Federal Court Appeal Challenges NRC’s Oversight of Safety Condition in Diablo Canyon Unit 1
San Luis Obispo, March 20, 2024 – In a brief submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Mothers for Peace (MFP) and Friends of the Earth (FoE) have urged the court to order a public hearing on multiple Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) decisions. These decisions involve downgrading a license requirement for monitoring the condition of the Diablo Canyon Unit 1 pressure vessel, raising serious concerns about its safety.
The pressure vessel — in the NRC’s judgment, “perhaps the most important single component in the reactor coolant system”— holds the highly radioactive core of the reactor and the water that cools it to keep it from melting down during an accident.
The NRC has repeatedly delayed a critical inspection assessing the embrittlement of the reactor vessel from neutron bombardment during operation. The last inspection, conducted in 2003, revealed serious signs of embrittlement. Subsequently, both the NRC and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), the owner of Diablo Canyon, have wrongly dismissed concerns about the unit’s condition, according to the groups.
Diane Curran, legal counsel for Mothers for Peace, said that in 2006, the NRC allowed PG&E to operate Unit 1 for an additional three years, under the condition of a strict inspection schedule. Since then, NRC has repeatedly extended that schedule without justification.
“These extensions were blatantly illegal under the Atomic Energy Act,” she said. Curran also noted that the NRC may not change the terms of a reactor’s operating license without making explicit safety findings and offering the public a hearing. “The NRC provided none of those procedural protections to the public,” she said.
Hallie Templeton, Legal Director for Friends of the Earth, said, “Today’s brief reiterates our commonsense argument that NRC cannot, and should not, take any shortcuts if it is going to allow Diablo Canyon to continue operating beyond its scheduled retirement.”
She continued, “Laws and regulations around nuclear power plants are there for good reason, especially those that mandate routine inspections to ensure the safety and soundness of critical infrastructure. The NRC must abide by these rules and immediately inspect the likely embrittled Unit 1 pressure vessel before it can be deemed safe to continue operating.”
Linda Seeley, MFP spokesperson, said, “The NRC should not be allowed to capriciously declare Diablo Canyon, Unit 1 safe to operate without the proper testing.“ She added, “We urge the court to rule that the NRC’s haphazard conduct is unlawful and deem the extension invalid.”
Please read the brief here.