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"For the past two years, operators at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant have had trouble identifying and resolving low-level safety problems. That is one of the key findings that will be discussed at a town hall-style meeting of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 29 in San Luis Obispo. The public will have two opportunities that day to learn about and comment on the agency's assessment of the plant's safety performance in 2009.

"Judges from the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, the independent trial-level adjudicatory body of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, heard arguments from attorneys of San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace (SLOMFP) and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) regarding the pros and cons of license renewal for Diablo Canyon power plant on May 26. SLOMFP attorney Diane Curran opened the hearing with a summary of the positions of the watchdog group, arguing that recent inspection reports show a pattern of inefficiency related to safe operation and aging of the plant. PG&E argued that many issues raised by Curran weren't relevant to relicensing issues. The current operating licenses for the two reactors at Diablo Canyon are set to expire in 2024 and 2025, respectively. PG&E has applied to continue operating the two reactors through 2045. "It doesn't take 11 years to do a license application," SLO Mothers for Peace spokeswoman Jane Swanson told New Times. "

"A new reactor vessel head, shrouded in a protective wrap, arrived at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant Monday morning. The equipment will be installed on the plant's Unit 1 reactor during a refueling shutdown in the fall. The large component was shipped via a 185-foot-long special transport vehicle from Mt. Vernon, Ind., that is the equivalent of three semitrucks. The reactor head itself is 17 feet in diameter, 8 feet tall and weighs 70 tons. As the name implies, the component sits on top of the reactor. The cost of replacing both vessel heads at the plant is $141 million. "

At the western edge of a largely dormant anti-nuke movement, three generations of mothers are tilting at nuclear reactors. But their mission is less quixotic than it might appear. Wielding a novel argument about the potential impact of a terrorist attack on nuclear facilities, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace is aiming to set legal precedent requiring tougher environmental reviews for nuclear power plants and radioactive waste storage nationwide. It's the latest chapter in a long-running battle that pits the all-volunteer group of aging hippies, activists and teachers against the federal government, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., and PG&E's Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, nestled on a gorgeous stretch of coastline nearby.

Employees at Diablo Canyon picket outside the nuclear power plant. They are trying to call attention to what they say are unsafe working conditions. Nuclear engineers claim the plant is putting profits before safety. They say that employees are not paid enough and because of that, it makes retaining qualified workers difficult.

Crews at Diablo Canyon Power Plant will start transferring radioactive material into dry casks on June 1. The casks are used to store spent reactor fuel. Eights casks will be filled and stored above-ground in a concrete storage pad. Another eight casks will be loaded in the spring of 2010.

PG&E's decision to begin moving its spent fuel to above-ground canisters sparked a legal battle Operators at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant will begin loading the first dry cask with highly radioactive used reactor fuel on June 1. The decision by plant owners Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to begin transferring its spent fuel to above-ground canisters touched off a groundbreaking legal battle with local antinuclear activists in 2002 - and it continues to this day. San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace wants federal regulators to require that PG&E take additional steps to protect the storage facility from terrorist attacks.

Ahh, a Friday afternoon toast to science. PG&E announced today that its Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power plant is actually situated on two seismically sensitive faults, not just the one previously identified in the 1970s when the plant was sited and built. "The new fault is thought to be smaller than the other fault off the plant's coastline, the Hosgri fault, but it is closer to shore. The new fault is less than a mile offshore while the Hosgri fault is about three miles offshore," according to a story in the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. says the presence of the fault was discovered using new computer programming that maps epicenters Pacific Gas & Electric Co. officials announced today that they have discovered a new earthquake fault offshore of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The presence of the fault was discovered using new computer programming that allows geologists to better map the epicenters of the many small magnitude earthquakes in the area, said Lloyd Cluff, head of PG&E's earthquake risk management program, in a summary sent to the California Energy Commission earlier this week.

Federal regulators ruled Thursday that a radioactive waste storage plan can go forward at a California nuclear power plant without further study of whether it's safe from terror attacks. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted 3-1 to deny the novel objection from the activist group San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, which had won a federal court ruling forcing NRC to consider its arguments. The decision OKs PG&E's plans to store spent nuclear fuel in aboveground casks at its Diablo Canyon power plant near San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Divers had cleared away enough jellyfish from ocean water intake racks at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power station in California that officials were "hoping" to ramp up Unit 1 toward full power on Wednesday, a PG&E Corp spokeswoman said. Unit 2, of 1,118-megawatt capacity, shut on Tuesday due to the jellyfish, remained shut and PG&E by Wednesday afternoon had no estimate when it could return to operation.

The NRC gives the go-ahead to begin transferring radioactive spent fuel to another site, bypassing a group's call for an in-depth environmental review The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled Thursday that Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant can begin loading used reactor fuel into an above-ground storage facility without doing a more comprehensive analysis of the environmental effects of a terrorist attack. The ruling in Rockville, Md., removes the last hurdle to the process of taking highly radioactive spent fuel out of storage pools and into large steel and concrete casks that will sit on a large pad behind the plant.

Pacific Gas and Electric has restarted a reactor unit at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant after an explosive transformer fire prompted a 20-day shutdown. The cause of the fire has been identified as the failure of a bushing that connects the transformer to the high-voltage transmission lines. The failure caused the bushing's outer ceramic shell to disintegrate and ignited insulating oil.

The second batch of replacement steam generators has arrived at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. Two of the four massive cylinders were pushed by tugboat into the plant's cooling water intake cove Thursday morning. The other two will be unloaded Friday.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co has decided to replace rather than fix a main step-up transformer that caught fire earlier this week at its Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California, a company spokeswoman said on Thursday. There is yet no schedule for the return of the 1,118-megawatt Unit 2 at the plant near San Luis Obispo, California, said Sharon Gavin, spokeswoman for the utility, which owns and operates the two-unit plant.

The transformer damaged in the blaze Sunday will have to be replaced, according to plant officials; the cause of the fire has not yet been determined No date has been set for restarting a reactor at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant that was the site of a transformer fire early Sunday. The burned transformer will have to be replaced. The fire also slightly damaged another transformer and other nearby equipment as well as the plant's administration building.

Hikers now have access to three miles of coastline north of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which owns the plant and surrounding property, opened the entire length of the Point Buchon Trail to the public June 28. The trail goes from the southern boundary of Montana de Oro State Park to Crowbar Canyon, a point just north of Diablo Canyon Power Plant.

San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace (MFP) today accused the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Staff (NRC Staff) of failing to address the catastrophic land contamination that could result from a terrorist attack on dry cask storage units designed to hold radioactive spent fuel at the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant in California.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will hold two public meetings Wednesday, July 2, to discuss issues regarding the Diablo Canyon Power Plant near Avila Beach. Regulatory Commission staff will meet with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. officials at 2:30 p.m. to discuss the NRC's annual assessment of safety performance at the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant during 2007, then hold a town hall-style meeting beginning at 6:30 p.m.

A mishap with a mobile crane early today damaged a meteorological tower at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The crane was being moved between 7 and 8 a.m. when it hit a guy wire holding the 250-foot tower. The tower is still standing but it is damaged and plant workers will do a structural assessment to determine the extent of the damage, said Pete Resler, plant spokesman.