In March, Pacific Gas and Electric Company filed an application with the California Public Utilities Commission to recover costs for extended operations at Diablo Canyon — A.25-03-015.
From Planetarian Perspectives By Mary Beth Brangan, James Heddle – EON April 10, 2025
Key: Purple = Statewide Bans Green = Bans Repealed Orange = Partial Bans Map source : US Department of Energy.
Attempt to Reverse 1976 Moratorium
[Background: California’s 1976 Nuclear Safeguards Act prohibits new nuclear power plants in California unless there is technology to permanently deal with the lethal and extremely long-lived radioactive waste produced by nuclear reactors.]
Despite multiple earthquake faults surrounding the three California nuclear reactor coastal sites harboring huge amounts of radioactive waste in tsunami zones, with no plan to deal with the tons of waste, a bill has been introduced in the state Assembly to increase nuclear use in our state. This also despite the devastating fires that occur regularly in California increasing the already staggering risks of nuclear reactors and the lethal long lived waste they produce.
Assemblymember Dr. Juaquin Arambula (D – Fresno) with main co-sponsors Assemblymember Diane Dixon (R – Orange) and Assemblymember Josh Hoover (R- Sacramento) introduced AB 305 . It would overturn California’s longstanding nuclear moratorium to allow for the construction of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).
Nuclear Recidivism – Not Only In California
This is part of a national and international pattern. Recidivist nuclear revival forces have mounted coordinated national rollback efforts on state’s prohibitions on building new nuclear plants. Push for new nuclear build outs is happening through the Governor’s Association, as if it were ALEC. Pro-nuclear consortia are being formed with clusters of 10 states as a group.
On the international level, plans to decommission 7 nuclear plants in Spain, for instance, are also being rolled back. There activists are using our documentary SOS, The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power’s Legacy, in their efforts to ensure they are shut down and not given extended licenses, such as happened here in California with Diablo Canyon….
As of December 11, 2024, 9 states still had nuclear moratoriums. Four states have already repealed moratoriums that had previously been in place:
Wisconsin (2016)
Kentucky (2017)
Montana (2021)
West Virginia (2022)
Activists in Oregon are mounting a huge fight to protect their moratorium.
We in California must join together to stop the insanity of producing more lethal radioactive waste lasting hundreds of thousands to many millions of years without any idea of how to keep it from ruining all life on earth.
Please Join Others in Taking Action!
Send letters of opposition by Tuesday, April 15!
The bill has just been scheduled for a hearing in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee on April 21; letters are due to the committee by close of business next Tuesday, April 15.
Please send letters to oppose AB 305!
Here is a Sample letter with links on how to submit to the California legislators:
The Honorable Isaac G. Bryan, Chair
Assembly Committee on Natural Resources
1020 N Street, Room 164
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: AB 305 (Arambula) Oppose
Dear Chair Bryan,
I oppose AB 305 by Assemblymember Arambula. This bill would override California’s wise 1976 Nuclear Safeguards Act, which prohibits new nuclear power plants in California unless there is technology to permanently deal with the lethal and extremely long-lived radioactive waste produced by nuclear reactors.
However, over 80 years after beginning to accumulate this extraordinarily dangerous waste, there exists no technology to adequately deal with it and no permanent repository.
The bill would allow construction and operation of so-called ‘small’ modular nuclear reactors. These reactors, however, are not small and according to research from Stanford University, would produce even more waste per energy unit as current reactors and would be even harder to handle.1
Transporting this lethal waste is exceedingly dangerous and storing it onsite in communities is a huge risk, though this is necessary to eliminate the transportation risk. The waste is highly corrosive and irradiates everything it contacts. Currently used canisters are thin and last only a matter of a few decades before cracking while within them, the irradiated fuel continues to degrade and become more fragile and prone to accidents. Many of the fission products remain lethal for thousands and millions of years, yet must be sequestered from the environment.
Producing more of these radioactive substances, with no technology to protect the environment and population from it, is totally irresponsible. There are other ways to generate electricity far less harmful.
Please vote no on AB 305. Maintain our sensible Nuclear Safeguards Act.
Sincerely,
(your name)
1) “Our results show that most small modular reactor designs will actually increase the volume of nuclear waste in need of management and disposal, by factors of 2 to 30 for the reactors in our case study,” said study lead author Lindsay Krall, a former MacArthur Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC)
Authors: Mary Beth Brangan and James Heddle co-direct EON, the Ecological Options Network.
