Sundesert Nuclear Power Plant

Last updated

Proposed site of the Sundesert Nuclear Power Plant
Blythe, California, and Colorado River 1.jpg
Blythe, California, surrounding fields, and the Colorado River: the town is 15 miles from the canceled nuclear facility
Sundesert Nuclear Power Plant
CountryUnited States
LocationCalifornia
Coordinates 33°26′59.21″N114°46′58.42″W / 33.4497806°N 114.7828944°W / 33.4497806; -114.7828944
StatusCancelled
[ edit on Wikidata]

The Sundesert Nuclear Power Plant was a proposed California nuclear power station, formally submitted in 1976. Facing firm opposition from the state's Governor Jerry Brown and denied a permit by a state agency, plans for the construction of the power facility were rejected in 1978 after 100 million dollars had been spent towards its construction. The Sundesert proposal was the last major attempt to build a nuclear plant in California.

Contents

History

Background

California Governor Jerry Brown in 1978 Jerry Brown in 1978 crop.jpg
California Governor Jerry Brown in 1978

Opposition to nuclear power plants in California began in 1958 over the proposed Bodega Bay Nuclear Power Plant near the small fishing town of Bodega Bay, California. The six-year controversy pitted utility company Pacific Gas and Electric against local activists opposed to the location of the nuclear plant. According to nuclear power historian Thomas Wellock, this successful fight by the activists, the first in the history of nuclear power, led directly to the eventual growth of California’s anti-nuclear movement. [1] A second battle by state environmentalists stopped a nuclear facility proposed for Malibu, California, in the scenic oceanside Corral Canyon, in 1970. [2]

However, by the early 1970s, the future of nuclear energy in California was projected to expand on a major scale, with numerous proposals on the drafting boards of the state’s utility companies. [3]

In the mid- and late 1970s, plans envisioned as future United States energy policy by the Carter Administration called for hundreds of new nuclear plants to be built nationwide. But under Governor Jerry Brown who was elected in 1975, California was heading in the opposite direction. [4]

Proposal and rejection

In 1976, after purchasing the necessary parcel of land the previous year, San Diego Gas & Electric Company submitted an application to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission to construct two 974 MWe Westinghouse pressurized water reactors approximately 15 miles southwest of Blythe, California near the border of Arizona. [5] [6] The location of the proposed nuclear plant was 160 miles east of the city of San Diego, and the site had been cleared for general and earthquake safety by both state and federal regulators. The cost of the twin reactor plant was to be 3 billion dollars. [7] The two reactors were scheduled to come on line in 1985 and 1988. [8]

California had already enacted a state law in 1976 that mandated that a solution be found to the problem of safe disposal of nuclear waste before further nuclear plants could be constructed. Attempts to exempt the Sundesert plant from the law failed in what was then called the California Assembly's Resources, Land Use and Energy Committee. [4]

Additionally, statewide public disapproval of nuclear power had increased significantly. In March 1978 in California’s Kern County, voters for the first time in United States history emphatically rejected a nuclear power plant, the proposed four-reactor San Joaquin Nuclear Project, by a 70% to 30% margin. If approved and constructed, it would have been the largest nuclear power facility in the world. [9]

The next month, April 1978, a year before the Three Mile Island accident, Governor Brown stated he would never sign a bill allowing construction of a nuclear power plant in California. Soon afterwards the California Energy Commission voted to halt the construction of the two Sundesert units in the "absence of federally demonstrated and approved technology for permanent disposal of radioactive wastes". [10] [11] [12] The Sundesert project was cancelled in May 1978. [7]

Aftermath

Political response to the crucial California Energy Commission vote to deny the Sundesert plant a permit was considerable from both parties. The body had been created in 1974, and all five members had been appointed by Governor Brown. There were calls to abolish the commission in the wake of the commission vote not to approve the plant. [3]

The utility most involved with the plant construction, San Diego Gas and Electric with a 50% stake, had invested 100 million dollars in the failed project. [4]

The rejection of the Sundesert plant was the last major effort to locate a new nuclear power plant in California. [3] As of 2020, the final operational nuclear power plant in the state, the twin-reactor Diablo Canyon Power Plant facility midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, is slated to be shut down no later than 2025. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear Regulatory Commission</span> Government agency of the United States

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with protecting public health and safety related to nuclear energy. Established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, the NRC began operations on January 19, 1975, as one of two successor agencies to the United States Atomic Energy Commission. Its functions include overseeing reactor safety and security, administering reactor licensing and renewal, licensing radioactive materials, radionuclide safety, and managing the storage, security, recycling, and disposal of spent fuel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific Gas and Electric Company</span> American utility company

