NRC Analyst Calls To Close Diablo Canyon, CA's Last Remaining Nuclear Plant 216
An anonymous reader writes Michael Peck, who for five years was Diablo Canyon's lead on-site inspector, says in a 42-page, confidential report that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is not applying the safety rules it set out for the plant's operation. The document, which was obtained and verified by The Associated Press, does not say the plant itself is unsafe. Instead, according to Peck's analysis, no one knows whether the facility's key equipment can withstand strong shaking from those faults — the potential for which was realized decades after the facility was built. Continuing to run the reactors, Peck writes, "challenges the presumption of nuclear safety."
In other news... (Score:2, Insightful)
US starts buying more nuclear power from Canada, quickly pulling a Germany. In 5 years, subsidies much like those in Germany will then be gutted, and there will be a mass rush to build new coal and NG power plants until reactors can be refurbished or built anew.
Re:In other news... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Insightful)
Solar cells on every house is great as long as there is local storage in every house too.
Wind power is great as long as there is good power distribution infrastructure: It's always blowing somewhere.
Nuclear power is great as long as you address operational safety and waste storage, both of which are addressable if you do engineering rather than politics. Part of that is again, good infrastructure so you can build the nukes in good places for nukes.
It's easy to point at any single generation or harvesting technology and identify it's flaws as a sole solution. However there are many technologies and combined together they form a robust and comparatively clean solutions.
Re:In other news... (Score:3, Insightful)
You don't need local storage for solar. Solar peaks during peak energy usage and an upgrade to the power grid can send it where needed or even store the electricity for later.
The problem is, infrastructure is a big investment and it is not sexy. Congress will keep on kicking the can down the road because they lack vision and foresight and Americans want action today rather than investment in the future.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)