Environmentalists say their plea to shut down Diablo Canyon’s Unit 1 reactor is too important to be treated like a routine Nuclear Regulatory Commission proceeding and should be sent directly to the commission immediately.
The environmental groups, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace and Friends of the Earth, say Unit 1’s reactor pressure vessel is “showing serious indications of an unacceptable degree of embrittlement” and that NRC inspectors and plant owner Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) have been ignoring the warning signs for years.
“While PG&E may be correct that the Commission ordinarily does not entertain such requests for extraordinary relief, in extraordinary circumstances such as those present in this case the Commission has granted such relief,” the environmentalists wrote in a Sept. 29 regulatory filing. “The exigent circumstances at play here beg for emergency use of the Commission’s authority.”
PG&E said last week that the environmentalists based their claim about reactor embrittlement on “experimental and untested methods” used by a PhD researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and asked that the shutdown request be channeled through NRC’s technical staff for review.
NRC staff have also asked to take a look at the environmentalists’ claims so that they can recommend whether to turn the matter over to the commission. The commission had yet to weigh in as of Tuesday afternoon.
San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace and Friends of the Earth are fighting in multiple venues to either shut down Diablo Canyon immediately or prevent PG&E from extending the plant’s life at least five years to 2030. The request for an emergency shutdown of Diablo Canyon Unit 1, filed Sept. 14, is the groups’ latest attempt to shutter the plant.
PG&E, meanwhile, is working to extend the operational life of Diablo Canyon Unit 1 and Unit 2 past the current expiration dates of the plant NRC licenses. The NRC thinks it might take more time to vet license renewal applications for the reactors than remains on those licenses, so the commission will allow PG&E to keep the reactors running, provided the utility files for a federal license extension by Dec. 31.
California and the Department of Energy have each provided more than $1 billion in financial aid to help extend Diablo Canyon’s life. The state in 2022 passed a law reversing a 2018 decision to close the plant down by 2025.
