I attended one of the recent meetings held by the NRC regarding re-licensing the Diablo nuclear power plant and had intended to ask about the radioactive tritium that has been found mysteriously leaking from nuclear plants elsewhere into groundwater, but I did not speak up because the subject was mentioned by another concerned citizen. My question would have been and still is: Has the NRC gotten any closer to the answer to this? The Tribune reported the Vermont Senate voted to close the Yankee plant after 2012; in other words, no re-licensing because of leaking radioactive tritium at that facility.

So far, we do not know whether we have the same problem here at Diablo. But the nuclear plant is 30 years old, it’s near at least two seismic faults, its piping and equipment are aging, and there’s nuclear waste stored above ground, so whether the plant should be licensed for another 20 years is of great concern to county residents. And the cost! With billions of taxpayer dollars guaranteed to the nuclear industry and no way to guarantee radioactive waste can be safely stored for millennia, I say this is too much of a gamble to bet on.

-- Marty Brown - Atascadero

-- Marty Brown - Atascadero