Ambient office = 74 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 123 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 122 nanosieverts per hour

Blueberry from Central Market = 68 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 94 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 79 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office = 62 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 105 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 110 nanosieverts per hour

Avocado from Central Market = 73 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 91 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 77 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office = 56 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 129 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 129 nanosieverts per hour

Asparagus from Central Market = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 89 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Dover Sole from Central = 113 nanosieverts per hour

Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
    If the state decides to extend its current five-year PG&E extension approval through 2030, the federal approval will already be in place.
     Those opposed to license extension are also proceeding with their attempts to get the plant to shut down as scheduled.
     Three climate activist groups filed a motion for the immediate closure of Diablo in March of 2024. They said that the nuclear plant poses an “unacceptable safety risk.”
     San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Environmental Working Group, and Friends of the Earth also requested a hearing with the NRC to force the agency to consider the groups’ safety concerns.
     The groups say the location of the Diablo Canyon plant near earthquake faults makes it susceptible to an earthquake that could cause a catastrophic nuclear meltdown.
     Zawalick countered, “So, Diablo Canyon is the most studied region, from a seismic standpoint of any nuclear plant in the United States and possibly the world, as a condition of our original license to operate these plants and it will continue into extended operations.”
     However, the environmental groups’ court filing also says keeping the plant open “hurts the state’s shift to safe, renewable energy and prolongs the risk of disaster at the plant.”
     Jane Swanson is one of the original members of Mothers for Peace. She said, “It inputs 24/7. You can’t ramp up and down a nuclear power plant on the basis of need because it’s too dangerous. That’s how things get out of control. And so, as long as it’s inputting this into the western grid, you can’t add more renewables, so it’s counterintuitive but this big source of electricity is blocking the addition of some renewables.”
     Even with CPUC approval and NRC application review, there are several more agencies which have yet to weigh in. They could derail the license extension process. The agencies include the California Coastal Commission, the California State Lands Commission, the California Energy Commission, and the California Air Resources Board.
     Currently, PG&E is moving forward on two different tracks. It is planning for continued operation (the plant’s Unit 2 reactor is currently being refueled) and planning for the plant’s eventual decommissioning.
     Zawalick said, “The state has a few more to do. So now, I just say that we continue to, like every nuclear plant is, planning for decommissioning no matter where you are on the timeline.
     Whether it is five, ten or twenty years from now, the Diablo Canyon plant will eventually need to be shut down. On Wednesday, May 22, the Diablo Canyon Decommissioning Engagement Panel hosted an in-person and virtual meeting from 6-9 p.m. at the Atascadero City Hall. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how the seven-hundred-and-fifty-acre site on which Diablo Canyon Power Plant is located could be repurposed in the future.
     Also on Wednesday, the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board heard oral arguments on the petition from Mothers for Peace, the Environmental Working Group, and Friends of the Earth. The hearing will be held at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Maryland.

Ambient office = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 160 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 157 nanosieverts per hour

Tomato from Central Market = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 130 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 119 nanosieverts per hour

Part 1 of 2 Parts
     Nuclear power has had a renaissance within the last decade. With more focus on combatting climate change, there has been an increased interest in all types of energy, even if it’s not renewable.
     U.S. President Joe Biden set a goal to decarbonize the power grid by 2035. His administration sees nuclear power as a critical component of that. In California, there is a bigger thirst for power combined with increasing drought reducing the amount of hydroelectric power. As a result, nuclear energy began to get the attention of Governor Gavin Newsom as well.
     In 2022, Newsom worked with state lawmakers to get California Senate Bill 846 passed. It agreed to lend Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) one billion four hundred million dollars and help with the process if PG&E would agree to change course and request a license renewal for the Diablo Canyon Power Plant.
     Maureen Zawalick is the Vice President of Business and Technical Services at Diablo Canyon Power Plant. She said, “So we were affectionately known as Team Pivot. No other nuclear plant done this, and because we’d been operating so safely, continuing to invest in the plant for reliability and so forth, it wasn’t too difficult of a pivot.”
     With approvals from multiple regulatory bodies and agencies hanging in the balance, time is running out. In less than two years, the decommissioning process is set to begin. The first step is an approval was the California Public Utilities Commission.
     Zawalick explained, “So they just approved us to go to 2029 and 2030, and that’s, you know, our funding source through that mechanism. The California State Lands Commission, the permits, they’re now extended to 2029 to 2030. Any permits we need from the California Coastal Commission? We’ll navigate through that.”
She continued, “The approval came with some conditions. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) must continue to authorize the plant to operate, the utility must secure and maintain a $1.1 billion federal loan (which was approved by the Biden Administration), and the Public Utilities Commission cannot make a future determination that extended plant operations ‘are imprudent or unreasonable’.”
     With regard to the NRC, if a nuclear power plant applies for licensure within a “reasonable” time and the license application is deemed complete, the plant can continue to operate during application review even if the current license has expired.
     The NRC accepted PG&E’s application to restart the plant in December of 2023. This will allow the plant to continue generating electricity past its current license expiration later this year for Unit 1 and next year for Unit 2. The PG&E application asked for a 20-year extension.
     Zawalick said, “The NRC process and their regulation looks at it from a 20-year time frame, from an environmental standpoint and from aging management and from a safety perspective. Okay, so there’s a tremendous benefit of asking for 20 years with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission per their process, because it gives maximum optionality for the state.”
Please read Part 2 next

Ambient office = 74 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 126 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 125 nanosieverts per hour

Red bell pepper from Central Market = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 86 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 80 nanosieverts per hour