Friends of the Earth - 0 views
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Tell Chairman Macfarlane: Shut down Diablo Canyon! This week, the Associated Press revealed that the nuclear reactors at Diablo Canyon are surrounded by faults capable of causing an earthquake far larger than they were designed to withstand. There is no way that the NRC should allow these reactors to continue to operate given this new information. Demand that Chairman Macfarlane put peoples' safety ahead of profits and shut down Diablo Canyon!
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Dear Chairman Macfarlane: It has come to my attention that the former Senior Resident Inspector at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant filed a differing professional opinion with the NRC in which he recommended that the Commission shut Diablo Canyon while addressing the fact that the reactors and internal equipment are no longer correctly tested and licensed given new earthquake information that exists in regard to the Shoreline, Los Osos and San Luis Bay faults which surround the plant. It is unconscionable that the NRC has allowed Diablo Canyon to continue operating without fully analyzing seismic threats to the reactors. It is also astonishing to me that your agency has not only failed to act on this report but has suppressed the publication of the report despite the request by the author that his paper be made public. I understand that Friends of the Earth has now petitioned the agency to close the reactors and to force Pacific Gas and Electric to undergo a public licensing review should they wish to continue to operate these reactors. I strongly support this petition and ask that you take immediate action to comply. As a geologist, I am sure that you are aware that USGS technical staff posit that the Shoreline, Los Osos, San Luis Bay, and Hosgri faults could be connected, potentially causing larger earthquakes than Diablo Canyon was designed to withstand. According to PG&E itself, the Shoreline, Los Osos and San Luis Bay faults could all produce ground motion beyond that considered as the basis for both Diablo's license and safety evaluation. This means that the reactors and internal equipment have not been tested and certified to withstand the kind of earthquakes that we now know are possible in the area. This is unacceptable. If there were a proposal to build reactors on the Diablo Canyon site today, there is no way, knowing what we do now, that it would be accepted. Don't let what we didn't know decades ago be an excuse for keeping people an