Diablo Canyon: The Devil’s in the Details. A Troubled History (part 1)
Channel: MsMilkytheclown1
Date: 2016-08-19

“Diablo Canyon: The Devil’s in the Details”.  During Part 1 of the Fairewinds Podcast series,  Fairewinds’ Chief Engineer Arnie Gundersen exposes the plant’s long sequence of problems and shows that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) complicity is the only reason these two reactors continue to operate. https://youtu.be/8z9WORKKlpA
CLICK HERE FOR PART 2: Diablo Canyon: The Devil’s in the Details; A Mother's Work Is Never Done (Part 2) https://youtu.be/i9GC1oCwxi8

The shutdown of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant with its two atomic reactors by 2025, announced by utility owner Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) in June 2016, is a joint proposal among PG&E and environmental and labor organizations.  This action is neither the beginning nor the end to the decades long story of Diablo Canyon’s design, construction, and operation. PG&E’s promise to replace the nuclear power generated by Diablo Canyon’s two reactors with renewable energy and to no longer seek a 20-year license renewal for these atomic reactors comes with a cost. The two reactors located on multiple California fault lines will continue to operate for nearly a decade more. In this Fairewinds Energy Education Podcast series, the Fairewinds Crew will share the troubled history of Diablo Canyon and speak with the leading activists in opposition to Diablo Canyon’s ominous 50-year presence along the California coast.  

Dr. Les Kanat on with us and Chief Engineer Arnie Gundersen

LK: ... For example, on 9-11, when the first plane impacted the first tower, that event shook the ground enough that 34 kilometers north of the World Trade Center – about 20 miles north – that impact registered. The second impact also registered on the seismometers, as did the collapse of the buildings.  So human create seismic events by jumping around, by destruction events like taking down buildings. But also we create earthquakes when we really mean to make the world a safer place...So we’ve known for a long time that by injecting water into the ground, we can increase seismic events... Since we’ve been drilling oil (sic) we’ve always fracked the wells, we would drill a well to try and extract oil, the rocks weren’t permeable enough, so we would fracture the well, either by explosions, dropping explosives down the well, or by putting a lot of water pressure down the well to hydrofracture the well. ... So it’s not surprising that we see lots of seismic activities around places where we’re fracking.

AG: (5:15) ...Whatever humans do on the surface seems to get translated down below that.

LK: ...when rocks break, that’s an earthquake. So we are inducing earthquakes in order to extract gases. Because by fracturing the rock, we create avenues for gases to escape and for us to capture them.

AG: I have a question, Les. Is the water acting as a lubricant? Like putting oil on the surface and allowing the rocks to slide by each other?

LK: ...with fracking, the water is also corrosive, to help dissolve some of the rocks. ... So it’s not just clear water we’re pumping down there.

AG: I can’t believe that we actually tried to pump fluid into the San Andreas Fault. That’s like trying to slide a plate out from underneath a pit bull or something like that, while it’s sleeping. ...

AG: could the earthquake in Japan have been caused by a nuclear weapon? ...

LK: When you say the shape of the pulse, I think you’re meaning the signature that’s recorded by the seismometers. They are distinct between earthquakes – even types of earthquakes.... I think Yogi Berra said it right, that it’s really hard to make predictions, especially about the future.

MG: ... Fukushima Daiichi, there were these stone monuments all along the coast that said “Do not build below this level” because of tsunamis. ...We forget that time is eons.

Here is my DIABLO CANYON Playlist: http://tinyurl.com/hmzt5c4
Here is my Arnie Gundersen Playlist: http://tinyurl.com/hjegl7n