Synopsis: A network of community organizations across California has had its second meeting and is making significant progress in developing its case for the phase out of the Diablo Canyon and San Onofre nuclear power plants by advocating a shift to greater use of renewables and conservation as practical alternatives to continued reliance on nuclear energy in the state because of the dangers inherent in the operation of those plants to the public.
A group of community organizations across the state that seeks to phase out the Diablo Canyon and San Onofre nuclear plants has held its second "summit" and has scheduled a third, created a web site, adopted a new name (Nuclear Free California), is organizing an effort to better inform the public about the dangers of nuclear energy and is planning to contact state officials to explain its goals—all of which may make California the emerging leader in advocating alternatives to nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan last March.
The new Nuclear Free California (NFC) represents what some consider to have the greatest potential to affect the future of the nuclear plants because of their power in numbers, which means that the large number of organizations and the people in them who have banded together are more likely to get the attention of state decision-makers and possibly their support toward considering alternatives to relying on energy from the two nuclear plants.
Unlike other organizations and individuals who have simply called for closure of Diablo Canyon and San Onofre, NFC, since its members and supporters held their first meeting in August, have conditioned proposed phase out of those plants on pursuing stepped up development of renewables and encouraging conservation as alternatives. Without those alternatives, just calling for closure of the plants—absent suggested ways to replace the 12.9% of state's energy use derived from nuclear power—may seem unrealistic to the public.
At the group's second summit in San Clemente on September 27,Gene Stone, founder of the Residents Organized for A Safe Environment(ROSE) in San Clemente and spokesperson for NFC, said significant progress was made in continuing to build the organization. "The feeling of the majority of summit participants and myself was we have made good progress getting to know each other, and the understanding we have gained and the projects that individual groups are doing in their local areas all gives us a better idea of what we can do collectively for a statewide action to be announced soon," he said.
The San Clemente summit was attended by 23 people representing 15 organizations, he said. Creation of a new website was announced earlier last month and is under development at Energy Net. Marion Pack of the Laguna Citizens for Safe Energy presided at the second summit.
At that meeting, plans were made for a third summit on December 6 in northern California at a location to be determined after a meeting on December 5 to discuss and outline training of members to pursue the NFC goals, he said.
Also discussed at the meeting was creation of a formal organization such as a non-profit, appointment of an executive committee to handle NFC's day-to-day business,and strategies to invite other organizations to join or support the network and exploration of the best ways to monitor what state government is doing to advance the use of renewables and encourage conservation.
The first summit was held in San Mateo, the day after the MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) anti-nuclear concert was staged on August 7 in Mountain View. (Close Plants)
Stone issued a press release about what took place after the San Clemente summit when San Clemente City Council met to hear reports on the San Onofre plant:
After the summit ended everyone went to the San Clemente City Council meeting to hear the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) talk about the lessons learned from Fukushima. At this city meeting, democracy was hard to find. Residents Organized for a Safe Environment (ROSE), San Clemente Green, and Coalition for Responsible Ethical Environmental Decisions (CREED) had worked with the city to provide a fair and balanced discussion of the lessons learned from Fukushima for over four months.
Our local environmental groups had made arrangements to bring independent experts to balance information given by the NRC and Southern California Edison (SCE) (which owns and operates the San Onofre plant). Unfortunately, the city decided to have a two-part meeting so both sides would not meet face-to-face to discuss the issues and bring out the truth. Instead, we got the same dog and pony show presentation that the NRC & SCE always present. The council even took away our right to ask questions directly of the NRC, and took our questions on cards and read them to the NRC & SCE themselves, while the NRC literally turned its back to the public which they would not and did not face even after the public asked them to turn around so that they could be heard better.
A video of that meeting is available at San Clemente Patch.
