3 ms·

California is shutting down its last nuclear plant

18 points by bryan0 5y ago

orthecreedence 5y ago
This is good. Now that the skies are blotted out by smoke during prime summer months, and the rivers are running dry due to drought, it's a really smart idea to double down on weather-dependent power sources. In 10-15 years, the entire world is going to be clamoring to build as many nuclear power plants as we can in the shortest amount of time possible. Why we would be shutting them down now is beyond stupid. I get that it's not politically viable, but irrationality has no place in such dire circumstances. Oh well. Not much we can do about it, I suppose.
- iab 5y ago
  We need a mad-men style rebrand of nuclear. “Spicy hot-rox” maybe, could get better PR
  - orthecreedence 5y ago
    Yeah, that's really not a bad idea at all. It needs a kickass PR campaign.
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  > Oh well. Not much we can do about it, I suppose. And that's a good thing. Calif. is one giant earthquake zone, with plants built on known fault lines. Norcal is overdue for another Big One (it's thought that hydrologic engineering projects have temporarily damped tremors based on seismic analysis near dams.) The fact that we can shut them down now in an affordable manner is fantastic. The taxpayers in Japan and the Ukraine can only dream of having that option. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster
- LinuxBender 5y ago
  Agreed on all fronts. I spent some of my childhood running around in their simulation control room. It's a really old plant. I would have preferred to see a tech refresh, replacing DCPP with many small modular modern nuclear power plants spread evenly throughout the state. All states for that matter. Idaho is working on some for the military but it will probably be a while before those are deployed commercially. Wyoming is about to have some newer nuclear plants so there is hope but those are also a ways out.
nullc 5y ago
California is shutting down its last nuclear plant and replacing it with natural gas.

18 points by bryan0 5y ago

This is good. Now that the skies are blotted out by smoke during prime summer months, and the rivers are running dry due to drought, it's a really smart idea to double down on weather-dependent power sources. In 10-15 years, the entire world is going to be clamoring to build as many nuclear power plants as we can in the shortest amount of time possible. Why we would be shutting them down now is beyond stupid. I get that it's not politically viable, but irrationality has no place in such dire circumstances. Oh well. Not much we can do about it, I suppose.

iab 5y ago
We need a mad-men style rebrand of nuclear. “Spicy hot-rox” maybe, could get better PR
- orthecreedence 5y ago
  Yeah, that's really not a bad idea at all. It needs a kickass PR campaign.
redis_mlc 5y ago
> Oh well. Not much we can do about it, I suppose. And that's a good thing. Calif. is one giant earthquake zone, with plants built on known fault lines. Norcal is overdue for another Big One (it's thought that hydrologic engineering projects have temporarily damped tremors based on seismic analysis near dams.) The fact that we can shut them down now in an affordable manner is fantastic. The taxpayers in Japan and the Ukraine can only dream of having that option. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster
LinuxBender 5y ago
Agreed on all fronts. I spent some of my childhood running around in their simulation control room. It's a really old plant. I would have preferred to see a tech refresh, replacing DCPP with many small modular modern nuclear power plants spread evenly throughout the state. All states for that matter. Idaho is working on some for the military but it will probably be a while before those are deployed commercially. Wyoming is about to have some newer nuclear plants so there is hope but those are also a ways out.

nullc 5y ago

California is shutting down its last nuclear plant and replacing it with natural gas.