Good Neighbor SONGS versus Passive Power


Imagine San Onofre without SONGS (again)

In my July 10th Sun Post op-ed
"Imagine San Onofre without SONGS,"
my visual thesis suggested 'imaging something'
different than what is, is the first-step in the
direction of change.

I also suggested, employees of SONGS, and
or anyone deriving profit from Nukes would
argue No SONGS is an impossible vision.

Like the Horse and Buggy salesman
quipped when seeing the first motor car
rattle down his muddy rutted road,

"That's cute, and entertaining, but horse
and buggies are here to stay."

Encouraging words did come from one
pro-nuker, "I think we all would prefer a
solar-source of power, or a wind-source,
or a wave/tide source. Let's build those first."

But he also wrote I'd suggested herds of
weak bladdered cattle fouling streams was
equivalent to SONGS leaking Tritium into
San Onofre's ocean (I never once mentioned
bovine discharge. Only SONGS discharge).

He went on: Tritium is not absorbed into
the skin - can be ingested harmlessly.

I quickly got back to my Tritium sources.
They disagree with both his points.

They report: Tritium does, indeed, absorb
directly through the skin, the gut, the lungs, etc.
Tritium is a radioactive hydrogen atom. No
other radionuclide is capable of absorbing
through skin like tritium can.

Apparently in its tiniest dose, Tritium is a
real go-getter. Goes for the throat. Maybe that's
why a few years back when SONGS leaked,
us San Clemente residents received little
anti-nuke thyroid pills to swallow if the
Big-One ever happens. Yummy.

This is why WE (you, me) must imagine
SONGS all gone, because SONGS'
old-schoolers just can't.

Same as dinosaurs couldn't imagine their
own demise when they ruled the world.

Nukes in general are a Lose-Lose.
Their spent-rods, never spent.
Their hot-shelf-life living forever.
Scariest yet - the world has no safe place
to store the ever-radiating ol'hot stuff
stored at SONGS now.

So they stay at SONGS radiating,
incased in concrete and steel.
But steel rusts (by the sea) and concrete
is porous, and there's earthquakes and
terrorists and sleepy night watchmen,
and FOREVER is a longtime.

Remember SONGS' humongus 18ft diameter
pipes running out to sea, sucking & flushing
our Pacific Ocean in and out, in and out,
nonstop for 4-decades as SONGS' moving
parts rust, creak, leak, laboring to keep the
ol'girl's suck & flushers cooling (are you
imaging it all?).

Now imagine a solar panel basking in the sun.
Maybe on your roof. Maybe on everyone's roof.
Maybe anywhere and everywhere there's room
to make electricity passively, with No Moving Parts.

No more suck & flushing our Pacific Ocean in
and out, spewing stuff like Tritium to absorb into
fish and surfer's skin, and their guts.

But rather: a passive way to power homes silently
and safely, producing even more Power than
we need, so then we can share it.

Homemade power. What a concept.

Imagine that.

Now imagine SONGS gone.
It's getting easier, isn't it.

It's almost believable.
Like dinosaurs, horse and buggies,
78 records, cheap gasoline and
San Onofre without SONGS.