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 near 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 methods had been undamaged. Nuclear energy crops are constructed to face up to extreme earthquakes.
In the previous few years, plant designers and operators have added in depth 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, should not constructed to the identical requirements.
In case of a extreme earthquake, a nuclear energy plant is unlikely to trigger issues, however the power it produces will assist with restoration.
Moreover, renewables aren’t essentially cheaper than the facility from Diablo Canyon. Like every power supply, worth is considerably extra essential than value. California has a number of the most strong photo voltaic crops within the nation, but electrical energy markets have a whole bunch of hours a 12 months when costs are under zero.
In different phrases, throughout peak manufacturing hours, photo voltaic power 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 type of system can preserve the likelihood of scarcity to a minimal.
Realistically, there isn’t a easy resolution to addressing America’s power wants within the face of more and more extreme climate occasions. Even so, nuclear is our largest supply of carbon-free power and our simplest instrument 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 hundreds of years and have to be correctly saved to forestall contamination of surrounding areas. The USA doesn’t presently have a everlasting disposal facility for nuclear waste.
Additionally, examine your house owner’s insurance coverage coverage. You’ll possible discover that nuclear contamination isn’t lined. This stuff ought to 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 anticipate 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 demise. So the extraordinarily distant threat 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 power.
Satisfactory battery or different storage shouldn’t be but out there, and demand for electrical energy will proceed to rise as automobiles are electrified. We’re making a troublesome however important transition, and difficult selections will proceed to be crucial.
Scott McKenzie, La Cañada Flintridge
