I was surprised to see that the Public Affairs office of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) wrote a letter to the editor (“Nuclear reaction” from May 21, 2015) ensuring Malibu readers “have a full a picture as possible regarding safety at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.” The next sentence “the bottom line is that the NRC concludes the plant is operating safely and can continue doing so” did not reassure me.
So wanting the “full picture” I read the Differing Professional Opinion Case (DPO 2013-002) the letter mentioned. It was 165 pages long and I spent over four hours reading it.
If I may condense:
Michael Peck, Senior Resident Inspector at Diablo had a D.P.O. (Differing Professional Opinion) than Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) (operators of Diablo Canyon) regarding evaluating potential earthquake hazards because several earthquake faults were not known in the early 1980s when PG&E did its initial comprehensive seismic evaluation program. Peck felt that PG&E and the NRC failed to address all faults close to Diablo Canyon including Shoreline, Hosgri, Los Osos and San Luis Bay faults.
An NRC panel convened and dismissed Peck’s concerns. Even though Peck had been subsequently reassigned to the Technical Training Center in Tennessee (September 2012), he still had grave concerns about safety at Diablo Canyon. He appealed the dismissal because “The Differing Professional Opinion detailed specific examples of the agency failure to enforce certain regulatory and statutory requirements. The Panel Report responded to these detailed examples with general statements that regulatory requirement and safety objections were satisfied.”
The NRC has long been plagued by a complacent attitude and undue industry influence. Also, the NRC refuses to address long-standing threats, including risks of over-crowded, spent fuel pools and inadequate emergency planning, nuclear waste storage, killing of millions of fish (intake process) and the poisoning of the Pacific Ocean (outtake process).
So if we really do have the “ear” of the NRC, please, shut down Diablo Canyon and deal with all the radioactive waste that has been generated there these past 30 years.
Valerie Sklarevsky