PG&E plans to leave behind a ‘radioactive mess’ at Diablo Canyon

Regardless of the kerfuffle over keeping Diablo Canyon open longer, one thing is certain: It WILL—at some finite date — shut down, and PG&E doesn’t seem to care how much of a radioactive mess it leaves behind. But the residents of California should care, and the time to act is now.

PG&E’s $51.2 million-a-year CEO, Patricia Poppe, who arrived in California from Michigan in 2021, peppers her public pronouncements with gushy vows of the company’s devotion to the safety and well being of “our hometowns.”

But when PG&E specified the radiation cleanup standard it plans to apply to decommissioning the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, it chose the loosest limit allowed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (i.e., 25 millirems per year) rather than the 60% tighter standard (i.e., 10 millirems per year) the NRC has agreed to enforce in New York, Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine.

Say what?

In written testimony before the California Public Utilities Commission, PG&E says the 25-millirem standard “adequately protects the health and safety of the general public,” that the company “very likely” will achieve a lower level than 25 millirems, and “no additional cost to customers is expected.” This blather is eerily similar to the empty assurances PG&E gave regarding its gas pipeline inspections before the 2010 San Bruno catastrophe, its vegetation management practices before the 2017 Wine Country fires, and its transmission tower maintenance program before the 2018 Paradise fire.

Why won’t PG&E embrace the tighter 10-millirem requirement? Because doing so would create an unmistakable bright line, which cannot be crossed, for determining whether PG&E eventually reduces residual radioactivity at Diablo Canyon to levels “as low as reasonably achievable.”

The more relaxed 25-millirem NRC benchmark removes a source of considerable regulatory pressure, while PG&E would prefer to simply self-certify that it tried hard to get below 25 millirems. And PG&E knows a 10-millirem target is credible – it recently achieved a 6-millirem level in decommissioning the notoriously dirty Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Plant.

Despite kneejerk claims about federal preemption, PG&E has acknowledged in the CPUC decommissioning proceeding that nuclear plant licensees in other states have agreed to a lower limit than the default 25-millirem standard, and that the NRC’s License Termination Plan process and data can be used to validate that the lower level is met. Why not at Diablo Canyon?

From PG&E’s perspective, aren’t “our hometowns” just as deserving as those in New York, Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine?

PG&E has openly acknowledged that public perceptions of contamination may result in resistance to certain future uses of the Diablo Canyon property, a dark cloud over the visionary reuse plans the company cheerleads in its community outreach. Meanwhile, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on May 3 to endorse the local Cal Poly campus leading development of “a world-class clean tech innovation park” at the future decommissioned nuclear plant site.

Earlier this year, PG&E completed its 5-year criminal probation for the San Bruno felony convictions. “During these five years of criminal probation, we have tried hard to rehabilitate PG&E,” U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup wrote. “As the supervising district judge, however, I must acknowledge failure ... While on probation, PG&E has set at least 31 wildfires, burned nearly one and one-half million acres, burned 23,956 structures, and killed 113 Californians … In these five years, PG&E has gone on a crime spree and will emerge from probation as a continuing menace to California.”

PG&E’s CEO has taken strong exception to Judge Alsup’s assessment. She says she came to PG&E in 2021 “for one reason: to help this company make it right and make it safe for the people it serves … The truth is we are not the same company as we were a year ago, either structurally or culturally.”

But the company’s refusal to commit to a national best practices standard for radiation cleanup at Diablo Canyon sure looks like the same old PG&E: indifferent to the common-sense expectations of its customers, protected by a labyrinth of government enablers.

David Weisman is Legislative Director of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, a non-profit ratepayer advocacy group. www.a4nr.org