[Scpg] FW: Central Coast Senator Sam Blakeslee - Nuclear Power Plant

Thu Mar 24 15:49:15 PDT 2011

Hi to all...If you haven't read this, it is a very informational read!  Best
to all...Jolaine

http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20110323/NEWS06/103230315

Written by Timm Herdt 
Ventura County Star 

 Central Coast state senator has accused the operator of the Diablo Canyon
nuclear power plant of operating under "a culture of disregard of risk." 

The lawmaker, Sen. Sam Blakeslee, also asked Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to
suspend or withdraw its application for license renewal until the company
has completed advanced seismic studies requested by state regulators three
years ago.

Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, a geophysicist whose district includes the
site of the nuclear plant, along the coast of San Luis Obispo County, said
Monday that PG&E has consistently downplayed the risks associated with the
discovery of an offshore earthquake fault line in 2008.

That "culture of disregard," he said, "has become endemic at PG&E. It's a
culture that puts my constituents at risk."

Blakeslee represents District 15, which also includes coastal Monterey
County, as well as portions of Santa Cruz, Santa Clara and Santa Barbara
counties.

His remarks came during a special Senate committee hearing designed to
examine lessons California might learn from this month's earthquake and
tsunami in Japan and the subsequent crisis at a nuclear power plant whose
reactors were crippled by the shutdown of essential cooling systems needed
to prevent a meltdown.

Lawmakers were told that seismic studies at the sites of both California
nuclear plants — the other is at San Onofre, in San Diego County — are
insufficient to assess risks associated with geologic data that has become
available since the plants were built.

James Boyd, vice chairman of the California Energy Commission, testified
that "recent studies have found that ground motion near a fault could be
stronger and more variable than previously thought, which could be important
at Diablo Canyon, since the offshore Hosgri Fault is 4.5 kilometers west of
the plant."

The commission recommended in November 2008 that both plants should use
three-dimensional seismic mapping to update their seismic research, but Boyd
noted that has not yet been done.

Daniel Hirsch, a lecturer in nuclear policy at UC Santa Cruz, said recent
problems at Diablo Canyon, including the fact that emergency cooling pumps
had been disabled for 18 months before the problem was discovered, show that
safety systems are insufficient.

(Page 2 of 2)

"I don't believe what happened in Japan is something we're immune to here,"
he said.

Steve David, PG&E's director of site services at Diablo Canyon, said the
company has "large margins for safety" at the plant. He noted the elevations
of the plant and all of its safety systems, including diesel-powered
generators and their fuel tanks, are much higher than is the case at Japan's
Fukushima plant.

The plant, located at Avila Beach, about 130 miles south of Salinas, has had
a troubled history of dealing with unexpected seismic issues. The Hosgri
Fault, capable of producing a 7.5 magnitude quake, was discovered a year
after its construction permits were issued in 1970, forcing a redesign that
caused construction costs to balloon from the $320 million estimate to more
than $5 billion.

Later, in 1981, PG&E discovered it had built seismic supports based on a
reversed blueprint, requiring another $2.2 billion in retrofits to correct
the mistake.

Then, a little more than two years ago, the U.S. Geological Survey
discovered another previously unknown offshore fault, the Shoreline Fault,
less than a mile from the plant.

PG&E and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined the plantís
design could withstand an earthquake along that fault.

However, Boyd of the state Energy Commission, testified the fault's "major
characteristics are largely unknown," including the question of whether an
earthquake beginning on one of the offshore faults could continue along the
other to produce a larger quake than would be anticipated along either one
individually.

The plant is licensed through 2024. PG&E submitted an application to the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission in November 2009, seeking a 20-year extension.

Under the commission's rules, Boyd testified, seismic activities are
considered not relevant and are "not taken into account in relicensing."

He noted, however, that the recent events in Japan led President Barack
Obama and Energy Secretary Steven Chu to request in-depth studies of
existing U.S. power plants, which will possibly now mean the advanced
seismic studies will be required before the license can be extended.

Blakeslee said if PG&E does not agree to suspend its license application he
will seek legislation to try to force it to do so.

Given that the current license is good for another 13 years, he said, "There
is more than enough time to address this uncertainty."