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The Adobe Press: Diablo has major issues
In announcing its application to extend the life of Diablo Canyon nuclear reactors until 2045, PG&E emphasized the taxes it contributes to the local economy.
However, there is a long list of unresolved safety and security issues that were not acknowledged.
Storing radioactive waste next to two earthquake faults presents a permanent hazard. Neither the faults nor the waste will ever go away.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Homeland Security declare that all nuclear plants are targets of terrorists, and the San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace has a lawsuit pending in federal court regarding the vulnerability of the wastes stored at Diablo.
In addition, the NRC is currently investigating why and how Diablo operated for a full 18 months with a defect in the controls of the system designed to flood the Unit 2 reactor in the event of an accident or sabotage causing a loss of essential cooling water.
Diablo property taxes do not compensate for the safety hazards inherent in the nuclear reactors and waste storage.
Health probe started in Rialto water contamination | Inland News | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California
The state is combing old water records to determine whether highly contaminated groundwater -- which now stretches for miles from an industrial site in Rialto -- caused illnesses among residents in the many decades before it was discovered, health officials said during a community meeting Wednesday night.
In 1997, three wells were found to have high levels of perchlorate, an ingredient in rocket fuel, and trichloroethylene, or TCE, an industrial solvent, which seeped into the soil and underground water. Water was not tested for perchlorate before then.
The source is a 160-acre site north of Interstate 210, between Alder and Locust avenues, where private companies and government agencies stored, tested and manufactured munitions, rocket motors and fireworks.
It is the Inland region's largest uncontrolled plume of perchlorate in a drinking-water supply.
Hiroshima survivor speaks at San Rafael march for peace - Marin Independent Journal
Takashi Tanemori was 8 years old when an atomic bomb destroyed his home city of Hiroshima.
"I had a 14-month-old baby sister, and I had promised my daddy that I would love and protect her with all my heart and all my soul," Tanemori told Marin Academy students Wednesday as part of the school's participation in the World March for Peace and Non-Violence.
"My dad said, 'I'm counting on you,'" Tanemori recalled. "That day, my mother, my dad and my baby sister were buried under the ashes."
Tanemori and other participants in the march walked from the San Rafael private school to the center of the city as part of a global effort to eliminate nuclear weapons. The event began on Oct. 2 - Mohandas Ghandi's birthday - in Wellington, New Zealand and will conclude on Jan. 2, 2010 in Punta de Vacas, Argentina.
Marchers intend to touch down in 90 countries across six continents and are holding forums and events such as Wednesday's talk and demonstration in San Rafael.
Nuclear commission might expand roster - ContraCostaTimes.com
The Marin County Peace Conversion Commission will consider adding three new companies to its list of nuclear weapons contractors when it meets on Wednesday.
The five-member commission is responsible for enforcing the county's voter-enacted Nuclear Free Zone law. The law prohibits the county from investing in or buying from nuclear weapons contractors and their subsidiaries, unless no reasonable alternative exists.
The county's list of such contractors includes companies such as Compaq, General Electric, Hewlett Packard and the University of California. On Wednesday, the commission will consider adding Symmetricom, MTM Technologies Inc. and Insight Public Sector Inc. to the list.
The meeting will be at 4 p.m. in Room 410B of the Civic Center in San Rafael.
New Times SLO | PG&E seeks to renew Diablo license
Utility giant Pacific Gas and Electric announced Nov. 24 that it has applied to renew its operating license for the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.
PG&E chief nuclear officer John Conway did not reveal the price tag on the renewal process, but he said the renewal would cost millions of dollars, in accordance with California Public Utilities Commission regulations, which he did not detail.
The current license is set to expire in 2024 and 2025 for Units One and Two of the plant, respectively. The new license, should it be approved, would extend 20 years from those dates.
In the next step in the application process, according to PG&E Site Vice President Jim Becker, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will review PG&E’s application and make a decision on the further need for hearings.
“It’s fair to say this will be a multiyear process,” Becker said at a media conference.
Tri-Valley CAREs - Citizen's Watch Newsletter - June/July, 2009
The government has removed 2/3 of the plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Livermore Lab, according to a recent Dept. of Energy press release. Tom D'Agostino, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, called it "real progress." We give it a more mixed review.
For starters, the DOE does not plan to complete the removal of these bomb-making materials from Livermore Lab until the end of 2012, three years from now.
We have called for their removal by 2010. Livermore Lab is vulnerable every day to a catastrophic release of these materials in the event of an earthquake or terrorist attack. The nearest fault zone lies less than 200 feet from the Lab.
