Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility

Columbia Generating Station Nuclear Power Plant

The Columbia Generating Station (CGS), the last remaining nuclear power plant in the Pacific Northwest, poses a significant danger to the health of people throughout our region. Located on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Washington, the CGS's GE Mark 2 Boiling Water Reactor features significant design problems (it is the same type of reactor that suffered a meltdown in Fukushima, Japan in March of 2011). 
Oregon PSR advocates for closing the plant as soon as possible and replacing the electricity from this aging power plant with clean, safe, renewable energy sources. Continue reading to find out more about the economic and safety and security reasons for shuttering the Columbia Generating Station nuclear power plant

The Columbia Generating Station (CGS) nuclear plant on the Columbia River is expensive and dangerous. Renewable power is cleaner, safer, and getting cheaper every day. $261,200,000 minimum estimated savings over 10 years of replacing CGS with renewable power sources. 32 years: TIme in which the CGS nuclear plant generates the same amount, in curies, of radioactive waste generated in the entire Cold War by nuclear weapons manufacturing at Hanford. The CGS nuclear plant's design is similar to the Fukushima Daiichi reactor that melted down in Japan. Conservative estimates of 10,000 to 66,000 excess cancers can be expected in Japan as a result of the exposure. Child thyroid cancer in the Fukushima region has already increased by over 100x the expected rate. Half of the 200,000 people displaced by the Fukushima meltdown are still living in camps and may never be able to return to their homes. Meanwhile, in the Pacific Northwest anonymous whistleblowers at the CGS indicate that the nuclear plant has been operating under unsafe conditions, putting employees and nearby residents at risk. "Senior management continues to tell the organization and public how we are an excellent performing nuclear power plant while ignoring the precipitous fall of our industry standing by measures of reliability, equipment health and radiation protection." Northwest ratepayers deserve less risk and lower energy costs. The Hanford site needs cleanup, not more radioactive waste. The choice is clear: time to shut down the CGS nuclear plant in favor of wind and solar. Renewable energy will meet our critical carbon goals, and prices continue to drop: indexed cost reductions, 2008 to 2015: 41% land-based wind, 64% utility scale photovoltaic, 73% modeled battery costs.

We have created a report that details the timeline and needs for closing the Columbia Generating Station which can serve as a roadmap for what is needed in a decommissioning plan:

Replacing Columbia Generating Station with Renewable Energy (October 2019)

Economic reasons for closing the Columbia Generating Station.

Safety and security reasons for closing the Columbia Generating Station.

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