The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant has a new lease on life – thanks to $1.4 billion in taxpayer financed loans – but oversight officials and critics worry about the massive backlog of inspections left unaddressed because the plant was headed for shutdown.
“All of a sudden there’s a lot more inspections that now need to be done to make sure this is managed,” warned Richard McWhorter, a former regulator who worked decades in the nuclear industry and now advises the Diablo Canyon’s state-appointed independent safety panel. In his remarks in June, before the plant’s reprieve, he added: “the amount of work should not be underestimated.’’
The Investigative Unit has learned the backlog of inspections includes checks needed to prevent failures in its cooling system due to corrosion. Back in 2020, missed corrosion led to a significant failure of a pipe in the plant’s emergency backup cooling system.
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Other languishing efforts identified in records include delayed inspections to gauge the integrity of the steel in the plant’s two reactor vessels, to make sure their protective shells have not become brittle from years of intense radiation.
McWhorter also warned about the state of the 1968-vintage alarm system, designed to sound the alert of a pending meltdown. The system has been kept running on a dwindling supply of spare parts that is not expected to last beyond the originally expected 2025 closing date, officials have said.
In all the cases, however, regulators agreed with PG&E that scheduled inspections and recommended upgrades did not need to be carried out because the plant was due to close.
“Right now they're running Diablo Canyon on chewing gum and baling wire,” said Loretta Lynch, former head of the state’s Public Utilities Commission and frequent PG&E critic. “It's one of the oldest power plants in the U.S. fleet. So we now know that this plant has been operating for almost 40 years, certainly more than 35 years, and it would need significant upgrades for it to continue operating.”
Lynch questions whether all the work could be done in time to allow the plant to be relicensed by next year, as currently envisioned as part of the extension. “It’s like turning the Titanic on a dime.”
But last month, PG&E director Tom Jones told the Diablo oversight panel that his company is up to the challenge of getting the license approved.
“It’s going to be a tremendous lift, but we are not going to fall short due to resources,’’ he said.
Nothing on the languishing to-do list, however, addresses the lingering questions of how well Diablo Canyon would survive an earthquake, particularly now that several faults have been discovered since it was licensed to operate. Among them is the massive Hosgri fault, located about two miles offshore of the plant site, which is north of Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County.
PG&E and its nuclear regulators insist the plant is seismically resilient to survive a quake, but David Weisman with the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility wants to see a new study to show that Diablo will not only survive, but continue to keep power flowing. “That's something we're going to insist on,’’ he said, “because that's the only reason this plant should operate.”
