Because reactor-driven electricity is not vital amidst this pandemic downturn, the demand for atomic workers to "stay home" is certain to escalate. "I am concerned with Exelon & Limerick Nuclear Generating Station's handling of the scheduled refueling -- which has required bringing in workers from across the country during this pandemic," says US Rep. Madeleine Dean in a statement likely to be repeated at reactor sites around the US.
"The potential increase of COVID-19 cases from 1,400 new workers not observing social distancing is staggering," says epidemiologist Joseph Mangano of the Radiation and Health Project. "The Limerick plant should be shut until the COVID-19 pandemic is over."
Indian Point Unit One, north of New York City, will shut permanently on April 28. Iowa's Duane Arnold will close in December.
But Ground Zero may be Pacific Gas & Electric's two 35-year-old reactors at Diablo Canyon. PG&E is bankrupt for the second time in two decades, and recently pleaded guilty to 85 felonies from the fires its faulty wires sent raging through northern California, killing 84 people. In 2010 a faulty PG&E gas line exploded in San Bruno, killing eight people.
Surrounded by earthquake faults, Diablo's construction prompted more than 10,000 civil disobedience arrests, the most at any US reactor. PG&E now admits its two Diablo nukes will lose more than $1.2 billion this year, more than $3.44 million/day.
Amidst its bitterly contested bankruptcy, PG&E may be taken over by the state. But more than a thousand workers are slated in early October to refuel and repair Unit One, which the NRC says is dangerously embrittled.
Whether local residents concerned about both a nuclear accident and the spread of the Coronavirus will let them into the county remains to be seen. So is whether they'll be still operating by then.
With the future of the nuclear industry at stake -- along with the possibility of more reactor mishaps -- the whole world will be watching
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