A year and a half after Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) announced it was seeking federal relicensing of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant—and just more than a month after an earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan created an unprecedented nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant and renewed local concern over seismic safety—PG&E has succumbed to pressure to delay its relicensing efforts.
Though the utility hasn’t halted the federal process, it sent a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on April 10 requesting the agency not finalize the application until in-depth 3D seismic studies are completed.
Currently in the initial stages, those studies aren’t expected to be complete until 2015.
However, in its letter to the NRC, PG&E said it plans to “accelerate” completion of the studies. A spokesman for PG&E told the Sun that exactly what an acceleration means isn’t yet clear.
“It’s that we’re going to be pursuing [the studies] more aggressively,” said PG&E Spokesman Paul Flake. “As of right now, I don’t have any information on how soon we can finish. The thing we’re asking is that the NRC delay their final decision until we are done. That’s the key.”
Flake said the decision was made as a direct response to local concerns over seismic safety following the Japanese nuclear disaster.
“Basically, we’re trying to be responsive to what we’re hearing, and what we’ve heard is an extreme amount of interest after what happened in Japan,” he said. “When the studies are done, we will have that added assurance of the safety of the plant.”
Republican State Sen. Sam Blakeslee—a geophysicist by training—has repeatedly called for PG&E to halt the relicensing process until those studies are completed. Blakeslee Spokeswoman Erin Shaw told the Sun that the senator and his staff were notified of the announcement as they traveled to Washington, D.C., to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works regarding a review of the nuclear emergency in Japan and its implications for the United States.
“I commend PG&E for taking the responsible action of delaying relicensing until critical seismic questions are answered,” Blakeslee said in a statement within an hour of PG&E’s announcement. “It’s our duty to learn and apply the lessons of Japan to ensure we protect our communities.
“We respect that this is a difficult decision that demonstrates their willingness to prioritize the safety of Californians,” he said.
Representatives for the NRC could not be reached for comment as of press time.
This article appears in Apr 14-21, 2011.