The multi-award winning EON feature documentary SOS – The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power’s Legacy, was chosen as the opening film in the 13th annual Global Nonviolent Film Festival, where it also received the Organizers’ Award for ‘BEST ACTUALITY SUBJECT – Feature Documentary’.
SOS has won awards in several other international festivals, and is available for viewing worldwide. The film was produced by Mary Beth Brangan and directed by Brangan, Heddle, and Morgan Peterson, who also served as editor. SOS is a trans-generational family co-creation of two senior filmmakers and a millennial mom with two young daughters.
Halloween Fright: Thanks to a trick instead of a treat by Governor Newsom, an aging nuclear monster still haunts the Central Coast of California
November 2 was set to mark the closure of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1, but SB 846 extended the aging reactor’s life through 2030. New data from the Governor’s office on renewable battery storage shows there’s no need for Diablo.
San Luis Obispo, CA — November 2 was meant to deliver a long-expected treat to Californians: the closure of Unit 1 nuclear reactor at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant on the expiration date of its 40-year license. But thanks to a surprise trick by Governor Gavin Newsom played on the California State Legislature in 2022, the reactor will continue operating indefinitely without critical seismic upgrades and safety tests. The reactor’s owner, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), has also failed to install cooling towers essential to meet Clean Water Act standards for protecting marine life.
Until September 2022, California residents could anticipate the timely closure of Diablo Canyon’s reactors. Under a hard-fought 2016 agreement between PG&E, labor unions, environmental groups, and others, Unit 1 was set to shut down on November 2, 2024, followed by Unit 2 in 2025. But in a last-minute move on September 1, 2022, pressured by the Governor, the State Legislature passed Senate Bill 846, extending Diablo Canyon’s operations to 2030. PG&E, meanwhile, went further, applying for a 20-year license extension—going four times beyond the five years specified in SB 846.
Despite the Governor’s warnings of power outages without Diablo Canyon, no such disruptions have occurred. Even during this past summer’s record-breaking heat waves, California’s energy grid met demand, demonstrating the success of renewable resources and battery storage. This stability shows that California can maintain a reliable grid without a hazardous nuclear plant.
In fact, since the Legislature’s 2022 vote, California has rapidly expanded its renewable capacity. By October 2024, data from the California Energy Commission and Public Utilities Commission showed an estimated capacity of 13,391 MW of battery storage—well above the 2,200 MW produced by Diablo Canyon’s reactors. Touting these gains, the Governor’s office stated on October 15 that this growth of California’s battery storage capacity “marks a 30% increase since April 2024, underscoring the state’s swift progress in building out clean energy infrastructure, especially during a summer marked by record-breaking heat.”
Linda Seeley, spokesperson for Mothers for Peace, remarked: “SB 846 prioritized an unfounded energy need over public health and environmental safety, disregarding both seismic risks and the growing embrittlement of Unit 1’s pressure vessel.” She added, “California has the tools to ensure reliable, clean energy through renewables and battery storage. We don’t need to compromise health and safety to keep the lights on.”
Diane Curran, attorney for the group, stated that both PG&E and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have failed to ensure the safety of the embrittled Unit 1 pressure vessel, a critical safety component that holds the reactor core. “The NRC is also allowing Unit 1 to operate past Nov. 2 despite serious concerns that earthquake faults under Diablo Canyon, which were discovered after it was built, could cause a nuclear accident,” Curran said.
She noted that the group’s concerns have been documented in testimony to state and federal regulators by Dr. Digby Macdonald, Professor Emeritus of nuclear materials science at the University of California and Dr. Peter Bird, Professor Emeritus of Geosciences at UCLA. For a detailed explanation by Dr. Bird of the seismic dangers facing Diablo Canyon, watch the video here.
November 2 should have been the Halloween treat Californians deserved, not the trick we received. When Halloween is over, this monster will continue to loom, threatening the health, safety, environment, and well-being of residents of the Golden State.
Larry Yee of Ojai is the former chair of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.
OPINION: V.C. must sue to protect people from toxic Santa Susana Field Lab By Larry Yee July 17, 2024
Ninety percent or more of the toxic chemicals and radioactivity left! This is NO cleanup. It is unacceptable. Explain that to the parents of small children living nearby. … How many more children must develop cancers before our elected officials do something?’
Join campaign to clean up site of partial nuclear meltdown.
For over a year, the Ojai Valley News | Ventura County Sun has done an outstanding job of covering the travesty of the Santa Susana Field Lab (SSFL). In the spring Ojai Magazine article “Radioactive rain,” reporter Kit Stolz writes in detail of the 1959 partial nuclear reactor meltdown that still haunts and poses danger to the people of Ventura County.
