"Appeals Court will hear case on cover-up of Diablo Canyon quake risks"

PG&E's Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, near San Luis Obispo, CAAs reported by a Friends of the Earth news release, subtitled "Friends of the Earth [FOE] petition says NRC illegally let PG&E alter nuclear plant's license," a 9th Circuit federal appeals court panel has rejected motions by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, allowing FOE's lawsuit to proceed to a hearing on the merits.

FOE alleges that NRC and PG&E colluded to secretly alter the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant (photo, left) operating license regarding the capability of the twin reactors to survive earthquake magnitudes greater than the facility was ever designed to withstand. In recent years, the lengths and interconnections of earthquake fault lines, and their proximity to Diablo Canyon, were revealed to be significantly greater than previously understood.

FOE is demanding a public adjudicatory hearing on the increased seismic risks, something that should have happened in the first place. In the meantime, FOE is calling for both units to be shutdown, until its concerns are fully addressed.

Harvey Wasserman has blogged about FOE's preliminary legal victory at EcoWatch.

Links to NRC public mtg. on reactor pressure vessel issues, Feb. 19

Agenda.

Presentations (not necessarily in chronological order to match agenda):

Assessment of BTP 5-3 Protocols (Mark Kirk, NRC). [BTP = Branch Technical Position]

Part II: Assessment of Impact on Plants Using BTP 5-3 to Estimate RT-NDT(u) [Reference Temperature-Nil Ductility Transition (unirradiated)] (Simon Sheng, NRC).

Industry Focus Group, Activities Regarding the BTP 5-3 Issue (Wells, Southern Nuclear; Hardin, Electric Power Research Institute).

MRP/BWRVIP, Evaluation of BTP 5-3 (Hardin, EPRI; Server, ATI Consulting; Gamble, Sartrex).

Materials Orientation Toughness Assessment (MOTA) for the Purpose of Mitigating Branch Technical Position (BTP) 5-3 Uncertainties (Koehler, Xcel; Long and Hall, Westinghouse).

FAVOR Cladding Residual Stress Model (Kusnick, NRC).

2015 Revision of the FAVOR* Probabilistic Fracture Mechanics Computer Program (v.15.1) (Kirk, NRC; Bass, Dickson, Williams, Oak Ridge National Lab) [*FAVOR = Fracture Analysis of Vessels - Oak Ridge].

REAP (Reactor Embrittlement Archive Project) (Kirk, NRC; Williams and Bass, Oak Ridge).

Demonstrate Appendix G Margins for PWR RPV Nozzles, PA-MSC-1091R1, Methodology and Progress (Hall, Westinghouse).

Overview of Plans for Revising Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 50, Appendix H, "Reactor Vessel Material Surveillance Program Requirements" (Hardies, NRC).

Pressure Tests of Reactor Coolant System - With the Core Critical (Holmberg, NRC).

Entergy's Pilgrim atomic reactor has had a bad week

NRC file photo of Entergy's Pilgrim atomic reactor, a Fukushima twin-designOn Jan. 26th, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) slapped Entergy Pilgrim (photo, left) with two "White Findings" in the aftermath of four unplanned shutdowns in 2013, and Entergy's failure to properly carry out ordered follow up corrective actions. This means Pilgrim will remain on NRC's "degraded" performance short list of the worst (a.k.a. most risky) reactors in the country.

Pilgrim is identical in design and vintage to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4 -- a General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor.

On Jan. 27th, Pilgrim bore the brunt of the "Juno" blizzard, and was forced to shut down shortly into the storm. As reported at NRC's website, a full week later, it remains shut down. NRC issued its PNOs (Preliminary Notifications of Occurrence) regarding this most recent unplanned shutdown on Jan. 28th (see the bottom two entries). Another, related, NRC PNO is dated Jan. 29th.

On Jan. 30th, Entergy Pilgrim got slammed again -- this time, by a letter from Pilgrim Watch's Mary Lampert, "PILGRIM WATCH COMMENT/QUESTIONS [re:] FLEX MOORING PLAN-LESSONS LEARNED FROM JUNO BLIZZARD." (See Attachment A.)

And on Feb. 2nd, the same day that NRC initiated its Special Inspection Team re: this most recent unplanned shutdown, Pilgrim Watch, joined by the Town of Duxbury Nuclear Advisory Committee, slammed Entergy Nuclear, as well as NRC, with a series of hard-hitting questions. They demand Pilgrim remain shut down until their questions are answered.