Rancho Seco
Posted by Karen on 13-Mar-2010
(Click photo for all 19 photos)
This afternoon, I took a drive out to Rancho Seco to visit with Tersha and Vic and to see their new trailer in their favorite camping spot. This was my first visit to the decommissioned nuclear power plant and the recreation area they’ve converted it to. While the towers still stand, and probably will for many more years, they’ve not been active since we voted the plant closed in 1989. Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) operates a large solar farm and a natural gas plant out there now. The park area is very nice, there is a large lake where people were wind surfing and enjoying a fishing contest. There is also a trail through a wetland area that should be full of flowers here soon, but not yet.
Comments
2 Responses to “Rancho Seco”Leave a comment, and if you'd like your own picture to show up next to your comments, go get a gravatar!
why on earth would sane people vote to close a nuclear power plant??? It’s one of the cleanest and least expensive types of power around!…*wait, wait, I’m forgetting…west coast…does sane apply??*
Reply
Karen Reply:
March 25th, 2010 at 8:33 am
Well, let’s see what sparked the drive to close it down. Hmmm, 1979 a little incident back east called Three Mile Island. Oh, and then there was a bigger incident in 1986 called Chernobyl. Both of which make you think really, really hard when there is a nuclear power plant 25 miles south of your backyard. And if I remember right, I don’t think it ever ran to the point where it was profitable. All is okay, we still pay some of the lowest electric rates in the country because SMUD is extremely well run and we have lots of other clean power like geothermal, hydro and solar available to us around here. Yes, I voted to close it.
Reply