PG&E to seek Calif. Diablo Canyon license renewal | Markets | Markets News | Reuters
PG&E Corp (PCG.N) said Tuesday it would seek to renew the licenses of the 2,240-megawatt Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California for an additional 20 years.
The current 40-year operating licenses for Diablo Canyon's units expire in 2024 and 2025.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said it usually takes about 22 months to make a decision on a license extension without a hearing or about 30 months with a hearing.
Extending the licenses is "important for the environmental and economic health of California," John Conway, PG&E senior vice president, energy supply and chie
Ventura County Reporter - Boeing blocks lab cleanup
Boeing’s filing of a federal complaint on Friday the 13th against the state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control over cleaning up the monstrously polluted Santa Susana Field Lab was no tardy Halloween trick. The move attempts to gut state Senate Bill 990, which was signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in October 2007, to ensure that the 2,850-acre site is cleaned up to the highest standards.
Invalidating SB 990 would save Boeing hundreds of millions of dollars. The state’s stringent cleanup levels would be relaxed, saving Boeing on the amount of soil and groundwater contamination that would have to be removed from the site and sent to a dump.
New Times SLO | If Diablo melts down
Most of the residents of SLO County have received information about obtaining K1 tablets in case radiation is released from the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. We can all get two tablets per household member; keep them safe, know where they are. So far, so good: But please tell me, how are all the kids at school supposed to get the tablets in case of such a horrible emergency?
The tablets are supposed to be taken in “an appropriate and timely dosage.” What exactly is “timely”? There is no guarantee kids will be at home during such an emergency.
School kids might not take pills to school with them. If they need medication while at school, it is given to the school nurse for safe-
keeping. However, most schools no longer have school nurses on campus. Who would deal with this?
Will parents be able to leave K1 tablets clearly marked for their kids with somebody? Has any thought been given to this? The K1
tablets do not provide protection other than for the thyroid gland, but in children, I must assume that this is protection worthwhile
—while we scramble to get out of harm’s way!
California Nuclear Workers File Whistleblower Charges Against Edison
Veteran Managers at SONGS Nuclear Power Plant near San Clemente Say Southern California Edison Retaliated When They Reported Nuclear Safety Concerns
SAN ONOFRE, Calif., Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- In whistleblower complaints filed this week with the U.S. Department of Labor, two managers at Southern California Edison's San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) say the company violated federal law when it retaliated against them for raising nuclear safety concerns.
Rick Busnardo and Mike Mason have worked at SONGS for 25 and 29 years respectively, and together manage the fabrication shop that builds steel casks for the long-term storage of the plant's spent fuel rods. The integrity of the casks is critical because the spent fuel remains highly radioactive for hundreds of years.
Busnardo and Mason allege that trouble began when they reported a "willful violation" of nuclear-safety standards to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in October 2008, after learning that a fabricator in their shop had performed welding operations that fell short of the plants' quality-assurance specifications. Busnardo and Mason believe their report angered Edison management because the NRC had cited the SONGS plant for a high level of such willful violations several months earlier, and the company wanted to avoid further scrutiny.
Group Says Push to Build Nuclear Power Plants Will Set Back Climate Change Efforts - Bay Area Blog - NYTimes.com
To nuke or not to nuke: whether it’s kinder to the environment to suffer nuclear plant start-up delays and potential cleanup headaches or to take arms against (rising) seas of trouble through other, likely costlier, alternatives (think solar)? That is the question that’s been haunting environmental circles for the past few years.
Environment California Research & Policy Center, an environmental advocacy group, weighed in yesterday with a new report arguing that nuclear power would actually set back efforts to fight climate change. Nuclear power plants are too costly and slow to bring on-line, the group says, to effectively contribute toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions. (View the entire report below)
Pills available for people downwind from Diablo - Local - SanLuisObispo.com
County public health officials are offering free doses of the radiation-blocking drug potassium iodide to people who live and work downwind of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.
The pills, also known by their chemical name KI, are available at six locations. They are only to be taken at the direction of public health officials in the event of a radiation leak at Diablo Canyon.
The county has enough doses to cover hundreds of thousands of people, said Michelle Shoresman, spokeswoman for the county public health department. They will be available as long as supplies last, which should be a year or so.
Nuclear power not the answer; renewable energy is
Earlier this month, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission held a hearing in Dana Point regarding the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, commonly known as SONGS.
At the hearing, Southern California Edison claimed it is doing everything necessary to fix the “culture of cover-up” that exists – ahem, pardon me – existed at the plant.
