July 17, 2025 – San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace (SLOMFP) and Friends of the Earth (FOE) today issued an urgent letter to Governor Gavin Newsom, California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild, State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, and State Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire, calling for immediate action to address grave safety concerns posed by the Diablo Canyon nuclear reactors in the wake of the Trump’s Administration’s recent orders devastating the competence and independence of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to oversee the safety of the aging and earthquake-vulnerable reactors. The Trump orders elevate production of nuclear energy over safety, install DOGE overseers at the top of the agency to slash staffing levels, and require arbitrary reductions in regulations, including minimal standards for radiation exposure. The Administration has also fired the Commission’s strongest safety advocate and forced the retirement of other experienced and safety-conscious senior staff.
“We urge your immediate attention to recent Trump Administration actions abruptly and decisively undermining any basis for confidence in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to effectively oversee the safety of the aging and earthquake-vulnerable Diablo Canyon nuclear reactors,” states the letter.
While California’s S.B. 846 (2022) extended the operating license term for Diablo Canyon, this financing was conditioned on the assumption that the NRC would ensure the protection of public safety and the environment through rigorous oversight, and that it would alert the State to any safety upgrades that might prove too costly to justify continued operation. But that assumption has been upended by the Trump Administration’s “evisceration” of the NRC and subordination of the formerly independent agency to the “Administration’s political aims.” These “draconian measures” include the firing of safety advocate Christopher Hanson, a safety advocate on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who previously promised Sen. Alex Padilla a thorough evaluation of seismic risks to Diablo Canyon. While Pacific Gas & Electric Co. recently acknowledged the existence of an active thrust fault directly beneath the plant, the chances that the NRC will follow up on this alarming revelation are now “rendered nil.”
A central concern highlighted in the letter is an Executive Order issued in May, which actively guts the NRC as an independent safety regulator. This order directs the NRC to promote nuclear energy rather than exclusively focusing on safety, undermining the 1974 Energy Reorganization Act which separated these conflicting functions. It also pressures the NRC to support continued operation of the current nuclear fleet to meet increased energy capacity quotas, potentially overriding safety concerns. Furthermore, the order mandates the consideration of nuclear power “benefits” in licensing decisions, allows for staffing reductions, and requires a “wholesale reduction” in regulations, all of which compromise the NRC’s independence and ability to ensure safety.
The letter, signed by Hallie Templeton, legal director of Friends of the Earth and Jane Swanson, board president of San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, concludes, “Fortunately, you have no need to continue to place unwarranted confidence in the NRC during the five-year extended operation of Diablo Canyon approved in S.B. 846. Since S.B. 846 was passed, California has added significantly more energy to the grid along with an unprecedented amount of storage. There is no need to continue to pour ratepayer and taxpayer funds into the continued operation of these aging and earthquake-vulnerable reactors. You have at your disposal the means to release the State from its dangerous dependence on the NRC and make California a more sustainable, less expensive and less risky place to live and do business by closing the Diablo Canyon reactors. We urge you to expeditiously take all necessary steps to achieve that result.”
Detailed citations and documentation of the concerns