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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.

In the latest development of a longstanding contract dispute, a federal appeals court reversed and remanded a trio of cases concerning damages owed to nuclear utilities as a result of the government's failure to build a nuclear-waste facility. The appeals court said the damages awarded weren't calculated properly by the court of Federal Claims. As such it voided $42.8 million in damages awarded to PG&E Corp.'s Pacific Gas & Electric utility, $39.8 million to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and $142.8 million to three former New England nuclear-plant operators.

The California Energy Commission, in conjunction with doing a status report on nuclear power, put together a workshop on nuclear Power in late June of 2007.

This workshop consists of some of the most current documentation of nuclear power in the county.

* Exelon Corp to buy Russian uranium directly in 2014-2020 * 4th such deal since "wall" to U.S. market broken last week * Rosatom subsidiary plans $3 bln bond to fund expansion By Simon Shuster MOSCOW, June 3 (Reuters) - Russia's state nuclear firm Rosatom sealed a uranium supply deal with U.S. utility Exelon Corp (EXC.N) on Wednesday and voiced plans to issue a 100 billion rouble bond as it intensifies its global expansion. Last week, the company said it had "broken down the wall" into the U.S. uranium market by striking three landmark deals to supply nuclear fuel worth more than $1 billion to U.S. power firms PG&E (PCG.N), Ameren Corp (AEE.N) and Luminant.

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.

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.

"Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E, the licensee) is the holder of Facility Operating License Nos. DPR-80 and DPR-82, which authorize operation of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, Units Nos. 1 and 2 (DCPP). The licenses provide, among other things, that the facility is subject to all rules, regulations, and orders of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC, the Commission) now or hereafter in effect. The facility consists of two pressurized-water reactors located in San Luis Obispo County, California. "

"Less than a week after concerns about earthquakes dominated public hearings on renewing Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant's operating licenses, the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider asking federal regulators to delay the process until more high-tech seismic studies can be completed. Plant owner Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has proposed doing three-dimensional mapping of the ocean floor off the nuclear power plant. Such mapping and other state-of-the-art analysis would tell geophysicists more about the earthquake potential of the area around Diablo Canyon. Supervisors will vote whether to send a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission urging the agency to approve PG&E's request to have its customers pay for the $16.73 million studies, which are expected to take three years to complete. "

"It must stop using a once-through water system by 2024, but PG&E will not know for several years what will replace it By David Sneed | dsneed@thetribunenews.com Comments (18) | Recommend (0) Bookmark and Share Add to My Yahoo! email this story to a friend E-Mail print story Print Text Size: tool name close tool goes here It's hard to miss Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant when passing it by air or sea. One immediately sees the hulking containment domes that house and protect the plant's two nuclear reactors rising above the squat, brown generator building. Attention is soon drawn to another sight - a massive plume of whitewater cascading from the plant's cooling water system. When operating at full power, Diablo Canyon uses 2.5 billion gallons of seawater a day to condense steam after it has passed through the two electrical generators. On May 4, the state Water Resources Control Board adopted a new policy that declared these once-through cooling systems used at Diablo Canyon and 18 other coastal power plants in California to be antiquated. The board gave the utilities that own those plants deadlines for installing less environmentally damaging cooling systems. "

"I am a resident of San Luis Obispo County, and an employee of Diablo Canyon (DCPP). I understand that a good many people are very concerned about DCPP after what happened to the plant in Japan. I field questions about our plant almost every day, from neighbors and family members. Being aware of both the plant design and conditions at the Fukushima plant and DCPP, I am not worried about a similar disaster here. I could go into the specific reasons why I do not believe such a threat is credible, but that is not why I am writing to you. I do believe DCPP is a threat to our community, but it is not because of the plant's design, or a potential natural disaster. I believe the principle threat is the company that runs the plant, PG&E."

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.

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 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.

After decades of debate and more than a year of construction, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. workers placed and sealed the first cask of spent nuclear fuel from the Humboldt Bay nuclear power plant into an underground container Friday. Over the next few months, PG&E will be moving five more stainless steel casks into the high-density concrete container designed to be unbreakable by a tsunami or a 9.3-magnitude earthquake. The six 80-ton casks will be sealed with 22,000-pound lids and will contain 390 spent fuel rods total, along with other radioactive waste currently stored in a pool of water on site.

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.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co., owners of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, said the utility will cooperate with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission as it investigates recent allegations that workers at the plant face retaliation if they bring up safety concerns.

Russian specialist nuclear (fuel exporter Techsnab-export - better known by its brand name of Tenex - has, in just over a week, won contracts to directly supply low-enriched uranium to four US nuclear power utilities. The latest contract, signed last week, is with the Exelon Corporation, which is one of the largest electricity producers in the US, with a production capacity of 25 000 MW (of which, 17 000 MW comes from nuclear plants) plus control of another (6 500 MW through long-term contracts. During the last week of May, the Russian company signed a contract with FuelCo, which represents the interests of three US utilities, PG&E, Union Electric and Luminant. All three will use low-enriched uranium supplied by Tenex to fuel their nuclear (reactors. Although the value of the Exelon deal has not been revealed, the FuelCo deal is worth more than $1-billion. All these deals (involve long-term contracts and all will run from 2014 to 2020.

Russia signed a landmark deal to supply nuclear fuel directly to U.S. companies on Tuesday, setting itself up to control 20 percent of the U.S. uranium market and extending its global reach in the nuclear sector. At a ceremony in the Russian capital, U.S. electricity firms PG&E, Ameren Corp and Luminant signed deals to get more than $1 billion in uranium supplies from Russia's state nuclear fuel exporter Tenex between 2014 and 2020.