To the editor: Nuclear crops are among the many most earthquake-resistant buildings on the planet, one thing that your article on the Diablo Canyon plant close to San Luis Obispo did not convey.
13 years in the past, an earthquake pulled a part of the facade off an workplace constructing at a nuclear plant in Virginia, however the reactor’s crucial techniques have been undamaged. Nuclear energy crops are constructed to face up to extreme earthquakes.
In the previous few years, plant designers and operators have added intensive tools for earthquakes that, per the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Fee, are “past design foundation.” They’re arrange for lack of connection to the grid and may cope on their very own for substantial intervals of time. Different industrial infrastructure, together with oil refineries, pipelines, and pesticide factories, are usually not constructed to the identical requirements.
In case of a extreme earthquake, a nuclear energy plant is unlikely to trigger issues, however the vitality it produces will assist with restoration.
Moreover, renewables aren’t essentially cheaper than the ability from Diablo Canyon. Like all vitality supply, worth is considerably extra essential than price. California has a number of the most strong photo voltaic crops within the nation, but electrical energy markets have a whole lot of hours a yr when costs are under zero.
In different phrases, throughout peak manufacturing hours, photo voltaic vitality is nugatory. California pays its neighbors to take the output.
A zero-carbon system would require a mixture of photo voltaic, wind, hydro and nuclear. This sort of system can preserve the likelihood of scarcity to a minimal.
Realistically, there isn’t a easy resolution to addressing America’s vitality wants within the face of more and more extreme climate occasions. Even so, nuclear is our largest supply of carbon-free vitality and our handiest device to stabilize the local weather.
Craig Piercy, Washington
The author is chief government of the American Nuclear Society.
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To the editor: The article fails to say the opposite nuclear hazard and value — what to do with the nuclear waste merchandise.
These supplies stay radioactive for 1000’s of years and should be correctly saved to stop contamination of surrounding areas. America doesn’t presently have a everlasting disposal facility for nuclear waste.
Additionally, verify your house owner’s insurance coverage coverage. You’ll doubtless discover that nuclear contamination isn’t coated. These items must be thought-about within the prices of operating and decommissioning a nuclear energy plant like Diablo Canyon.
Steven Leffert, Lake Balboa
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To the editor: I count on I wasn’t the one reader struck by the front-page juxtaposition of the alarmist article about Diablo Canyon and the article in regards to the rise in heat-related deaths.
Electrical blackouts aren’t simply uncomfortable and inconvenient; they’re actually a matter of life and dying. So the extraordinarily distant danger of nuclear meltdown must be weighed in opposition to the near-certainty of deaths from blackouts with out the nuclear backup for photo voltaic and wind vitality.
Satisfactory battery or different storage isn’t but accessible, and demand for electrical energy will proceed to rise as automobiles are electrified. We’re making a tough however important transition, and difficult selections will proceed to be obligatory.
Scott McKenzie, La Cañada Flintridge
