Plan Approved to Find Faults Near Diablo Canyon

Maybe the title should have read: Plan ok'd to find OIL, since the San Luis Obispo Supervisors are fighting to switch the testing ship from one who flies the flag of a University to one that flies that of big oil.

The State Lands Commission actually did not even vote; by the time the vote came, all three were replaced by shadowy alternates who got caught lying and had to publicly apologize later in the meeting! Just when unprecedented numbers of whales show up in force, these 260db blasts threaten to wipe them out with a hideous death, and there is growing outrage *on facebook visit Stop the Diablo Canyon Seismic Testing).

Seismic testing is putting us all in danger because it allows PG and E to delay removal of the nuclear plant sitting on several earthquake faults!

Joey Racano, Director
California Ocean Outfall Group

It would be nice to know who is conducting the tests? Often the scientist conducting the test has an influence on the results. Who appoints the scientific team?

"Dry Labbing" is a very common occurrence in scientific tests where corporate profits are concerned.

Of the known faults in and around Diablo Canyon, based on their seismic "speed limits" they hardly have the potential to generate an earthquake greater than what the station was built to withstand. I get the precautionary measures, but Diablo Canyon is by no means "unsafe".

This is unfortunately environmentalism at its best. What's ironic is that the testing demanded by those environmentalist also raise their ire with respect to marine animals. So you're damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

Perhaps we should build four more coal, oil, or natural gas plants to replace Diablo Canyon, thereby quadrupling the greenhouse gas emissions the plant doesn't produce?

I was one of the first few who committed civil disobedience to try and stop the building and licensing of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power plant so many decades ago. This seismic plan is not acceptable. The people need to do something before more destruction occurs. We already do not know what impact the radiation leakage from the cooling water is doing to marine life in the surroundings. Do we really need dead bodies of marine mammals to be ending up on our beaches? Has any benefit we might have gotten from Diablo been worth the costs over the years? I think not. We could have answered needs filled by Diablo with alternatives (and cheaper, too). When will we learn?
pjd
Big Sur

SB DUDE, Let me educate you about the faults beneath Diablo. There are 2 that go right underneath and the shoreline runs right out in front. But the real danger comes from the Hosgri, the San Simeon and the San Gorgonio faults, which all line up to make one big 250 mile long fault capable of generating an earthquake bigger than the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant can ever be retrofitted to withstand.

Seismic testing is putting us all in danger because it allows PG and E to delay removal of the nuclear plant sitting on several earthquake faults!

Joey Racano

Common Sense? What happened to "Common sense"?

The "seismic testing" boat from the "oil industry" instead of the "research vessel from Columbia! Why would anyone with a "brain" trust one over the other?

Is that the problem?

This is serious!

Penelope

I totally agree with JR (if he's being serious-hard to tell these days). Why test? Shut the stupid thing down. Even if we don't have an earthquake, the BWR Mark I has serious design flaws and is constantly being vented. In other words, unbeknownst to the public, we are being doused in radioactive isotopes when pressure dictates the need for venting. The design is faulty, the thinking is faulty, there is no design protocol in the US and no effective emergency plan in place. There is a tremendous amount of waste of precious fresh water to constantly cool these reactors-this is part of the design. There is no private insurance policy allowed on reactors, instead there is a law which mandates that we the people are responsible for any accidents the companies suffer-yet our health insurance doesn't cover nuclear accidents and/or nuclear war. All Uranium becomes Plutonium after the nuclear reaction and then it is EXtremely deadly and abundant-yet impossible to contain. We don't need any more nuclear weapons-which are produced from the bi-product of the power plants. It is an unmitigated disaster AND by the way NO ONE can ever predict seismic activity no matter what.