Within days of the record 6.0 earthquake that shook northern California last month, the Associated Press released the findings of a secret government report detailing significant “earthquake vulnerabilities” of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Facility located just 200 miles south of the region in Avila Beach, California. The report was written by Dr. Michael Peck who for 5 years served as the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) lead on-site inspector at the plant, and expresses significant doubt regarding its ability to withstand extreme seismic activity.
However, despite Peck’s expert concerns, the plant’s owner, Pacific Gas & Electric, has essentially ignored the report and is seeking to extend the plant’s license of operations until 2045. Situated in a geologic hotbed just 45 miles from the San Andreas Fault, 3 miles from the off-shore Hosgri Fault, and only 650 yards from the recently-discovered Shoreline Fault, Diablo Canyon is essentially a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. A significant earth quake from any one or the combined forces of the 3 nearby faults could suddenly – and according to Peck, easily – result in an uncontrollable nuclear meltdown.
Experts are drawing comparisons between this scenario and the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant which released harmful levels of toxic radiation into the atmosphere and irrevocably altered the planet. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Japanese people exposed to the radiation continue to suffer headaches, bloody noses and pre-cancerous thyroid cysts among other symptoms. The soil and coastline around Fukushima remain contaminated with radiation, and as contaminated water continues to spill into the Pacific Ocean, little is known about the disaster’s long term effects on life on our planet.
And according to experts, a meltdown at Diablo Canyon – located within 50 miles of 500,000 people – could be significantly worse. A 1982 study commissioned by the NRC suggested that such a disaster could result in up to 10,000 initial casualties and billions of dollars in damage. Marine life and ecosystems directly surrounding the plant would be utterly devastated and the inevitable contamination of the area’s water, air and soil would have disastrous effects on the state’s agricultural industry.
However despite the severity of these predictions, neither the NRC nor any other governmental regulatory body has raised a finger towards closing Diablo Canyon, and the media remains largely silent on the issue. This is not surprising, though, given the US Government’s continual subservience to entrenched corporate interest. President Obama’s continual silence over construction of the notorious Keystone XL pipeline which climate scientists have called “game-over for the planet” is emblematic of this fundamental contradiction. If there’s money to be made, regulations, and therefore public and environmental safety mean very little.
Clearly, what is needed is a new system. A socialist system of government would never allow for the construction of a pipeline that would mean “game-over for the planet”, and a socialist system would never allow for a private company like Pacific Gas & Electric to continue operating a plant like Diablo Canyon that poses such a significant risk to the people and the environment. The risks outlined in Dr. Peck’s report are real, and clearly the responsibility falls to us who will suffer the consequences of inaction. Fighting to close Diablo Canyon also means fighting for a system that prevents such possible catastrophes from occurring in the future. It means fighting for socialism!
