Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant Litigation)
Case Summary
CLIPI enters the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant administrative proceedings being conducted by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. CLIPI leads the battle against granting an operating license to the newly constructed plant, basing its arguments on a newly discovered major seismic fault located only two miles away that could produce an earthquake of nearly twice the force the plant had been designed to withstand. At the conclusion of the ensuing ten-year campaign, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ultimately upholds the NRC’s granting of the Diablo Canyon license by a narrow 5-4 majority. The lengthy proceedings, which constitute one of the most serious challenges to the nuclear power industry during the 1970s and ‘80s, contribute to industry reluctance to build any more nuclear power plants in the United States.
Additional Information
Throughout the 1970’s and ‘80’s, the environmental movement undertook a series of administrative and judicial attacks on the proliferation of nuclear power plant that were being approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and built by the electric utility industry. In California, the principal focus for this attack was PG&E’s Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. CLIPI represented the environmental groups challenging the NRC’s proposed granting of an operating permit to Diablo. This challenge alleged, among other matters, that after the plant had been constructed at a cost of more than $1 billion, but before it opened, it was discovered that the plant’s location was near a significant earthquake fault. During the lengthy administrative proceedings which lasted ten years, it was also revealed that when the plant was being built, its blueprints were inadvertently switched so that numerous components of the plant’s unit two had been mistakenly constructed in unit one.
The 1986 en banc opinion of federal circuit curt for the District of Columbia, written by Judge Robert Bork, narrowly rejected, by a 5-4 vote, CLIPI’s subsequent litigation challenge to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s refusal to require an earth-quake safety evaluation plan before issuing the operating permit. But the extensive administrative and judicial proceedings had subjected both the proposed plant and the nuclear power industry to a searching and highly visible scrutiny. Public opinion in California turned strongly against nuclear power options. Together with the extremely high capital cost of constructing nuclear power plants, the Diablo Canyon proceedings sounded the death knell of the industry in California.
Where were at today
Today, with the high energy demands entailed in responding to climate change – and the accompanying heavy costs of maintaining the older fossil fuel energy production and distribution system while building a new one devoted to clean, renewable energy – Governor Newsom has led the effort to extend the Diablo Canyon license another 5 years, while PG&E has applied to federal officials for another 20 years. A recent UC Berkeley/LA Times poll found that 44 percent of California voters now support building more nuclear power as a form of “clean,” non-fossil fuel energy, with 37 percent opposed and 19 percent undecided -- a very significant change from the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
Citations
US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit - 751 F.2d 1287 (D.C. Cir. 1984)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit - 760 F.2d 1320 (D.C. Cir. 1985)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit - 789 F.2d 26 (D.C. Cir. 1986)
US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit - 804 F.2d 523 (9th Cir. 1986)
