Southern California Edison Obfuscates to Hide Risks of Nuclear Energy
by Sarah Mosko, PhD Jul 7, 2022 Voice of Orange County
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, to obfuscate is to be evasive, unclear or confusing. Other synonyms include cloud, muddy, fog, blur, obscure, divert, complicate, and confound.
On May 26, Voice of OC published an opinion piece from professor emeritus Roger Johnson which explains why California rightfully decided in 1976 to ban construction of new nuclear power plants and why recent calls, to both extend the operating license of Diablo Canyon, the state’s last operating nuclear plant, and to build new ones nationwide, are seriously misguided. His reasoning includes that “nuclear power is the most expensive, the most unreliable, the most dangerous, and the most environmentally unfriendly form of energy production.”
John Dobken is a spokesperson for Southern California Edison, the operator of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station near San Clemente which was shuttered in 2013 following radiation releases caused by steam generator failure. His rebuttal to Johnson, published in the Voice of OC on June 6, is a lesson in the art of obfuscation.
In his opening salvo, Dobken’s cited examples of “new supporters” for nuclear energy are a Brazilian fashion model, an advocacy group headed by a singer-turned-nuclear-enthusiast, and unnamed “various community members who value service through membership in civic groups.” He also points to an online poll showing increased support for nuclear energy among registered California voters. The listing intentionally obscures the fact that no nuclear experts are cited. Omitted, for example, is the blockbuster joint statement issued in January by nuclear authorities from the United States, France, Germany and Great Britain detailing strong opposition to any expansion of nuclear power as a strategy to combat climate change.
Photo credit: Wikipedia Editorial markup: EON
Next, Dobken makes a case that spent nuclear fuel is not dangerous, claiming it has “never harmed anyone” and never will because “we isolate the material from the environment and people.” As support, he points out that no one was harmed when, in April, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s entourage walked through San Onofre’s outside storage pad containing dry storage spent fuel canisters without wearing protective gear. This illogic confounds the risks of a casual stroll through the canister storage pad with the repeatedly stated concerns of nuclear safety advocates in Orange and San Diego Counties.
Serious concerns about the San Onofre plant include: (1) that it is located in an earthquake zone which makes it vulnerable to earthquake damage and tsunamis, as caused the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear reactors in 2011; (2) sea level rise is inevitable due to climate change, and the storage canisters are already only 108 feet from the shoreline and just 18 inches above ground water; (3) the canisters are thin-walled, never designed for long-term storage or transport, and vulnerable to stress corrosion cracking from the marine environment and other conditions; (4) the absence of any technical or political progress on creating a geological repository for the nation’s roughly 100,000 tons of deadly nuclear waste has turned San Onofre and other plants across the nation into de facto permanent nuclear waste dumps; and (5) the storage canisters at San Onofre are highly visible and completely vulnerable to terrorist attacks such as airplane crashes, truck bombs, and land and sea launched rockets and missiles.
Read more at Voice of OC