The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reported that the Diablo Canyon Power Plant met the high standards for safety and security at its annual town hall meeting June 29.
Michael Peck, senior resident inspector at Diablo Canyon, said from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2009, the plant underwent more than 2,700 hours of direct inspection.
The NRC also used performance indicators to determine the plant’s safety. Performance indicators are a color-coded system ranging from green, a very low safety issue, to red, a high safety issue. White indicates a low to moderate or substantial safety issue. Peck said all performance indicators at Diablo Canyon were green.
All of these findings come in light of the June 22 alert issued due to an accidental discharge of carbon dioxide gas from a fire suppression system, according to a press release issued by Pacific Gas and Electric, PG&E, the operator and owner of the plant. Alerts are declared for actual or potential degradation of plant safety systems. The alert was the first in the plant’s 25-year history and was terminated a few hours later with no employee injuries or risk to public health and safety.
Even though the power plant received a favorable assessment, the NRC found issues with how PG&E identified and resolved problems, with administrative licensing issues and with changes made without prior NRC approval.
The commission plans to conduct the same level of inspection at Diablo Canyon with more focus on cause evaluations due to these inefficiencies, Peck said.
Ken Peters, director of engineering services for PG&E, said the company is committed to improving performance in those areas as well as to the daily operation of the plant.
“We recognize our responsibility to operate our plants to the highest levels of safety all the time – day in and day out, 365 days a year. That is a responsibility we take very seriously,” Peters said.
PG&E created procedures to improve conditions at the plant that include training the staff to properly respond to any issues, establishing more review boards for operations and licensing issues and setting up a root-cause analysis system to identify the sources of its shortfalls in performing program evaluations.
PG&E is seeking an operating license renewal of the plant for another 20 years. The current license is in effect until 2024. By continuing to operate the plant, PG&E guarantees economic and environmental benefits.
However, not everyone wants the license renewed.
Jane Swanson is a spokesperson for the non-profit organization Mothers for Peace, which is dedicated to fighting the 20-year license renewal.
“The June 23 alert at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant fits into a year long pattern that shows PG&E’s inability to manage its two aging reactors,” Swanson said.
The power plant was designed in the 1960s but didn’t begin running until the 1980s. Swanson said a potential major earthquake could have a detrimental effect on the cooling process of the power plant, but the NRC maintains that the plant can withstand an earthquake up to 7.5 on the Richter scale and is high enough on the coast to avoid tsunamis.
Peck said the NRC will hold a seismic workshop that will address all issues related to earthquakes in September and a license renewal environmental audit in December.