Emily Niebuhr is an English senior and an opinion columnist for Mustang News. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang Media Group.
When people think of nuclear power, they often imagine the white sky of nuclear winter and fallout shelters. Since the Cold War, politicians have demonized nuclear energy while the media has mythologized it with works like “Oppenheimer” and “Chernobyl.”
The Cold War ended in 1991, but fearful attitudes toward nuclear power still shape energy policy in our own community.
Diablo Canyon Power Plant has acted as a point of conflict in San Luis Obispo for decades. Many public concerns stem from misconceptions about the plant’s safety and environmental impacts.
Education about nuclear power is important so we — the next generation of environmental stewards — can make informed decisions about how we want to meet the ever-increasing energy demands for a growing population, data centers and global trade.
Shark Week at Diablo Canyon
Discovery Channel visited Diablo Cove in the spring to film an episode for “Shark Week,” which aired in July.
Diablo Canyon Power Plant contains the last two functioning nuclear reactors in California, and it’s right in our backyard.
Situated on a scenic, secluded stretch of coastline between Montaña de Oro and Avila Beach, it provides California with 9% of our energy and provides Peaches, one of the juvenile great white sharks tagged by Tenera Environmental’s team of marine biologists, with a home.
Diablo’s cooling process intakes 2.5 billion gallons of seawater and discharges it back into the outtake cove about 11 degrees warmer. Over time, this has resulted in the creation of a subtropical ecosystem that attracts young sharks.
Dylan George, the public policy engagement specialist from Diablo Canyon, spoke about these unique, controversial ecological circumstances.
“We know we have a huge responsibility. We have some of the last coastlands in California that are not developed,” George said. “We work a lot with Cal Poly, Cal State Long Beach and the Scripps Institute for Oceanography.”
Diablo Cove’s biodiversity has shifted, creating new ecological niches.
“We thought it was cool that the Discovery Channel called us and wanted to film in our outflow cove. A lot of people think nothing can live near a nuclear plant, but it’s the opposite,” George said. “You see the harbor seals, the Garibaldi and the rockfish jumping around.”
What about the negative environmental impacts?
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an independent governing body that regulates nuclear energy in the United States, released a substantial final supplemental environmental impact study in 2025.
Some of the negative trade-offs include the disappearance of native species of bull kelp and the deaths of marine organisms, like fish larvae, that have been swept into the cooling system.
Despite this, the reports show fish levels have remained steady and neighboring coves are unaffected by the temperature change. The overarching ecological changes from Diablo are not significant enough to justify shutting down the plant.
Decommissioning the plant would also negatively affect the warm water species that have adapted to the new conditions.
California has not found an equally efficient renewable energy source to replace the power supplied by Diablo. Relying on fossil fuels to augment our energy needs instead would have far worse environmental ramifications.
Dispelling misconceptions: the importance of education
People fear nuclear power because they don’t understand how reactors work. They imagine an earthquake triggering a catastrophic explosion or the leaching of radioactive waste. These misconceptions are understandable and exactly why education is necessary.
Nuclear energy is actually one of the safest energy sources. According to Our World in Data, more people have died every year from fossil fuel-related air pollution than from any of the three nuclear accidents in history.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission closely monitors, and it was constructed and retrofitted with seismic safety in mind to be able to withstand earthquakes stronger than what California’s fault lines are projected to produce.
In the unlikely event of a meltdown, Diablo’s reactors are safely contained within steel-reinforced concrete domes.
Our generation has grown up without lingering Cold War anxiety, which makes us a clean slate for embracing nuclear power.
As students and stewards of California’s environment, we must consider the pros and cons and use our knowledge to educate those around us.
What about the waste?
Nuclear waste is the only waste that is tracked down to the molecule. No other energy source is quantified and contained with such precision.
Leonard Wyhs, an industrial engineering senior, expressed uncertainty about nuclear power’s long-term viability.
“There’s definitely still the problem of the waste management of nuclear material,” Wyhs said. “I do think it is a temporary solution, definitely not long-term.”
Nuclear waste may be permanent but so is the waste from non-renewables. Emissions from coal and oil enter the atmosphere unregulated and remain there indefinitely.
Common concerns regarding nuclear power relate to the storage of nuclear waste. Diablo Canyon contains spent fuel onsite in a highly regulated, closely monitored process.
“Nuclear power is the only energy source where we know where every ounce of our waste is,” said Pacific Gas & Electric Senior Vice President and Chief Risk Officer Maureen Zawalick.
Storing the waste is safe but reprocessing it would be more efficient. The uranium in the spent fuel can be reused to produce electricity for millions of homes without mining new materials.
Unfortunately, residual stigmas have made it difficult for reprocessing to gain political momentum. This is another reason why dispelling misconceptions is important. Embracing a more efficient version of a pre-existing system could further reduce nuclear power’s environmental impact.
Nuclear reactors aren’t nuclear bombs
Nuclear power runs on uranium. We combine its weakly radioactive isotope, U-238, with U-235, a radioactive isotope that can be used in the fission reaction. This process is called enrichment.
The uranium fuel pellets in nuclear reactors are enriched with 3% to 5% of the radioactive uranium. Weapon-grade uranium, like what goes into atomic bombs, is enriched with over 90% U-235.
“A lot of people conflate nuclear energy with nuclear weaponry. In the Cold War era, there was a lot of talk about countries building up nuclear weapons arsenals. What we do in nuclear energy is totally different,” George said.
In short, nothing will explode. The reactors in Diablo have multi-level safety precautions, like control rods, which can be lowered manually or mechanically to stop the fission reaction.
The future of nuclear power in California
In April, Diablo succeeded in securing a 20-year permit to stay open until 2045. However, they still need approval from the state legislature to extend operations past 2030.
Diablo faces many hurdles, including debates about land rights, continued concerns for seismic safety and environmental disputes. To mitigate this, additional safety assessments and stewardship requirements for 12,000 acres of surrounding land are a caveat for the plant’s continued operations.
As a society, we must acknowledge that our increasing electricity demand has backed us into a corner.
We are in an energy crisis.
People must be educated about how nuclear energy actually works so they can make decisions based on facts rather than fear.
The energy sources we choose to support have a cascading effect on the environment, and we’re running out of time to keep making the wrong decisions.