"Lawsuit: Quake Standards Altered at California Nuclear Plant"

"Federal regulators secretly and illegally revised the license for California’s last nuclear power facility — PG&E’s Diablo Canyon — to mask the aging plant’s vulnerability to earthquakes, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by environmentalists.

The suit claims that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. last year changed a key element of the plant’s license related to seismic safety without allowing public input as required by law — or even notifying the public at all. The changes concern the strength of earthquakes that the plant, perched on a stretch of the Central California coast riddled with fault lines, can withstand.

'This is a case where an agency is not following its own rules,' said Damon Moglen, senior strategic adviser with Friends of the Earth. 'Our long-standing sense has been that this agency has far too cozy a relationship with the industry it regulates.'"

David R. Baker reports for the San Francisco Chronicle October 29, 2014.

SEE ALSO:

"Group Asks US Court of Appeals To Intervene on Diablo Canyon Seismic Safety Issue" (KCBX-FM)

"Secret Collusion Between USA Nuclear Regulator And Nuclear Energy Company To Cover Up Earthquake Risk?" (Nuclear News)

"Activists Push for Public Review of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant" (KQED)