News Release reprinted from:Friends of the Earth

Appeals Court will hear case on cover-up of Diablo Canyon quake risks

Posted Feb. 23, 2015 / Posted by: Kate Colwell
Friends of the Earth petition says NRC illegally let PG&E alter nuclear plant’s license

[ See also: Landmark Federal Court Decision: Will It Speed Diablo Nuke’s Demise?
By Harvey Wasserman | February 24, 2015 ]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear, over the objection of Pacific Gas and Electric and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a case brought by Friends of the Earth alleging that the NRC illegally allowed PG&E to alter the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant’s license.

Friends of the Earth contends the NRC acted in secret, and in collusion with PG&E to hide Diablo Canyon’s vulnerability to earthquakes stronger than it was built to withstand. A decision in favor of Friends of the Earth could result in PG&E being forced to shut down the reactors, pending a public hearing to examine new earthquake risks at the plant.

The D.C. Circuit ruled late February 20 not to grant a motion by the NRC and PG&E to dismiss the case on procedural grounds. The judges instructed that the case should be heard on its merits.

“This is a big victory,” said Damon Moglen, senior strategic advisor for Friends of the Earth. “The public has a right to know what the NRC and PG&E won’t admit — hundreds of thousands of people are put at immediate risk by earthquake danger at Diablo Canyon. The evidence will show that the NRC and PG&E colluded to illegally change the terms of Diablo Canyon’s operating license, to cover up the fact that it cannot withstand a rupture of the larger, more powerful earthquake faults that have been discovered since the reactors were designed. This means the plant violates its operating license and must be shut down.”

Under federal law and NRC regulations, changing the way seismic risk or reactor durability is assessed at a nuclear plant requires a license amendment and attendant public adjudicatory hearing. Instead, in consultation with PG&E in 2013, the NRC inserted a secret revision to Diablo Canyon’s license, changing the scientific calculations for assessing earthquake risks and retroactively declaring the plant’s two reactors strong enough to withstand far more shaking than they were built to endure.

The secret revision of Diablo Canyon’s license was revealed in NRC documents made public in September 2014, when the agency rejected a dissenting appeal by the NRC’s own former senior resident inspector. The inspector, Dr. Michael Peck, concluded that Diablo Canyon was operating in violation of its license and should be shut down unless and until new seismic information was addressed.

“PG&E’s recent study revealed that the earthquake threat at Diablo Canyon, as measured by its original license, could be far greater than that for which the reactors were designed. So PG&E and the NRC secretly amended the license to relax the safety requirements,” said David Freeman, former head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and a special advisor to Friends of the Earth.

“This is not only illegal, it shows that PG&E has not really learned the lesson of San Bruno: that safety, not profits, must be its top priority,” said Freeman. “The risk of getting this wrong is the California version of Fukushima.”

Briefing at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will likely be completed in the next few months and a ruling is expected later this year.

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Expert contact: Damon Moglen, (202) 352-4223, dmoglen@foe.org

Communications contacts:
EA Dyson, (202) 222-0730, edyson@foe.org (East Coast)
Bill Walker, (510) 759-9911, bw.deadline@gmail.com (West Coast)
– See more at: https://www.foe.org/news/news-releases/2015-02-appeals-court-will-hear-case-on-cover-up-of-diablo-canyon-quake-risks#sthash.VJrpQ9UE.dpuf

Letter to the Editor

Aging, dangerous plant

By Carole Hisasue
Los Osos – February 1, 2015
[ Reprinted from the San Luis Opispo Tribune ]

From Jan. 23 to Jan. 25, activists from California and throughout the United States and Japan gathered in San Luis Obispo to discuss key nuclear issues and strategies for shutting down Diablo Canyon, California’s last operating nuclear power plant.

Although the activists represented different groups with different concerns, they were united under the goal of promoting renewable energies that do not use fossil fuels or produce radioactive wastes.

Don’t take it personally, but we just don’t want an aging, dangerous nuclear plant and nuclear waste dump on our coast — or anyone else’s. Not when recent revelations have exposed collusion between plant operator PG&E and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to minimize the effects of the many earthquake faults under and around Diablo Canyon.

Not when we know that Diablo as well as decommissioned plants such as San Onofre, Humboldt Bay and Rancho Seco are storing nuclear waste in thin canisters capable of cracking after only two years of use. Not when Diablo’s once-through cooling is destroying our marine habitat. And certainly not when we have an ever-expanding renewables market offering plenty of electricity, jobs and tax revenues.

It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee, San Luis Obispo, and join the 21st century!

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Fuel Chain Primer
Nuclear Fuel for Dummies or Stop the Madness Now
An informative animation video by Carole Hisasue
Published on Nov 19, 2013
Nuclear Fuel & Waste for Dummies, Show to all your friends who know nothing about the horrors of nuclear fuel and the incredibly dangerous waste that it becomes.This is truly evil stuff that should never have been created in the first place. AND THEN SEND A COMMENT TO THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION! Comments on the nuclear waste issue are due by December 20, 2013 and can be emailed to: Rulemaking.Comments@nrc.gov Please cite: Docket ID No. NRC-2012-0246

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From the Labor Video Project:
Report From Fukushima And The Abe Government Expansion And Export Of Nuclear Plants
Reports were made on the continuing contamination in Fukushima Japan and the role of the Abe government. Chieko Shiina from Fukushima and a supporter of the Fukushima Collaborative Clinic, Isamu “Sam” Kanno of No Nukes Asia and Chizu Hamada of No Nukes Action spoke at the meeting. The presentations were translated by Carole Hisasue from Mothers For Peace. This conference took place in San Luis Obispo near the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. It was called by the Nuclear Free California Network. and was held on January 24 & 25th, 2015
For more information
On Fukushima Collaborative Clinic
No Nukes Action Committee
No Nukes Asia
Production of Labor Video Project www.laborvideo.org