The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered at 300 Lakeside Drive, in Oakland, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 million households in the northern two-thirds of California, from Bakersfield and northern Santa Barbara County, almost to the Oregon and Nevada state lines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diablo Canyon Power Plant</span> Nuclear power plant in California

The Diablo Canyon Power Plant is a nuclear power plant near Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County, California. Following the permanent shutdown of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in 2013, Diablo Canyon is now the only operational nuclear plant in California, as well as the state's largest single power station. It was the subject of controversy and protests during its construction, with nearly two thousand civil disobedience arrests in a two-week period in 1981.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station</span> Permanently closed nuclear power plant located south of San Clemente, California

The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) is a permanently closed nuclear power plant located south of San Clemente, California, on the Pacific coast, in Nuclear Regulatory Commission Region IV. The plant was shut down in 2013 after defects were found in replacement steam generators; it is currently in the process of decommissioning. The 2.2 GW of electricity supply lost when the plant shut down was replaced with 1.8 GW of new natural-gas fired power plants and 250 MW of energy storage projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vallecitos Nuclear Center</span>

The Vallecitos Nuclear Center is a nuclear research facility, and the site of a former GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy electricity-generating nuclear power plant in unincorporated Alameda County, California, United States. The facility is approximately 30 miles (48 km) east of San Francisco, under jurisdiction of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Region IV.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exelon</span> American utility company

Exelon Corporation is a public utility headquartered in Chicago, and incorporated in Pennsylvania. Exelon is the largest electric parent company in the United States by revenue and is the largest regulated electric utility in the United States with approximately 10 million customers. The company is ranked 99th on the Fortune 500.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear power in the United States</span> Power source providing US electricity

In the United States, nuclear power is provided by 92 commercial reactors with a net capacity of 94.7 gigawatts (GW), with 61 pressurized water reactors and 31 boiling water reactors. In 2019, they produced a total of 809.41 terawatt-hours of electricity, which accounted for 20% of the nation's total electric energy generation. In 2018, nuclear comprised nearly 50 percent of US emission-free energy generation.

The Abalone Alliance (1977–1985) was a nonviolent civil disobedience group formed to shut down the Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Diablo Canyon Power Plant near San Luis Obispo on the central California coast in the United States. They modeled their affinity group-based organizational structure after the Clamshell Alliance which was then protesting the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in coastal New Hampshire. The group of activists took the name "Abalone Alliance" referring to the tens of thousands of wild California Red Abalone that were killed in 1974 in Diablo Cove when the unit's plumbing had its first hot flush.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hallam Nuclear Power Facility</span> Decommissioned nuclear power plant in Nebraska

The Hallam Nuclear Power Facility (HNPF) in Nebraska was a 75 MWe sodium-cooled graphite-moderated nuclear power plant built by Atomics International and operated by Consumers Public Power District of Nebraska. It was built in tandem with and co-located with a conventional coal-fired power station, the Sheldon Power Station. The facility featured a shared turbo generator that could accept steam from either heat source, and a shared control room.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-nuclear movement in the United States</span> Movement opposing the use of nuclear power, weapons, and/or uranium mining

The anti-nuclear movement in the United States consists of more than 80 anti-nuclear groups that oppose nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and/or uranium mining. These have included the Abalone Alliance, Clamshell Alliance, Committee for Nuclear Responsibility, Nevada Desert Experience, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Plowshares Movement, United Steelworkers of America (USWA) District 31, Women Strike for Peace, Nukewatch, and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Some fringe aspects of the anti-nuclear movement have delayed construction or halted commitments to build some new nuclear plants, and have pressured the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to enforce and strengthen the safety regulations for nuclear power plants. Most groups in the movement focus on nuclear weapons.

The 1970s proved to be a pivotal period for the anti-nuclear movement in California. Opposition to nuclear power in California coincided with the growth of the country's environmental movement. Opposition to nuclear power increased when President Richard Nixon called for the construction of 1000 nuclear plants by the year 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Plant</span> Decommissioned nuclear power plant in California

The Humboldt Bay Power Plant, Unit 3 was a 63 MWe nuclear boiling water reactor, owned by Pacific Gas and Electric Company that operated from August 1963 to July 1976 just south of Eureka, California.