To mark the 65th anniversary of that disaster, local advocates and community organizations are engaged in a 10-day campaign that started with an Action Assembly on July 13 to demand local elected officials — in particular the Ventura County Board of Supervisors — take action and litigate like they have long resolved and promised to do.
SSFL was a Cold War-era testing facility for rocket engines and nuclear reactors. The thousands of tons of toxic chemicals that were used and dumped there, plus the radioactivity from at least four nuclear accidents, make the SSFL one of the most contaminated sites in the country.
Its 2,850 acres sit on a plateau just south of Simi Valley and west of Chatsworth with more than 700,000 people in surrounding communities living in harm’s way.
The state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) is the agency responsible for enforcing the site’s decontamination and cleanup. Boeing, NASA and the Department of Energy are the responsible parties that were required by earlier consent orders to have the cleanup completed by 2017. But because of disputes, denials and delays, nothing was done and the mess remains.
Here we are 65 years later and SSFL has never been remediated, never been cleaned up, despite a long history of pleadings, protests, and petitions to the responsible parties, not to mention the ill effects to previous workers and nearby residents who have contracted cancer or other serious health problems. Currently, there are 80-plus children who have rare pediatric cancers.
DTSC should be ashamed and must be held accountable for allowing Boeing to skate on a full and complete cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Lab. To date, DTSC has proved to be ineffective and negligent in holding the polluters responsible.
Rather, in 2021, the agency conspired with Boeing behind closed doors and secretly developed a new plan.
Travesty
Here’s the travesty: The plan, called the Settlement Agreement, and its Environmental Impact Report (EIR), certified last year by DTSC, totally breaches the earlier Consent Order of 2007 that called for a full cleanup to background. If implemented, Boeing will be able to leave 90% or more of the contamination on site.
Ninety percent or more of the toxic chemicals and radioactivity left! This is NO cleanup. It is unacceptable. Explain that to the parents of small children living nearby.
In 2022, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution that declared it would sue the state (DTSC) if the final Environmental Impact Report did not support a full cleanup to background. The EIR didn’t come close and is woefully inadequate.
It’s been a year now and the supervisors have not acted. Why the delay? Why do they hesitate? How many more children must develop cancers before our elected officials do something?
I’ve lived in Ventura County for 38 years and am well aware of the divide between west and east county. While the Conejo Grade serves as a physical divide, we also are different culturally, demographically, and economically. Yet, we are all Ventura County residents and we share the same county governance system.
There are times, and this is one, when we all need to think of ourselves as neighbors, as one county, and act together in solidarity for our own shared interests. As the crow flies, Santa Susana is only 30 miles east of us. We breathe the same air, especially when the Santa Anas blow.
Citizens of the Ojai Valley, join with your neighbors in east county and demand the Board of Supervisors take action and litigate now.
Go to parentsagainstssfl.com/action-assembly for more information on what’s happening with our 10-day action campaign and learn how you can get involved to make a difference.
— Larry Yee of Ojai is the former chair of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.
PG&E reports nuclear reactor welding leak at Diablo Canyon facility
EWG: Critical questions about coolant system damage go unanswered
SAN FRANCISCO – Pacific Gas & Electric found damage to part of a reactor cooling system at the aging Diablo Canyon nuclear plant in California, but it hasn’t yet answered key questions about the extent of the problem.
PG&E is the owner of the state’s last remaining nuclear power plant, and found the fault with the reactor coolant system during a routine inspection in October. PG&E detailed the damage in a report[1] to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, in December.
The power company says the system had a crack in the welding of the wall of Diablo Canyon’s Unit 2 reactor, which was shut down for refueling. PG&E says the presumed cause was fatigue, which was caused by vibrations at the facility indicating a weld defect. The utility says the damage meant the unit fell short of NRC operating requirements.
PG&E says it repaired the leak, and the public and plant workers were never at risk. But the utility’s filing with the commission raises several questions, including:
When was the affected weld last inspected?
When does PG&E believe the crack in the weld formed?
Why had the weld flaw not been identified?
What was the size of the leak when it occurred?
“The communities near Diablo Canyon deserve to know the full details of the incident, how it happened, why it wasn’t discovered earlier and how long it took for PG&E to identify the damage to the reactor coolant system,” said Environmental Working Group President and California resident Ken Cook.
