PG&E should not be allowed to apply for a 20-year license renewal until state-of-the art seismic studies for the newly discovered earthquake fault offshore from the Diablo Canyon plant and its high-level waste site are completed. This is the position of the California Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission, and the California legislature.
 This leaves the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility and many others wondering why the state Superintendent of Schools, Jack O¹Connell, appeared in support of PG&E’s premature application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). We know there are two major active earthquake faults within two miles of Diablo Canyon; that a previously unknown fault knocked 8000 megawatts of nuclear energy offline in Japan in 2007 and commercial generation has yet to be restored, and the NRC has not required new information on the seismic adequacy of aging reactors to be reviewed when it evaluated the 54 license renewals already granted. In fact, the NRC has denied all contentions on earthquakes in relicensing proceedings.
 So why is the man in charge of our children’s education supporting this premature application? We don’t know, but we do believe O’Connell should explain his position to the state agencies and California legislature. Both have made it very clear to PG&E that an application without completing seismic studies is not in the best interest of the state. Our children (PG&E’s future ratepayers) deserve to have a decision based on facts and not incomplete, one-sided studies.
This article appears in Dec 31, 2009 – Jan 7, 2010.