February 4,2016-
Another question mark hanging over Diablo Canyon’s future.
The three member California State Lands Commission will consider if PG&E needs to do an environmental impact report to continue to “lease” their water intake structure that feeds Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The meeting, scheduled for February 9th, will take up whether state law exempts PG&E from any kind of new environmental study to renew a lease that would otherwise expire in 2018.
The law states CEQA categorically exempts review of environmental impacts of “existing facilities.” PG&E asserts that the Diablo Canyon is an existing facility with no change or expansion of an existing use and that the Commission’s decision to issue a new lease would, therefore, not require CEQA review.
However an exception to the general categorical exemption applies where there is a “reasonable possibility that the activity will have a significant effect on the environment due to unusual circumstances.”Like what?
Newly discovered earthquake faults.To quote the commission’s staff report.“The DCPP’s nuclear fuel source and proximity to fault lines distinguish it from other power plants in California and, essential to the plant’s operation, is the DCPP cooling water system, with many components authorized under the CSLC leases. The DCPP is the only active nuclear power plant in California, supplying approximately 18,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually (nearly 10% of California’s electricity generation1). Power plants in the State with comparable production use natural gas fuel sources.
Seismologists discovered some of the fault lines after PG&E designed and constructed the DCPP. For example, a geologist from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) discovered the Shoreline fault in 2008, decades after PG&E constructed the plant. To date, there is substantial disagreement between the USGS and PG&E regarding the risks associated with the proximate faults.
According to PG&E, the DCPP can withstand earthquakes up to a magnitude of 7.5 and the faults do not pose significant threats to the DCPP’s integrity, but a USGS seismologist believes that a joint seismic event of the Hosgri and Shoreline faults could exceed DCPP’s design capacity for safe operation, possibly reaching a magnitude of 7.7.”
The Commission also has the obligation to consider Diablo Canyon’s effect on public trust lands says the staff report also pointing to the state water board requirement that the state’s only nuclear power plant stop using once through cooling water by 2024. An informational item on once-through cooling,originally scheduled for January 2016, was rescheduled and may be heard by the Water Board in Spring 2016.
With just three members it will take at least two votes to order the new EIR with member Gavin Newsom appearing to favor the idea. Another member, Michael Cohen, is Brown’s appointee who may reveal if the Governor wants to make it harder to keep the power plant open or may favor its key role in providing low carbon energy to the state for some years to come.
PG&E has advised Commission staff that a formal decision regarding whether to continue to seek DCPP NRC license renewal has not yet been made.It expires in 2024.