An environmental group is pushing for a public review of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant’s license, amid concerns about the seismic safety of the Central Coast plant.
The environmental group Friends of the Earth has file a petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals. It’s the latest move in the group’s longstanding campaign to shut down California’s only remaining nuclear plant, which supplies about nine percent of the state’s electricity.
Recent discoveries of geologic faults near the San Luis Obispo County facility should trigger a public re-assessment of the plant’s safety, said Friends of the Earth spokesman Damon Moglan. Instead, he said, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and PG&E changed how earthquake risk is assessed in the plant’s license, without public input.
“There really has to be a full public review of whether or not this plant is safe,” he said. “And whether or not it’s worth the risk of operating a decrepit 40-year-old plant designed in the 1960s in the most seismically active area of any reactor in the United States.”
In its petition, Friends of the Earth said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission violated federal law and its own internal policies by making the change to Diablo Canyon’s license without public review. The group said the plant should be shut down until a full review is complete.