“The main reason for shuttering this aging facility is the potential threat it poses to the public – and PG&E’s overall safety record across its vast service area in the state is among the worst of any power company in the country,” Cook said.
Diablo Canyon’s latest problem highlights ongoing concerns about the stability of the facility and shows why EWG and others are pushing to shut the plant down.
Yet state and federal officials are trying to keep the aging facility operating beyond 2025, when it’s slated to shutter under the terms of a settlement carefully negotiated between PG&E, California and environmentalists.
Last September, at the urging of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the state legislature approved Senate Bill 846, a law that will keep the plant operating for five more years, until 2030. It will also give PG&E a $1.4 billion loan to cover costs during that extra time.
In November, the Biden administration announced it will give PG&E more than $1 billion in federal funding to keep the plant operating past its scheduled 2025 closure date.
PG&E has also petitioned the NRC to fast-track its October 31 request to extend the license of the twin Diablo Canyon reactors. Four environmental organizations, led by San Luis Obispo-based Mothers for Peace, or SLOMFP, have sent letters to the NRC warning it would violate federal law if it accepts the proposal. The other groups that signed the letters are EWG, Friends of the Earth and Committee to Bridge the Gap.
“PG&E cannot have it both ways,” claimed SLOMFP Board President Jane Swanson. “PG&E stopped preparing the reactors for continued operation in 2016 and voided their license renewal. The company has spent the past six years preparing to mothball the reactors and has saved money by not investing in future operations. It is too late to get a license renewal before the plant must shut down.”
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The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy, and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.
Governor Newsom has been carrying PG&E’s water for too long. When will it end? July 8, 2022
Governor Newsom’s cozy relationship with PG&E has been ongoing since his run for San Francisco Supervisor in 1998. By now, contributions from PG&E add up to well over $10 million in support of his campaigns and ballot measures. The company has also contributed hundreds of thousands to Newsom’s wife’s foundation. In return, Newsom has helped PG&E get away with murder, literally. And now, Newsom is proving his loyalty to the company by providing a runway for PG&E to keep Diablo Canyon nuclear plant open past its agreed-upon closure date of 2025.
On June 30, the Department of Energy (DOE) bowed to Newsom’s plea to change the rules so Diablo could qualify for a portion of the $6 million of Civil Nuclear Tax Credits. The DOE also extended the application deadline until September 6, 2022, allowing PG&E ample time to apply. Newsom is no stranger to manipulating circumstances to help PG&E. After the Camp Fire, which killed 85 people in 2018, Newsom had his lawyers craft a bill, AB 1054. This 2019 bill essentially protected PG&E by creating a $21 billion fund to help utilities cover the cost of major wildfires started by their equipment and forcing customers to pay for half of the cost of the fund. The bill also enabled PG&E to obtain official state safety certificates for two fire seasons since the Camp Fire. Yet, three years later, a state report on the 2021 Dixie Fire indicated that the utility was negligent in its tree-removal program, which helped spark the fire, and that their response the day of the fire was “excessively delayed.”
In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling weakening the EPA, Governor Newsom claimed that “California is taking bold action to further advance California’s progress toward an oil-free future and bolster the state’s clean energy economy.” Yet, at the same time, he convinced members of the State Legislature to pass a very climate-unfriendly Trailer Budget Bill. This legislation provides a $75 million allocation for the Department of Water Resources to purchase electricity from Diablo Canyon and hundreds of millions more for fossil fuel power plants.
Keeping Diablo open past 2025 breaks a hard-fought agreement between environmental organizations, labor, and PG&E. It puts the availability of renewable energy at risk, undercutting the state’s ability to reduce carbon dioxide and other climate-warming emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. California does not need Diablo to ensure sufficient energy to prevent power outages or meet climate goals. To be clear, Diablo Canyon is closing because PG&E determined in 2016 that doing so would enable it to meet California’s renewable energy standard (RES) and emissions standards more rapidly and more cost-effectively.
Newsom’s coddling of PG&E and his maneuverings at the state and federal levels to keep Diablo running is all the more disturbing in that his motivations are based on the false narrative that these fossil and nuclear-fueled plants will prevent power outages. They will not. Energy consultant Robert Freehling explains it succinctly: “These plants were operating during the early 2000s energy crisis and in 2020. They did not prevent outages.”
