Letter | Why Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant should be shut down - Santa Cruz Sentinel
Letter | Why Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant should be shut down - Santa Cruz Sentinel
A letter writer criticized Friends of the Earth (FOE), for trying to shut down a nuclear power plant, mentioning a donation from ARCO’s founder to kickstart FOE, which was founded in 1969 by David Brower, after he left the Sierra Club (in which he had been a leader since 1952).
Brower was dismayed at the club’s Board of Directors voting to support PG&E’s plans for a nuclear plant at Diablo Canyon, in exchange for PG&E not building it at Nipomo Dunes. Brower thought a nuclear power plant anywhere on the California coast was a mistake. Principles mattered to him. Spats among Sierra Club leaders ensued and Brower resigned.
Brower and the Sierra Club ultimately reconciled. He was elected to the Board of Directors from 1983 to 1988, again from 1995 to 2000, when he died.
Principles matter to me. I left the Sierra Club (joined in 1971) in 2003 when it failed to support the U.N. Environment Programme in opposition to Bush’s invasion of Iraq.
Diablo Canyon remains a disaster waiting to happen.
— Jean Brocklebank, Santa Cruz
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Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: nuclear
Nuclear energy provides almost 20 percent of the U.S. electricity supply. Advocates have called for an expanded role for nuclear as an emissions-free fuel source. But the economics of building new reactors are daunting. In addition, lingering safety concerns are an institutionalized part of the calculation of nuclear regulation, and highly radioactive nuclear waste remains a can that public officials have been inclined to kick down the road. The Energy Information Administration projects a sharp decline in nuclear power generation over the next decade, as new nuclear plants — two are planned — are more than offset by anticipated retirements of several operating reactors.