As the Commission members are aware, their mission is to ensure adequate protection of public health and safety of the nation’s nuclear power plants. Nuclear power plants, especially old nukes, such as the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, do not belong near densely populated regions, in areas where earthquakes are a dangerous geological reality.
Why is this important?
PG&E is applying for a license extension on the operation of Diablo Nuclear Power Plant’s twin reactors (located near San Luis Obispo), adding an extra 20 years to its expiration dates of November 2, 2024 and August 26, 2025. By these dates, each reactor would have already been in operation for 40 years. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will conduct two public hearings on August 5 at the Courtyard by Marriott San Luis Obispo, 1605 Calle Joaquin Road. The first session will run from 1:30-4:30 p.m. and the second from 7-10 p.m.
Having a Nuclear Power plant with two reactors that reside near a minimum of 2 earthquake faults, (2.5 miles from the Hosgri Fault, 1 mile from the Shoreline Fault) is a danger to the people and property in the surrounding regions. Nuclear reactors that can house the radioactivity of the equivalent of thousands of Hiroshima bombs do not belong in earthquake country and populous regions. They did not belong in Fukishima, Japan, and they don’t belong in California.
The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power plant is located a little over 200 miles from the heavily populated San Francisco Bay Area to the North and about the same amount of miles to the second most populous region in the United States, Los Angeles-Long Beach metropolitan area to the South. Whether by earthquake, terrorism or just a simple mistake the devastation could be so monumental as to impact California for decades at minimum.
This facility cannot be granted another 20 years of operation. Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant must be shut down by its scheduled license expiration dates, if not before.
