California to consider keeping last nuclear plant open (opens in new tab)

I was discussing specifically the risk of tsunami, which is what I believe people were trying to take from Fukushima and apply without modification to Diablo Canyon.

Even though it sounds like the original design was to store energy at night for use during the day, it looks like now that solar is such a large part of the grid they've just flipped the schedule around. From the CAISO website, hydro and battery go up around 4pm as solar output starts to go down and they peak around 8pm (fossil fuel generation follow the same trend, roughly). Although I don't know if there's the ability to check generation at a per-site level.

Nuclear paired with pumped hydro is very flexible, being able to handle peaks at any time. It's also very reliable, since the vast majority of outages are scheduled, and the plant's output can be increased or decreased to ensure there is enough surplus to store enough energy to meet expected peak demand. It also uses much less land and material resources, and results in less waste, substantially reducing damage to the environment.

Unfortunately, peak electricity demand is in the evening right as the sun sets.

Newsom would make a bad President and a terrible candidate. He's a classic corrupt corporate Democrat patsy[1] who holds power in a one-party state. Furthermore, that one-party state is California, which fact alone is enough to turn off a sizeable chunk of the national electorate. His very visibly corrupt French Laundry escapade would be replayed endlessly and undoubtedly to great effect. Finally, and most importantly, his insulation from the national political mood and current and heretofore political imperative to appeal to the California electorate leaves him woefully unprepared to effectively contest a national election. DeSantis or Youngkin would crush him like a bug.

Like Kamala Harris, he would make more sense as a VP nominee (although he would similarly be a bad choice overall). His politics and California provenance would be an albatross around any Presidential candidate's neck, but access to the lucrative California establishment Democrat donor network might outweigh the electoral deadweight.

[1]: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-12-31/question...

> Kinney is well known around the state Capitol as a strategist, ghostwriter of Newsom’s speeches and unofficial fixer summoned to help loosen the governor from political jams. His dual roles as an advisor to Newsom and a lobbyist paid by companies to influence the governor and his staff have raised questions about potential conflicts of interest for the administration.

I can see how it can be read sarcastically (now, in hindsight, I'm rubbing my temples), but beleive me I think he's the best the Left has.

I don't you too.