The Levy County Nuclear Power Plant was a proposed nuclear power plant in Levy County, Florida. Progress Energy Florida originally estimated that the reactors would cost $5 billion and would commence operation in 2016. It later became clear that the Levy County reactors would not have started operation until at least 2026. Since Progress filed its application for the new plant in 2008 demand for electricity had been growing very slowly, and natural gas prices were extremely low at the time. The utility estimated that the reactors would cost between $17 billion and $22 billion, not counting financing charges and cost overruns. According to economist Mark Cooper, opposition to the project has mounted, threatening a rerun of the 1970s and 1980s, when the majority of nuclear construction plans were canceled or abandoned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear renaissance in the United States</span> Potential U.S. nuclear power revival

Between 2007 and 2009, 13 companies applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for construction and operating licenses to build 31 new nuclear power reactors in the United States. However, the case for widespread nuclear plant construction has been hampered due to inexpensive natural gas, slow electricity demand growth in a weak US economy, lack of financing, and safety concerns following the Fukushima nuclear accident at a plant built in the early 1970s which occurred in 2011.

In Pacific Gas & Electric Co. v. State Energy Resources Conservation & Development Commission, 461 U.S. 190 (1983), the United States Supreme Court held that a state statute regulating economic aspects of nuclear generating plants was not preempted by the federal Atomic Energy Act of 1954. The case provides a framework that has guided other cases involving preemption of federal authority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bodega Bay Nuclear Power Plant</span> Proposed Northern California nuclear power facility

The Bodega Bay Nuclear Power Plant was a proposed Northern California nuclear power facility that was stopped by local activism in the 1960s and never built. The foundations, located 2 miles (3.2 km) west of the active San Andreas Fault, were being dug at the time the plant was cancelled. The action has been termed "the birth of the anti-nuclear movement."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Offshore Power Systems</span> Defunct American developer of floating nuclear power stations

Offshore Power Systems (OPS) was a 1970 joint venture between Westinghouse Electric Company, which constructed nuclear generating plants, and Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock, which had recently merged with Tenneco, to create floating nuclear power plants at Jacksonville, Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Energy in California</span> Overview of the use of energy in California, U.S.

Energy in California is a major area of the economy of California. California is the state with the largest population and the largest economy in the United States. It is second in energy consumption after Texas. As of 2018, per capita consumption was the fourth-lowest in the United States partially because of the mild climate and energy efficiency programs.

Rose Gaffney (1895–1974) was an environmental activist known for fighting the construction of the Bodega Bay Nuclear Power Plant in Sonoma County, California. She is sometimes referred to as the "mother of ecology." In 2003, she was the subject of a documentary called "Rose Gaffney: The Belle of Bodega Bay."

References

  1. ↑ "Journal of Political Ecology". jpe.library.Arizona.edu. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
  2. ↑ "Nuclear Fault Line - Bodega Head". SonomaMag.com. February 3, 2015. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 BANCROFT, ANN (August 17, 1986). "Advocates of Nuclear Power Plants Keep Their Hopes on Back Burner" . Retrieved December 26, 2017– via LA Times.
  4. 1 2 3 Coast Legislators Apparently Doom Nuclear Plant, New York Times , Gladwin Hill, April 18, 1978. Retrieved July 7, 2019.
  5. ↑ "San Diego Gas and Electric, Sundesert Nuclear Power Plant Collection, 1974-1980 | Special Collections & University Archives".
  6. ↑ Evaporation Basin Report Sundesert Nuclear Plant (PDF) (Report). Stone & Weber Engineering Corp. June 1976. p. Figure 3-3. Retrieved December 18, 2014– via California Energy Commission.
  7. 1 2 Cannon, Lou (April 14, 1978). "Major Nuclear Power Plant Rejected in California" . Retrieved December 26, 2017– via www.WashingtonPost.com.
  8. ↑ San Diego Gas and Electric, Sundesert Nuclear Power Plant Collection, 1974-1980, San Diego State University , Ellen Jarosz. Retrieved July 7, 2019.
  9. ↑ Price, RobertCalifornian, The Bakersfield (February 27, 2010). "An unlikely no-nuke zone". Bakersfield.com. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
  10. ↑ Cannon, Lou (April 14, 1978). "Major Nuclear Power Plant Rejected in California" . Retrieved December 19, 2017– via www.WashingtonPost.com.
  11. ↑ Luther J. Carter "Political Fallout from Three Mile Island", Science, 204, April 13, 1979, p. 154.
  12. ↑ Wellock, Thomas Raymond (December 19, 1998). Critical Masses: Opposition to Nuclear Power in California, 1958-1978 . Univ of Wisconsin Press. p.  176. ISBN   9781883831103 . Retrieved December 19, 2017– via Internet Archive. bodega bay nuclear.
  13. ↑ Times, Ivan Penn and Samantha Masunaga/Los Angeles (June 21, 2016). "California closing last nuclear plant after 3 decades". SanDiegoUnionTribune.com. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.