Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant: The WikiBook/Introduction

The nuclear incident at the Fukushima Diaichi nuclear station has sparked a renewed interest in evaluation of the risks posed by nuclear power plants worldwide, among them Diablo. (Some parties insist on referring to the plant as Diablo Canyon (Nuclear) Power Plant; consistent with our neutral point of view policy, we try to steer clear of that debate as much as possible, referring to the facility as "Diablo", the "plant" and so forth). As you can read in the Diablo Canyon Power Plant chapter, it was built in close proximity to numerous earthquake fault zones, and is a source of on-going, often heated, public policy debate. According to Wikipedia, Diablo Canyon was originally designed to withstand a 6.75 magnitude earthquake, including the nearby San Andreas fault|San Andreas and Hosgri faults,February 9, 1976 Energy: A Nuclear Horror Time http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,917988,00.html July 14, 2010 but was later upgraded to withstand a 7.5 magnitude quake.David Sneed August 9, 2011 Diablo Canyon workshop to focus on earthquakes The San Luis Obispo Tribune http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2010/08/08/1244213/diablo-canyon-workshop-september.html Recent public disclosure of the existence of the Shoreline fault proximal to DC(N)PP has created renewed public interest in the current ongoing re-licensingJohn Upton April 22, 2011 PG&E Quietly Seeking Permission to Extend Diablo Canyon's License The Bay Citizen http://www.baycitizen.org/pge/story/pge-seeking-permission-extend-diablo/ application of DCPP, including calls for a suspension of the licensing process until the seismic studies are complete.San Luis Board of Supervisors, Official Minutes; Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors, Official Minutes including but not limited to pending June 2, 2011 public hearing. Although the plant has redundant seismic monitoring and a safety system designed to shut it down promptly in the event of significant ground motion, there remains considerable public concern about safety.