PG&E got the go-ahead from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to store additional spent fuel rods in the plant’s storage pools. The plan to store the rods is temporary while aboveground dry-cask storage units are completed.
San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, the local watchdog group, opposes the plan because the pools were not originally designed to hold so
many spent fuel rods.
According to a Mothers for Peace press release, ‘The closeness of the fuel assemblies adds to the danger of fire and resultant radioactive release in case accident, sabotage, or earthquake leads to a loss of coolant surrounding the stored fuel assemblies.”
The additional dry-cask storage units are scheduled to be ready in November 2007.
Note: On Dec. 14 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be holding a public town hall meeting at the Embassy Suites Hotel at 333 Madonna Road in San Luis Obispo, to address any concerns or questions the public may have about the Diablo Canyon Power Plant.
-J.P.
This article appears in Dec 8-15, 2005.