The Columbia Generation Station (CGS) is a nuclear power reactor near Richland, Washington. The CGS was built by the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS) which was renamed Energy Northwest in 2000. Construction began in 1975. Because of cost overrun and construction delays, it did not begin producing power for Washington until late 1984. It is licensed to operate until 2043.
Of the five power reactors originally planned by WPPSS, the CGS was the only one that was ever completed. The CGS produces almost twelve hundred megawatts of electricity which represents about ten percent of the electricity consumed in the state. The city of Seattle, Washington current gets about four percent of its electricity from the CGS.
Opponents of nuclear power have pushed to have Seattle stop buying any electricity at all from the CGS. They say that the CGS is not being safely operated and is vulnerable to earthquakes. On May 24, the Energy & Environmental Committee of the Seattle City Council voted in favor of a resolution of non-support for CGS brought forward by Kshama Sawant, a Socialist recently elected to the City Council.
Summary of the resolution: "This is a resolution stating the City of Seattle’s support for clean and safe electricity production and opposition to the use of fossil fuels and new nuclear energy in the generation of electricity, and requiring an ongoing evaluation of existing nuclear power generation on the basis of health, safety, reliability, and cost; and instructing that the City of Seattle’s City Light Department reflect this position in its policies and interactions with other utilities, federal and state agencies, and organizations of which it is a member or participant."
Following the committee vote, Sawant said " On May 24, 2016, the Energy & Environment Committee unanimously voted in favor of the resolution I brought forward, drafted by environmental activists from Physicians for Social Responsibility, Heart of America Northwest, and others from the anti-nuclear movement. It calls on Seattle City Light to oppose the Columbia Generating Station, the sole nuclear power plant in the Pacific Northwest, and to support replacing it with green energy."
"The resolution itself is quite mild. It has compromise language to get the support of City Light’s leadership and the Mayor’s Office. It does not, itself, shut down the Columbia Generating Station. It is a tool that activists are confident they can use to put pressure on all those who decide the fate of the Columbia Generating Station, including representatives from City Light."
On May 31, the full Seattle City Council voted in favor of the Sawant resolution.
Following the City Council action, a representative of the CGS said " “Yesterday’s resolution doesn’t amount to much; it’s kind of irrelevant for those genuinely concerned about our state’s energy future. The council vote was unfortunate. We don’t believe Seattle is anti-nuclear or anti-clean energy per se. They just got a lot of really bad info yesterday that went unchallenged, and, unfortunately, they acted on it.”
