THE ETHICS OF DIABLO CANYON

Diablo Canyon, the US' most delayed nuclear plant (near San Louis Obispo, Calif.) may soon get an operating license. And the antinukes are poised to obstruct fuel-loading.

The two units of close to 1,100 MW each will replace 20 million barrels of oil a day. But the pampered kiddies have a monopoly on morality:

They care about human lives, not barrels of oil, and Diablo Canyon is still only 2.5 miles from the fault.

All right, then: let's talk earthquakes. All energy sources can become dangerous in an earthquake; the one source that can be very significantly (though not perfectly) protected is a nuclear plant: by siting, by special flexible tubing, by making the pressure vessel itself virtually earthquake-proof, and by a number of other precautions. Diablo Canyon has been through the most grueling hearings on this point and has passed, for it is fortified to withstand earthquakes up to 7.5 on the Richter scale. And even if the containment building were to rupture, lethal radioactive contamination would be confined to the immediate neighborhood of the plant, far from populated centers.

But something else will rupture in an earthquake, especially in California: hydroelectric dams. In the 1971 Los Angeles earthquake, untold thousands escaped death when the (pumped storage) dam above the San Fernando Valley cracked, but did not give way because at that time of day it was not full.

It would not, of course, be economically affordable to replace all of California's hydroplants with nuclear power; but then, we are not talking dollars, we are talking earthquakes, lives and morality, remember?

Save the names of the high-minded Messiahs as they come to Diablo Canyon from the rest of the country to lighten their days of idle loafing with a bit of brawling, moralizing and self-deception. Save their addresses so you can send them the list of the dead, injured and homeless after California's next seismic dam failure.

Let them savor their noble-minded ethics to the hilt.