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11/22/2024 04:13:02 am

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Expert Calls To Shut Down California Nuclear Plant

Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant

(Photo : REUTERS/MIKE BLAKE) A woman and her dogs walk past the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station that sits on the shore of the Pacific Ocean in North San Diego County, California March 14, 2011.

A former inspector called to stop the operation of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant until its twin reactor facilities can prove that it can remain operational after hit by strong earthquakes, reports said.

Michale Peck, the former lead on-site inspector who worked with Diablo Canyon's nuclear plant for five years, wrote in a confidential report that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) does not apply the safety and security measures for the plant’s operation, CBS News reported.

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Peck's analysis indicated that the agency should stop the operation of the last operating plant after validating that piping, reactor cooling and other systems could meet higher stress levels. However, the document does not directly say that the plant is unsafe.

Based on some sources, Peck filed an appeal to the NRC July of last year, but to this day the commission, which inspects the nation's commercial nuclear power industry, has not acted on it yet.

The NRC would not give any comment on Peck's filed document, NRC Spokeswoman Lara Uselding told the media.

The NRC and Pacific Gas and Electric Co (PG&E), the Diablo Canyon owner, said that the twin reactors are safe and complies to earthquake safety standards.

The NRC scrutinized earthquake risks for Diablo Canyon plant and indicated that it produces enough electricity for 3 million people every year and it is seismically safe, PG&E spokesman Blair Jones said.

In the late 1970s, the main issue on earthquake ground motions was already resolved along with the seismic reconstruction of the nuclear plant, Jones said in an email.

After the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, the disaster alertness of the plants became the focus in 2011 The NRC directed United States nuclear power plants to reassess seismic risks, some reports confirmed.

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