

https://efiling.energy.ca.gov/Ecomment/Ecomment.aspx?docketnumber=15-IEPR-12

You don't have to write anything very lengthy.  Just say that PG&E did an excellent review of seismic safety in the 2012 time-frame, and that the NRC regularly reviews seismic safety in terms of new data.  Or say whatever you want to say, in the words you want to use.  Just do it!

Background

Here's the PG&E report: Central Coast California Seismic Imaging Project. I found the first pages of the Technical Summary the most useful.

Gene Nelson has single-handedly uploaded many comments in response to the Sierra Club and other comments.  Let's help him.  Here's the docket, and you can see his comments.