Timeline: PG&E’s disasters since 2010 ABC10 examined the disasters and wildfires caused by PG&E, starting with the San Bruno Gas Explosion in 2010 then jumping ahead 8 years to the Camp Fire.Here’s a look at the timeline of PG&E’s disasters by ABC10:2010… PG&E was convicted of six federal felonies, including obstruction of the investigation, stemming from the 2010 San Bruno Gas Explosion. The blast killed eight people. Due to this conviction, the company was placed on probation until 2022, paid a $3 million fine, and was sentenced to 10,000 hours of community service.
2018... Newsom wins the governor’s race in November of 2018. Three days later, the Camp Fire started, destroying the town of Paradise and nearby communities. The fire resulted in the deaths of 85 people. It was determined the company left a hook hanging for nearly a hundred years until it broke, dropped a power line and sparked the fire.
2019… Problems with similar parts on a high tension power line are blamed for sparking the Kincade Fire. It burned more than a hundred homes in wine country. No one died, but it was close. Firefighters were injured while saving people. PG&E is fighting multiple felony and misdemeanor charges filed by Sonoma County in connection to the Kincade Fire.
2020…PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 felony counts of manslaughter, and one felony for sparking the Camp Fire through criminally reckless behavior. Three months after the court proceedings for the Camp Fire, the Zogg Fire broke out when a tree hit a PG&E power line in Shasta County. Four people died, including eight-year-old Feyla McLeod and her mother, both of whom burned to death running for their lives in a pickup truck. It’s an active homicide investigation and prosecutors recently announced they will be filing charges against PG&E and possibly officials who work there. The judge managing PG&E’s probation already found PG&E committed safety “violations” when PG&E’s contractors marked an unsafe tree leaning over the power line, but no one ever followed up to cut it down.
2021… PG&E’s legal obligation to find and cut trees threatening power lines is again under investigation for the Dixie Fire, which is still raging through communities ever since igniting on July 13. The fire started where a tree fell on a PG&E power line just a short distance up the Feather River Canyon from where PG&E sparked the Camp Fire. The question for investigators isn’t whether PG&E sparked the Dixie Fire, but whether PG&E is criminally responsible. That question hinges on whether PG&E should have found the tree and cut it before it fell.
ABC10 series: Fire Power Money For over three years, ABC10’s Fire – Power – Money team has been at the forefront covering California’s wildfire crisis, the danger of PG&E’s power lines, and how the company avoids accountability. Governor Newsom, PG&E, the CPUC, and the California fires https://www.abc10.com/firepowermoney
Former Prime Minister of Japan Sounds the Alarm on Diablo Canyon Naoto Kan Advises Governor Newsom to Close Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant ASAP
May 2022 – Naoto Kan was Prime Minister of Japan when the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster began. Hearing that California Governor Gavin Newsom is considering extending the operation of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant beyond its current license period, Kan felt compelled to contact the Governor, advising him to shut down the nuclear plant as soon as possible.
As a result of Naoto Kan’s experiences managing the triple meltdown catastrophe, he has become vocally anti-nuclear. As he explains in his memoir, My Nuclear Nightmare, “I came to understand that a nuclear accident carried with it a risk so large that it could lead to the collapse of a country.
“Eleven years on, the nuclear disaster in Japan is on-going. The government is set to release millions of gallons of irradiated water into the Pacific Ocean as early as next spring – angering citizens and governments worldwide.
Both Japan and California are seismically active and share coastlines with the Pacific Ocean. Fukushima Prefecture and San Luis Obispo County have many similarities, both communities relying heavily on agriculture, fishing, and tourism. Naoto Kan has a deep understanding of these shared risks and vulnerabilities. Thus, he is sounding the alarm on Diablo Canyon.
Carole Hisasue, Spokesperson for San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, states, “As history has clearly illustrated, nuclear accidents affect the entire world. We will all be safer when Diablo Canyon nuclear plant ceases operation.”
Full text of Naoto Kan’s letter to Governor Newsom:
May 12, 2022
Dear Governor Newsom, I have heard that you have been considering extension of operations at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant which is set to decommission in a few years. I was the Prime Minister of Japan at the time of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident and based on my experiences dealing with that disaster, I advise you to shut down the nuclear plant as soon as possible.
As you know, three nuclear reactors built along the Pacific Coast in Fukushima melted down after the Great Northeastern Earthquake and Tsunami of March 11, 2011 and released an enormous amount of radiation.
Until this accident occurred, I never thought a nuclear event in which there would be a meltdown such as this could happen. And yet, in reality, the earthquake cut off external power, the emergency diesel generators were damaged by the tsunami and stopped. All power to control the nuclear plant was lost, three reactors could no longer be cooled and that led to the unthinkable meltdown. An incredible amount of radiation was released and even now, 11 years since then, many of the former residents of the areas around the nuclear plant are still in evacuation.
