Diablo Canyon is Helping Fight California's Drought

Last month NEI's Nuclear Energy Overview team covered news that the Diablo Canyon Power Plant has on site a desalination facility that it uses to generate fresh water from seawater. And lots of it -- the Diablo desal facility is capable of producing 1.5 million gallons of treated water a day. So in addition to producing 2,300 megawatts of carbon-free power, nearly 10 percent of all electricity generated in California, and enough energy to meet the needs of more than three million Northern and Central Californians, Diablo Canyon is poised to be a source to aid California with its historic drought. From the coverage:

Plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has entered into a five-year agreement to use the facility’s excess capacity to provide the county’s Office of Emergency Services with fresh water to help tackle the ever-present risk of wildfires.

This news merits broader coverage, and credit the San Luis Obispo Tribune for following through. Its coverage notes that the facility "is the largest facility of its kind on the West Coast." The state, and San Luis Obispo County especially, is enduring a fourth consecutive year of brutal drought. The Tribune continues:

For the first time in Diablo Canyon’s 30-year history of operation, its desalination plant has become the object of intense public interest because of its potential to serve neighboring communities.

Water from Diablo Canyon’s desalination facility is helping fight wildfires.

And read more here.

Comments

jim said…

It's not going to get greater coverage, which it would in national spades were it wind or solar involved, simply because any postive news above nuclear energy is media persona non-grata.

James Greenidge
Queens NY

July 10, 2015 at 6:09 AM

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