The Diablo Canyon Power Plant, which sits on a cliff on California’s Central Coast, has been the subject of ceaseless protests and political battles since it was proposed in 1963.
Now, the plant is at the center of yet another major debate. After shuttering all the state’s other nuclear power plants in recent decades, California is considering extending Diablo’s life and lifting a moratorium on new reactors.
That these decisions are even on the table in California is a testament to the substantial change in public views of nuclear energy, which for decades has been reviled by the liberal lawmakers and environmental groups that wield tremendous power and influence in the state.
Many of its leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, have expressed support for nuclear energy. The California Legislature last month passed a bill to commission a study on partly lifting the ban on new reactors.
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Those are basically nuclear batteries, in the disposable reaction sense. It’s not fission, fission requires huge amounts of water. Fundamentally, even if you used another coolant and another way of turning the power to electricity, you need massive heat dissipation (which is very difficult in space)
Nuclear batteries are basically decay powered, they give a small amount of power for a really long time. Totally different technology