Governor Newsom, your mere suggestion of the possibility of extending the operational life of the Diablo Canyon nuclear facility is an outrage to those of us seeking clean and safe energy for our state.

Diablo means “devil” in Spanish, and the name is fitting. This plant is surrounded by 13 earthquake faults, one of which, the Shoreline Fault, comes within a third of a mile of the Unit 2 reactor.

It is an aging plant - designed in the 1960s with construction completed in the 1980s. Anticipating imminent closure, maintenance has been deferred, waivers granted, and key employees gone. It is becoming increasingly more dangerous.

Each Diablo reactor contains 1,000 times the long-lived radioactivity of the Hiroshima bomb.  A release of even a portion of that radioactivity—by a meltdown caused by an earthquake, failure of the aging equipment, or terrorism—could devastate a large portion of California for generations.  

Furthermore, letting Diablo run beyond its current licenses would produce hundreds of tons more high level radioactive waste, dangerous for half a million years, and for which there is still no safe place to store it long term.

The federal program offering a portion of $6 billion dollars to qualified plants would likely not cover the amount of money required to bring Diablo into compliance with regulations - NRC proceedings, lawsuits, construction of cooling towers, environmental reports, repairs… That money would be better spent invested in clean and safe energy resources.

Governor Newsom, respect the Joint Proposal signed by PG&E. Diablo Canyon is dangerous, dirty, and expensive. It must retire as planned in 2024 and 2025.