Diablo Canyon under extra scrutiny

May 14, 2011

Diablo Canyon power plant operators must verify by June 10 under oath that they have updated and adopted additional safety and equipment procedures mandated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after the 9/11 attacks. [CaliforniaWatch]

The order issued on Wednesday is a move by the government to safeguard the nation’s nuclear power plants after the recent disaster at Fukushima in Japan.

Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko told California Watch a task force will review the plants’ responses and evaluate the need for additional safeguards.

Operators at Diablo Canyon, one of two active power plants in California, said all of their systems are in place.

“Shortly after the events in Fukushima, we took part in a system wide effort to evaluate safety and emergency responses,” said Paul Flake, a spokesman for PG&E, the utility company that operates the Diablo Canyon power plant to California Watch.

“We submitted a report detailing our work in this area,” to the regulatory commission, he said, and have completed the evaluation the new bulletin requires.

In February 2002, the commission ordered additional emergency measures in response to the 9/11 attacks in what is known as the “B.5.b” requirement

Plant operators were required to provide plans to assure that their reactors and fuel pools would remain cool if power were lost because of scenarios that included plane crashes, fires, floods, earthquakes and tornadoes.

“Diablo Canyon remains safe, and our emergency response plans follow the requirements of the NRC,” Flake told California Watch.