From my perspective, as someone who has personally experienced this accident, I believe that all nuclear power plants should be decommissioned as soon as possible and that we should move toward renewable energy, such as solar and wind, for all our power needs. This is why I am writing to you today.
I have enclosed the English version of a book I wrote about the Fukushima accident. I hope you can find the time to read it.
Gavin Newsom may be forced to step down as Governor of California if a recall is approved September 14 by California voters.
He and the Democratic Party leaders are busy branding the recall a Republican effort, including a lawsuit by Newsom and divisive ads with Elizabeth Warren as spokeswoman – “distract and confuse” tactics. Many Californians are not interested in party power games and actually care about officials’ actions, such as when they protect special interests including utility companies and Big Oil, and allow risks or harm to the public and the environment.
For example, in 2016, when Newsom was Lieutenant Governor and on the California Lands Commission. Pacific Gas and Electric applied for a new permit for Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. The plant had never had state environmental review which many now urged the Commission to require. In addition,
– in 2015, it was revealed that PG&E had used incorrect safety data – since 1982 – and altered its operating license with the help of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to appear in compliance.
– Mothers for Peace SLO reviewed data and found PG&E committed 29 safety violations in 2014 alone, including inoperable backup generators. Fukushima meltdowns were initiated when the electricity grid shut down and backup generators failed when turned on. PG&E called these violations “gaps in excellence”.
– the plant and its desal plant cause extensive damage to the ocean, including its devastating once-through water intake system that kills marine life.
– the plant sits amidst an active, connected network of earthquake faults
– a nuclear accident at Diablo Canyon would impact critical agricultural lands north in Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz Counties, east to the Central Valley, and south to Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, harm millions of people including Los Angeles, cause environmental destruction on land and to the Pacific Ocean, and devastate California, ranked the 5th largest economy in the world.
These are some of the issues. Friends of the Earth said in March 2015, “Diablo Canyon should never have been constructed in the first place, and now it is clear it should not be allowed to operate another day.”
Further, the Commission hearing was occurring as PG&E was on trial for the San Bruno disaster.
Despite the facts and the dangers from continued plant operation, Gavin Newsom refused to require environmental review and refused to delay the hearing to allow the public and experts to evaluate new information and Commission reports.
Instead, Newsom led the Commission in voting to approve the new permit, and applauded a recent agreement allowing the plant to operate for nine more years.
June 2016 hearing transcript; Diablo Canyon consideration starts on p. 78
Preceding April 2016 hearing transcript; Diablo Canyon starts on p. 55
Newsom’s comments at the hearings were very disturbing, given the issues and risks and PG&E’s safety history.
After 2016, California was hit with the powerful Ridgecrest earthquake and its many strong aftershocks – a powerful reminder of the daily risks. And even a power outage can cause a catastrophic nuclear accident, because nuclear power plants rely on grid power to keep fuel rods and spent fuel pools cool.
Newsom’s critical decision affecting the lives and future of so many is one example of his priorities and judgment. This is the reason many Californians support a recall.
“For nearly three years, ABC10’s Fire – Power – Money team has been at the forefront covering California’s wildfire crisis, the danger of PG&E’s power lines, and how the company avoids accountability.
Now, ABC10’s award-winning investigative series reveals how California’s state government, under Governor Gavin Newsom, responded to PG&E’s deadly crimes by giving the company rewards and protection.”
UPDATE:
The Commission approved a new permit for PG&E at Diablo Canyon without an environmental review and rushed a new staff report, without adequate public review time.
Two hearings were held by the California Lands Commission — April 5, 2016 and June 28, 2016. The transcripts are below. At the second hearing, after public comments and comments by the commission, Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom moved to approve a new lease for PG&E, without an environmental review and without giving the public 30-days to review a revised staff report. He also applauded the agreement by PG&E to close Diablo Canyon in 9 years at the close of its license.
California’s Lieutenant Governor, Gavin Newsom, serves on the three-member State Lands Commission. This Commission leasesthe land to PG&E for the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. These leases are due to expire in 2018 and 2019.
ACTION: Send an email to the Commission asking the staff to prepare a full California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review for the land leases before considering a renewal. Also ask that the meeting scheduled for April 5 be held in San Luis Obispo County. Send the message to: Jennifer.Lucchesi at slc.ca.gov
Heal Fukushima 