Episode 16: Rancho Seco, The Times Changed

Out of the Dust

In the Special Collections and University Archives at California State University of Sacramento we found 20 recorded interviews with people involved with the Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station (nuclear power plant). Rancho Seco is located off of highway 104, between Galt and Ione in Northern California and was surrounded with controversy due to its constant outages and bad publicity. We listen to interview with Daniel Whitney, who was Nuclear Engineer for SMUD when the plant opened. He worked in Rancho Seco and rose to become a Manager in the Electric System Planning Department. He shares his perspective as an engineer handling the nuclear power plant and the complicated internal struggles caused by the protests against Rancho Seco.