NOW IS OUR TIME TO STOP DIABLO CANYON!
Decision-makers are moving quickly to extend operation, and so must we. Join our efforts to protect Central Coast Communities for future generations.
URGENT CHALLENGE
Diablo Canyon nuclear plant was scheduled to retire in 2024 and 2025. However, Senate Bill 846 – passed in 2022 – has enabled extended operation. State and federal subsidies have been granted to support this effort. Pacific Gas & Electric Company has applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a 20-year license extension, although SB 846 asks for only 5 years.
WE NEED YOUR HELP
Donations are needed to pay for our attorneys, consultants, and expert witnesses. You can make a tax-deductible one-time or monthly donation online or mail checks to: San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, PO Box 3608, San Luis Obispo, CA 93403
Tax ID # 95-3080124
Attend meetings and support our efforts. Sign up for our Action Alerts!
BROCHURE to print
Digital BROCHURE
WHAT ARE WE DOING?
Mothers for Peace, in collaboration with its partner organizations, is actively opposing extended operation of Diablo Canyon at every opportunity. Our legal team and experts represent us at the:
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission
- California Public Utilities Commission
- California Coastal Commission
- Regional Water Quality Control Board
- Diablo Canyon Independent Safety Committee
- 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS
- Friends of the Earth
- Environmental Working Group
- Samuel Lawrence Foundation
- Committee to Bridge the Gap
- Environmental Defense Center
THE ISSUES
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) exempted Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) from its Timely Renewal Rule, disregarding its own rules by approving continued operation of the Diablo Canyon reactors past their expiration dates without the required environmental reviews or opportunity for public hearings.
Unit 1’s reactor vessel was built with faulty material so is vulnerable to embrittlement. An embrittled reactor vessel can shatter like glass and cause a catastrophic meltdown. Despite this, PG&E has not tested for embrittlement for over 20 years – and the NRC has approved the exemptions.
The California Public Utilities Commission has approved extended operation without all the information required by SB 846 – and despite evidence that Diablo’s energy is not needed to avoid summer blackouts. There is new seismic evidence to show that the earthquake faults that run directly under the plant are vertical thrust faults, meaning they could cause much more ground motion than formerly estimated.
Diablo’s Once-Through Cooling System is out of compliance with the Clean Water Act. The facility circulates 2.5 billion gallons of seawater each day, releasing it back into the ocean 20º warmer and killing more than one billion fish in early life stages.
Extended operation of Diablo Canyon means the generation and onsite storage of even more high-level radioactive waste in an active seismic area.
Our Experts
Diane Curran: As one of the country’s leading environmental and nuclear safety advocates, Diane Curran has stopped unsafe nuclear projects and won significant safety and environmental protection measures before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and federal courts, on behalf of state and local governments, citizen groups, and individuals. Diane’s areas of legal expertise include the Atomic Energy Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act.
Sabrina Venskus: As the firm’s founding partner, Ms. Sabrina Venskus has earned a reputation as a leading public interest and environmental advocate in the Southern California area. Ms. Venskus’ litigation practice includes environmental and natural resources, land use and zoning, housing rights, historic and archeological preservation, energy regulation, and open government law such as the Federal Freedom of Information Act and California Public Records Act.
Peter Bradford: Peter Bradford is a former utility regulator and consultant on energy policy. For 19 years, he served on the New York State Public Service Commission (NYPSC) and the Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC), including 8 years as chair of the NYPSC and 6 years as chair of the MPUC. His statutory duties for each state included assuring a fully adequate electric supply at just and reasonable rates. He also participated in more than 10,000 utility proceedings, including decisions involving the prudence of nuclear power operations and construction. Between 1971 and 1983, including the time of the Three Mile Island accident, Mr. Bradford served as a commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Since leaving utility regulation, Mr. Bradford has taught, written, and consulted on regulatory issues and abroad, and he has testified in multiple state regulatory proceedings on costs of nuclear reactor construction and operation.
Rao Konidena: Rao Konidena is an independent energy consultant, focusing on wholesale market practices and policy. From 2003 to 2018, he was employed by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), where he used a range of software tools for resource forecasting and planning, including MISO’s Planning Resource Auction and Module E Capacity Tracking (MECT) tool and the Electric Generation Expansion Analysis System (EGEAS). Before leaving MISO in 2018, his title was Principal Advisor in Transmission Asset Management.
Mark Cooper: For forty years, Mark Cooper, President of Citizen Research and former Research Director of the Consumer Federation of America, has studied and published widely concerning the economics of energy technologies, including nuclear and renewables. He has testified before Congress, federal regulatory agencies, and state regulatory agencies across the U.S. Without exception, the nuclear projects whose excess costs he identified in the last two decades have been canceled, though only after costing customers large sums and delaying more effective responses to climate change.
Dr. Peter Bird: Dr. Peter Bird has been a Professor of Geophysics and Geology at UCLA for over 46 years. His broad expertise in the fields of geology and geophysics includes a focus on plate motion and plate deformation. Over the past 44 years, he has authored or contributed to a number of academic papers on computer modeling methods and applications, including studies of the ongoing (neotectonic) deformation in California. In 2012, Dr. Bird participated in a Senior Seismic Hazards Analysis Committee (SSHAC) workshop sponsored by PG&E and Lettis Consultants International consultants regarding seismic hazard at the Diablo Canyon power plant site. He presented results on both strike-slip and compressional deformation rates affecting the site, which were derived from his latest computer models of neotectonics (prepared for the Southern California Earthquake Center’s project Unified California Earthquake Rupture Forecast version 3, and also for the US Geological Survey’s 2013 Update to the National Seismic Hazard Model).
Dr. Digby Macdonald: Dr. Digby Macdonald is one of the world’s leading corrosion scientists. Since completing his Ph.D in 1969, he has held multiple positions relating to nuclear engineering and materials science, including Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Director for the Center for Electrochemical Science and Technology at Penn State University (2003 to 2012) and his current position at UC Berkeley. He has published over 1,000 scientific papers and 4 books, and he holds 11 patents. In 2003, Dr. Macdonald received the highest award in the field of corrosion science and engineering – the U.R. Evans Award from the Institute of Corrosion in the United Kingdom. In 2011, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Dr. Macdonald holds a B.Sc. (1965) and M.Sc. (1966) in Chemistry, University of Auckland (New Zealand) and Ph.D. in Chemistry (1969), University of Calgary (Canada).