Expert Urges California Nuke Plant Shutdown After Quake

FILE - This Monday Nov. 3,2008 file photo shows one of Pacific Gas and Electric's Diablo Canyon Power Plant's nuclear reactors in Avila Beach on California's central coast. California coastal regulators were set to w... FILE - This Monday Nov. 3,2008 file photo shows one of Pacific Gas and Electric's Diablo Canyon Power Plant's nuclear reactors in Avila Beach on California's central coast. California coastal regulators were set to weigh in Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012 on the utility's contentious plan to map offshore earthquakes faults near a nuclear power plant by blasting loud air cannons. A commission staff report said the work would disturb some 7,000 marine mammals in the region. (AP Photo/Michael A. Mariant, File) MORE LESS
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A senior federal nuclear expert is urging regulators to shut down California’s last operating nuclear plant until they can determine whether the facility’s twin reactors can withstand powerful shaking from any one of several nearby earthquake faults.

Michael Peck, who for five years was Diablo Canyon’s lead on-site inspector, says in a 42-page, confidential report that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is not applying the safety rules it set out for the plant’s operation.

The document, which was obtained and verified by The Associated Press, does not say the plant itself is unsafe.

Instead, according to Peck’s analysis, no one knows whether the facility’s key equipment can withstand stronger shaking from those faults. The NRC and plant owner Pacific Gas and Electric Co. say the facility is safe.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  1. The Diablo Canyon plant sits basically on top of a fault. If I were the lead inspector I’d be nervous as well. And also that plant is right at the edge of the ocean which means any Tsunami that comes along of sufficient size and strength…
    A potential double whammy.

  2. Come on, what’s the worst that could happen, an earthquake destroys the grid power needed to support the cooling and containment of the nuclear pile and a tidal wave smashes the onsite backup power sources, causing the reactor to melt down and throws raidoactive isotopes into the land, air and water in the middle of the central California coast? Really? That is the worst that could happen? Ok, that’s kind of bad. Maybe we should think about this.

  3. You do recall Fukushima, don’t you? An earthquake followed by a tsunami.That plant is still leaking radiation into the ocean. And that tsunami happened in March of 2011. Most of Japan’s reactors are still off line and have been since that accident. Well, the Diablo Canyon reactor is on the coast and very near a fault. Now admittedly the reactor is a bit up the hill from the water but not so far that it’s completely out of range.

  4. A 42 page report the day after the quake? Sounds to me like this was a report looking for an excuse to be used. But what the hell, who needs nuclear energy when we have the Koch brothers and their wonderful coal and petroleum.

  5. Pretty spot on comment.

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