But in reality, firing about 70 percent of the staff did not fix it, and nor has anything else.
Not only does that culture of cover-up still exist, but actually, it is a necessary component of the operation in the eyes of everyone who works there. Because they’ll get in trouble if the media or the public find out what leaks, what cracks, what drops, what bursts, what spills, who gets contaminated, or by how much. Especially when it’s you getting contaminated — they don’t want to tell you that. Nor do the so-called “regulators.”
The FINANCIAL - Boeing Seeks Review of California Site Cleanup Law
In its filing, Boeing says the recent state law changes the normal cleanup process applied throughout the state by imposing “irrational and arbitrary requirements” on Santa Susana.
Miles to go on Livermore nuclear lab cleanup -- latimes.com
Quarrels remain as the Northern California community and the federal government search for an affordable and environmental solution.
Reporting from Livermore, Calif. - The Energy Department is spending $328 million to clean up two separate areas of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory -- the agency's largest nuclear-weapons cleanup project in California.
The cleanup is relatively minor compared with others in the U.S., but it still has led to conflicts between the local community and the federal government as both search for a solution that is affordable and environmentally acceptable.
Livermore is one of two U.S. labs that designed nuclear weapons. It continues to conduct research into plutonium behavior, high-powered lasers, computer-simulated nuclear reactions and other areas.
EPA seeks ex-Santa Susana lab workers for cleanup - San Jose Mercury News
he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants the help of former workers at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory to identify contamination from nuclear and radiological projects at the site.
The EPA is interested in interviewing former workers for three companies—Atomics International, Rocketdyne and Rockwell—who may know about spills, dumping or other releases of radiological material, the agency said in a news release this week.
The lab was established in 1946 and covers nearly 2,900 acres in eastern Ventura County, just west of the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles.
LLNL's report finds no adverse impact to public health or environment
Environmental monitoring of operations at LLNL in 2008 indicates no adverse impact to public health or the environment from Lab operations. The findings are presented in the Laboratory's Environmental Report 2008. The annual report demonstrates LLNL's continuing commitment to providing responsible stewardship of the environmental resources in its care.
Environmental monitoring of operations at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 2008 indicates no adverse impact to public health or the environment from Laboratory operations. The findings are presented in the Laboratory's Environmental Report 2008.
The annual report demonstrates LLNL's continuing commitment to providing responsible stewardship of the environmental resources in its care. The report also documents the integration of environmental stewardship into strategic planning and decision-making processes through the Lab's Environmental Management System.
Full text of "Marine bioligist and environmentalist : oral history transcript : pycnogonids, progress, and preserving bays, salmon, and other living things / 1996"
Hedgpeth and McGraw family history; childhood in Oakland and the Sierra foothills; studies in biology at UC Berkeley, University of Texas; comments on Monterey Bay marine biologist Ed Ricketts, Steinbeck character and ecologist; founding the Society for the Prevention of Progress, revising Between Pacific Tides; Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 1950s; director, University of the Pacific's Pacific Marine Station, Dillon Beach, 1957-1965; discusses opposition to Pacific Gas & Electric Company's proposed nuclear power plant at Bodega Bay, CA, 1957-1964; director of Oregon State University's Marine Science Center, 1965-1973; pycnogonid (sea spider) research, lifelong and worldwide; research trips to Antarctica; estuarine studies; research and testifying on San Francisco Bay and Delta environmental issues.
Feds Looking Into Safety Goof At Nuke Plant - Central Coast News Story - KSBW The Central Coast
Federal regulators are investigating a mistake at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant that could have hampered safety measures during an emergency.
A spokeswoman for the Central Coast plant says two switches that allow operators to remotely open cooling water valves were improperly set. If the plant lost its water during an earthquake or terrorist attack, operators would have had to manually open the valves to restore it.
Spokeswoman Emily Christensen Archer said the mistake was discovered late last week during a maintenance shutdown of the reactor, and the switches were reset.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is investigating.
20 years after public vote, Rancho Seco is decommissioned by U.S. - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee
Sacramento's Rancho Seco nuclear power plant has been formally decommissioned by the federal government, the first action of its kind in response to a public vote.
The 20-year decommissioning process cost Sacramento Municipal Utility District ratepayers $500 million.
District voters decided in June 1989 that such a costly endeavor was justified to eliminate the risks posed by nuclear power.
The vote followed a long series of accidents and costly unplanned shutdowns at Rancho Seco, which began operating in 1975.
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