Our concerns for living next to a nuclear power plant are being heard around the world.
Our concerns for living next to a nuclear power plant are being heard around the world. Today a few of us are being interviewed by two major networks, CBS and France 24 and they may be getting aired anytime soon after. There is also a US-correspondent for the German newspaper
Sueddeutsche Zeitung, based in Washington, DC. that will meet with us on the same day as well. We’ll let you know if we get a scheduled time and date. Otherwise we’ll probably get a link to share with you later. A special thanks goes out to Mike Mason and Rick Busnardo, previous managers at SONGS, who will give an insiders view of issues at the plant. Here are some updates on our previous interviews telling our story in English and other languages.
The Associated Press – http://www.youtube.com/watch?
KCAL
9- not yet released (we’ll notify you or let us know if you hear
anything)
NPR –
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/16/134602814/Japanese-Tragedy-Has-Calif-Worried-About-Nuclear-Energy
CNN
– not yet released (we’ll notify you or let us know if you hear
anything)
http://ondemand-mp3.dradio.de/file/dradio/2011/03/18/drk_20110318_0820_2b578476.mp3
La Opinion Newspaper –
http://www.impre.com/laopinion/noticias/primera-pagina/2011/3/19/viven-con-temor-a-la-planta-en-246314-1.html#commentsBlock
German to English translation
In the U.S. state of California is
coming back everyday
Kerstin Zilm
story for Deutschlandfunk, another nationwide broadcasting program in
Kermany.
California looks worried in the west – the residents
are wondering whether what Japan just experienced could happen in
California. Two nuclear power plants are
in an earthquake zone.
The
California Senator Barbara Boxer expects answers from the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory NRC. “How safe are our nuclear
power plants?” she asks in a letter to
the NRC chief Gregory Jaczko. At a
hearing by members of the Authority before the Senate urged swift action
Boxer:
“Is this not a warning?
Should not we pause for thought that there was an earthquake of
magnitude 9.0, where it was never expected? If you as the person
responsible is not to say that you will not issue permits more before
the power plants do not were upgraded to
the latest findings, particularly in earthquakes, and the old power
plants? Is that asking too much? “
visibly
upset as the Senator from California to the responsibility of the
Authority NRC. In fact, the federal
agency in Washington responsible for the nuclear power plants in the
U.S. that are already in operation, a decision on maintenance and safety
standards. While the individual states
such as California also delay the construction of new power plants, but
the final decision is the highest authority in Washington.
Their boss, Gregory Jaczko tried to calm the anxious
senator: the two power plants in California are safe and monitored
around the clock by inspectors.
“We
will consider very seriously what happened in Japan. If we get the
information that there were safety problems, we will act immediately. We
make the same concerns as you. Our responsibility for the safety of
U.S. citizens to care. “
Some Californians are aware these days that it could
also help them to a nuclear disaster – because of two nuclear power
plants on the Pacific, located in an earthquake zone. They have stocked with iodine tablets and purchased
emergency equipment for earthquakes. But
two weeks after the accident in Japan and new headlines that define the
messages, even in the western coastal state, the initial excitement has
died down. Otherwise at the nuclear power
plant in San Onofre, on the southern tip of a wild and romantic beach
with high cliffs, white sand and views of seemingly endless sea. No one demonstrated at the gates of the nuclear power
plant. On the contrary, in the shadow of
the cooling towers surfers and anglers enjoy a heavenly day in
California:
“I do not worry about
it I do not even think about it after it’s like with the sharks -..?
They are there, but so what I like to go surfing, a sport that’s fun.”
“It is a good place to fish if there is a tsunami
warning, I of course do not go to the beach with the nuclear power
plant, but on a sunny day like this -. Why not?”
Five kilometers away from the power plant – in the
coastal town of San Clemente. Here are some three
dozen people gathered for a city council meeting. They are less carefree than other people of their country and
express their concerns: more than seven million people lived in the
50-kilometer radius of the plant, they say there is only one evacuation
road. And in a local nuclear power plant where
there had periods with generators and rusty pipes.
But the residents of San Clemente have their
objections before a peaceful form, no one is loud, all work with the
three minutes to speak and when the mayor promised an action plan, there
is polite applause.
Gary Headrick directs
the environmental group Sanclementegreen. It
calls for the U.S. to phase out nuclear energy.
“Our plant has the worst safety record of the U.S., we
are ten times worse than the standard. We must be renewable, secure
energy investments. We intend to follow Germany’s example. Do it right!”
A phase-out of nuclear power would not be easy for California.
First, because Washington will decide the future
of existing facilities. And secondly, because the
state covers nearly fifteen percent of its energy from nuclear power. The operators of power plants, would have to pay for
the modernization of their plants assure meanwhile, said they were safe.
Even Steven Conroy, spokesman for the power
company Southern California Edison operators of the power plant in San
Onofre:
“The system is safe. We have
various security measures. A number of back-up generators. We know that
there is a Rock faults, our power plant can withstand all that could be
initiated from there.”
But
environmentalists with Gary Headrick, many believe that the nuclear
operators have not invested sufficiently in the necessary modernization
and that the U.S. nuclear regulatory authority to inspect carelessly. The critical voices, however, be less. From day to day. Most
Californians have already returned back to the relaxed agenda.
“Many that live long in addition to something to
accept the risk of blunt, are desensitized. Some do not even know why
these cupolas are there. Ignorance is a blessing!”