Radical Activists Seize on San Onofre in Post-Fukushima Attack on Nuclear Energy Programs

This plant has been around as long as I can remember. I've always been personally fascinated with it, and nuclear energy generally, and haven't worried that much at all about a nuclear disaster. Years ago, right at Basilone Road (which follows along next to the plant), my skate buddies and I used to run across the 5 Freeway to reach some huge Ameron pipes being built there. The last thing we were worried about was radioactivity. We used to skate with Tony Alva down there, and he talks about it at this essay.

In any case, see the report at the New York Times, "Troubles at a 1960s-Era Nuclear Plant in California May Hint at the Future":

SAN ONOFRE STATE BEACH, Calif. — More than seven million people live within 50 miles of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which is about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. But for decades, residents here largely accepted, if not exactly embraced, the hulking nuclear plant perched on the cliffs above this popular surfing beach as a necessary part of keeping the lights on in a state that uses more electricity than all of Argentina.

“I don’t think about it too much,” said David Vichules, 55, who has been surfing here since before the plant opened in 1968. “I guess it’s risk and benefit.”

All that changed, however, after the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown in Japan last year, followed in January by a small leak of radioactive steam here caused by the deterioration of steam tubes that had been damaged by vibration and friction. The twin generators at the San Onofre plant have been off-line for five months, and the plant has subsequently become a point of contention in the fight over nuclear power in the United States.

The leak has galvanized opposition to the nuclear plant among local residents, who are calling for San Onofre to remain shuttered for good.

Antinuclear activists from across the country have seized on problems at San Onofre as an opportunity to push California toward a future without nuclear power.

“A lot of people have gotten involved since Fukushima, and now especially since San Onofre has been closed,” said Gary Headrick, the founder of San Clemente Green, a local environmental organization. “It’s really not worth living with this risk. We should shut it down.”

The plant will remain shut through at least the end of the summer while the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Southern California Edison, the utility company that operates it, investigate the cause of the leak from the steam tubes.

Officials have said repeatedly that the generators will restart only if they are deemed safe.

Still, any efforts to permanently close the nuclear plant face the ever-growing appetite for electricity in Southern California. San Onofre, the largest power plant in the region, produced 2,200 megawatts, enough to power 1.4 million homes, and also helps import power to the region.

It's always something with the loony left.

These people are freaks --- and their "green" energy alternatives have proven to be boondoggles time and again. You gotta beat these people back like flies. It's ridiculous.

PHOTO CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons.