New op-ed by Rick Hirsch (no relation) in the New Times goes behind the scenes at Diablo Canyon.
"
I was invited a few weeks ago to do a tour of Diablo Canyon Power Plant. Despite my unease with nuclear power, I decided to go—with an open mind. My negative thoughts about nuclear power were formed in the early days, around 1977, when I read a book called Energy Futures by Amory Lovins.
Mr. Lovins compared the development of nuclear power to the recent introduction of the large 747 airplane. What would have happened, he stated, if we built the 747 airplane before there were runways long enough for the plane to land on? Well, that certainly wouldn’t make sense. Nuclear power was being deployed with no plan for how to store the nuclear waste, which has a half-life of 24,000 years (plutonium-239).
"
