Anti-Nuke Crowd Still Aims for Radiation Monitors
San Clemente Green, ROSE and others persuade San Clemente City Council to make the idea a discussion topic at a March meeting.
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San Clemente anti-nuclear-power groups continue to agitate for independent radiation monitors with data that can be viewed live by the public.
The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station sprung a leak last month, and although plant officials said any radiation that may have escaped was immeasurable by plant equipment, local groups have used the incident to advance their campaign against the plant.
The leak was relatively minor, plant officials said, and was quickly contained. Problems with tubes in steam generators that are virtually brand new have kept the plant shut down since, however.
Groups such as San Clemente Green and Residents Organized for a Safe Environment have galvanized some residents most recently by calling for independent radiation monitors and an epidemiological study to determine if there are increased cancer or birth defect rates surrounding the plant.
EDITOR'S NOTE: San Clemente Green head Gary Headrick and ROSE leader Gene Stone both write opinion posts using San Clemente Patch's free blogging platform. Read Stone's commentary calling for monitors here.
City Councilwoman Lori Donchak called for radiation monitors to be a discussion topic on the agenda for the second council meeting in March.
Donchak spent much of her 2011 year as mayor helping to organize educational forums about the plant after Japan's earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster in Fukushima in March.
In This article
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Gary Headrick
Joined Patch Sunday, April 3, 2011 -
Gene Stone
Joined Patch Friday, April 29, 2011 -
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Mayor Lori Donchak
100 Avenida Presidio, San Clemente, CA -
Gary Headrick
12:02 pm on Wednesday, February 22, 2012
I think of us more as community advocates but it is not surprising that some see us as agitators. We are doing what we can to step in where those with the responsibility for our safety have become too cozy with the industry. I can't imagine NOT doing what we are doing considering what is at stake here. Call it agitating or advocating, we are just doing what we believe is the right thing to do. We certainly have nothing else to gain by doing so.
Adam Townsend
1:57 pm on Wednesday, February 22, 2012
The term "agitate" was not meant to be pejorative. I tend to stick to "anti-nuclear power advocates," or, "some residents," in writing these stories because I know a lot of folks don't like to be called "activists." Sometimes, however, I like to mix up my diction to keep the prose lively.
But I will stick to forms of "advocate" from now on. I will not change the lede in this article, though, because it is our policy to avoid changing published work unless it is inaccurate or there is a typographical error.
Gene Stone
2:09 pm on Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Adam the PEOPLE often have to AGITATE the elected ones and remind them the work for the PEOPLE, and in this case not SCE or any other corp. The PEOPLE are in charge, we only have to wake them up and remember this is our govt, it does not belong to the ones who get elected. Does anyone remember the term "Public Servant".
Alberto Barrera
6:41 pm on Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Once again, I ask the anti-nuclear crowd, what do we replace it with? There is no other energy source that produces more energy per square foot than nuclear. Neither geothermal, solar, or wind can produce the amount of energy that the plant creates.
Gene Stone
6:48 am on Thursday, February 23, 2012
Alberto, the lights are still on and the plant SHUTDOWN for 23 days. Once again FYI we overproduce baseline electricity in California. We have four or five backup natural gas power plants not in use. Along with providing more renewable energy and the natural gas as a backup for baseline California and easily SHUTDOWN both of California's aging nuclear power plants on faultlines and in tsunami zone.
PG&E and SCE could be expanding the "solar least roof program" for our energy needs but instead they are trying to kill the program, even though everyone has been paying for in our electric bills. By the way electric companies where is that money you've been collecting?
James Schumaker
10:09 am on Thursday, February 23, 2012
I think it would be a good idea to have radiation monitors around town that are independent of San Onofre, but question whether the data should be available immediately to everyone. I think it would be better to have monitors where there are people who are trained to interpret the data properly, i.e. hospitals, military bases, police stations, fire stations, etc, and a central authority (the City Council) that could then determine whether there is a public safety threat and whether to release the data to the public. Otherwise, any little blip in readings might lead to panic on the part of members of the public who are interested, but not expert at reading radiation levels, or could be used by unscrupulous persons to scare members of the public when there is no actual danger.
george gregory
11:30 am on Thursday, February 23, 2012
panic is justified
after all if they ( songs ) can't handle ammonia or keep a toilet from over flowing then what makes you think they can handle nuclear materials....again and again they have problems at the plant
danger Will Robison danger /////////////
I have no other place to go do you
remember any exposure is bad exposure it's the small bullet big bullet theory either way you dead
Donna Taylor
12:53 pm on Saturday, February 25, 2012
SONGS is a VERY old facility right in the midst of hundreds of thousands of citizens and some of the most expensive real estate on the planet. Is it too much to ask that it be as safe as humanly possible without being called `Anti-Nuke' or an `agitator'? If, as SONGS reps claim, it is safe beyond just the minimum standards, then why all the fuss over monitoring and transparency to reassure the public that SCE really is more serious about public safety than the bottom line.
After all it's our lives and future we're talking about, unlike some corporation that can declare bankruptcy and head on down the road when something goes wrong.