After yesterdays blog on nuclear power in Japan I want to comment on nuclear power in California. My readers know that Germany is giving up nuclear power over the next eight years in response to the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown. The Germans know that the Japanese are great engineers and a meltdown in Japan is a horrible sign.
Since I visited Fukushima last year after the meltdown and took geiger counter measures of my own I returned to California to testify before the California Public Utilities Commission on the issue of nuclear power at the two operating power stations in California. Both are on the ocean and both are on earthquake fault lines.
My testimony was based on my experience in interviews in Fukushima Prefecture. I found that virtually everyone 45 years and younger and all families with young children were leaving. The Prefecture was being deserted by the hard-working productive future.
It has nothing to do with the actual level of radiation damage or danger. Most humans will not risk their lives or their children's lives in the face of an unknown.
The California Public Utilities Commission gave me the finger. They refused to admit my testimony on nuclear issues, even though I am a certified expert, on this subject. They behaved like an ostrich and could not see any relevance to the nuclear issue for the two utilities that operate the San Onofre (photo) nuclear power plant.
History has been on my side. The following article from the Wall Street Journal confirms my concern about nuclear plant leakage. It is a problem, the pipes leak at San Onofre.
If and when someone finds high radiation readings near and outside the San Onofri powerplant, the local young population will start moving away. California nuclear plants will kill the future of the towns nearby.