Dec 10
The nuclear age dawned almost exactly 70 years ago under an abandoned University of Chicago football stadium on Dec. 2, 1942. Physicists Arthur Compton and Enrico Fermi conducted the first nuclear chain reaction. America and Great Britain provided home for many scientists fleeing Fascist oppression. Science thrives with the unfettered exchange of ideas. Ideology is …
Nov 26
Over forty years ago an adobe ruin was the biggest structure at Diablo Canyon. At the time every major California utility was in pursuit of a nuclear option to serve California’s expanding population. In March of 1968 the construction permits had not yet been issued by the Atomic Energy Commission. By June archeology was underway …
Sep 11
Man outsmarts nature. It is a storyline that mankind has been working ever since the first tool was made from a stick, stalk or stone. Currently Pacific Gas & Electric is attempting to study the underwater fault lines offshore from their nuclear power plant at Diablo Canyon. Whale and fishing advocates say the study will …
Aug 23
Photographer Bill Bouton recently recorded a remarkable series of humpback whale images at Avila Beach. When he posted them to his flickr site the the images were picked up worldwide in various media and one was published on the front page of The Tribune. A tip of the lens cap from one photographer to another. …
Mar 15
Atomic energy was a growth industry in the 1960s. In San Luis Obispo County, nuclear electric plants were proposed on the Nipomo Dunes and near Cayucos before construction began at Diablo Canyon. The state was undergoing a dizzying growth cycle and utilities were moving to stay ahead of projected demand. PG&E had wanted to build …
Dec 26
This view over San Luis Creek in Avila Beach comes from a box that has mostly 1966 negatives. Unfortunately I can’t find the article, if anyone can determine the correct date I may be able to find the news clipping. There is no golf course or kids park but the Union Oil tanks are in …
Aug 23
July 12, 1971 Earlier this month Diablo Canyon showed off a new reactor vessel head. The massive 70-ton unit took three weeks to travel by highway from Mt. Vernon Indiana. Quoting David Sneed’s copy The vessel head is one of the main components of a nuclear reactor and maintains pressure within the water cooled reactor. …
Mar 29
September 10, 1987 San Luis Obispo County used to be home of the world’s largest solar-cell power station. Built by an oil company in 1983, the view of the Arco solar power plant was an eerie combination of age-old scenes of sheep grazing and science fiction technology. Every few minutes the silence of the Carrizo …
Nov 22
November 24, 1973 Time gets measured in different scales. Geologic time runs in cycles with spans of hundreds, thousands or millions of years, hard to put in a human context because the Earth’s pace is not a human pace. A few signposts of 1973: Richard Nixon was president, and the jaws of the Watergate scandal …
Oct 03
June 30, 1979 It was San Luis Obispo County’s Woodstock only with less mud, sex, drugs or rock and roll but more politics. They estimated 20,000 would attend. Over 30,000 people jammed Highway 1 for a combination music festival and anti-nuclear rally. It was held on the Army airstrip behind Cuesta College almost three months …
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