On March 11, the ninth anniversary of the start of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, the Diablo Canyon Decommissioning Engagement Panel held a web-only-participation meeting in order to avoid potential spread of the COVID-19 virus.

I applaud the decision to be proactive in the coronavirus pandemic. But we must also address the greater threat to the residents of the Central Coast. The Fukushima disaster teaches us that the unimaginable can happen at a nuclear power plant, and when it does, the havoc it wreaks can be far worse than any disease—and can last for millennia.

Nuclear supporters claim that "no one died" in the Fukushima accident, despite many workers having died immediately after the first event and thousands more in the years that followed. But there are many hells that follow a nuclear disaster, displacement, a ruined economy, loss of property, despair.

PG&E should shut down the money-losing nuclear plant now. We no longer need the electricity it produces. Or we can hold our breath for four or five more years, hoping for no unforeseen disaster in our backyard.

You can contain a viral outbreak. You cannot contain a nuclear disaster. No more Fukushimas!

Carole Hisasue

Mothers for Peace

Los Osos