Press Release-12-112, Additional NRC Analysis Confirms Earthquake Safety at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant

Press Release-12-112: Additional NRC Analysis Confirms Earthquake Safety at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant

ML12286A313
Person / Time
Site:	Diablo Canyon
Issue date:	10/12/2012
From:	Office of Public Affairs
To:
References
Press Release-12-112
Download: ML12286A313 (1)

Text

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 E-mail: opa.resource@nrc.gov Site: www.nrc.gov Blog: http://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov No.12-112 October 12, 2012 ADDITIONAL NRC ANALYSIS CONFIRMS EARTHQUAKE SAFETY AT DIABLO CANYON NUCLEAR POWER PLANT The Nuclear Regulatory Commissions latest analysis of faults near the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California continues to conclude the plants design would withstand earthquakes near the site.

The NRCs work is laid out in Research Information Letter (RIL) 12-01, Confirmatory Analysis Of Seismic Hazard At The Diablo Canyon Power Plant From The Shoreline Fault Zone. The RIL, part of the ongoing effort to better understand earthquake sources near Diablo Canyon, focuses on the latest identified source, the Shoreline fault about a kilometer offshore from the plant. The letter will be available in the NRCs electronic document database, ADAMS, by entering ML121230035 in the ADAMS search engine.

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), which operates the plant 12 miles southwest of San Luis Obispo, Calif., first notified the NRC in November 2008 about the Shoreline fault. PG&E updated that information in early 2011, and a team of NRC staff visited the site in October 2011.

Based on the available information and the site visit, the NRC team analyzed ground motion from earthquakes the Shoreline fault could potentially generate. All of those ground motions fell within Diablo Canyons existing design limits, which are based on ground motion associated with an earthquake from the larger Hosgri fault near the plant.

Diablo Canyon must still carry out additional earthquake evaluations, as well as a walkdown to identify any near-term actions for enhancing earthquake resistance. These measures are included in the NRCs recent information request to all U.S. nuclear power plants as the agency implements lessons learned from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident.

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