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No. 03-073 June 3, 2003

NRC STAFF APPROVES TRANSFER OF OPERATING LICENSES FOR DIABLO CANYON

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has approved the transfer of the operating licenses for the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, Units 1 and 2, from Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) to Electric Generation LLC and Diablo Canyon LLC.

As provided by NRC regulations, the staff's approval of the license transfer became effective on May 27, contingent on the licensee receiving certain regulatory and judicial approvals. Diablo Canyon LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Electric Generation LLC, which is an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of PG&E Corporation, the current parent of the licensee.

On November 30, 2001, PG&E submitted an application to the NRC requesting approval for the license transfer. The application was supplemented by letters submitted January 18, 2002, and May 1, 2002. Major issues considered by the NRC included financial qualifications, transfer and maintenance of accumulated decommissioning funds, and the licenses’ antitrust conditions, which will not carry forward to the new licensees.

A copy of the NRC's approval order and accompanying safety evaluation report will be placed in the NRC's Public Document Room, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Room O-1 F23, Rockville, MD 20852 (telephone 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737) and added to the Agency-wide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), which is available on the NRC’s Web site at this address: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html . The transfer’s ADAMS accession number is ML031350218. Help in using ADAMS is available by calling the Public Document Room.