A Nuclear Power Plant, a Hidden Fault Line, and a $1 Billion Problem

After PG&E spent more than $1 billion building the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant on the California coast, a major seismic fault was discovered just two miles away. The fault was capable of producing an earthquake nearly twice the force the plant had been designed to withstand.

CLIPI entered the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission proceedings on behalf of environmental groups, leading the challenge against granting an operating license. The argument was straightforward: you cannot issue a license for a nuclear power plant without first requiring an earthquake safety evaluation that accounts for a fault this significant.

The proceedings lasted ten years.

In 1986, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals narrowly rejected CLIPI's challenge by a 5-4 vote, in an opinion written by Judge Robert Bork.

We lost the case. But the decade of administrative and judicial proceedings subjected both Diablo Canyon and the nuclear power industry to a level of public scrutiny that changed the conversation in California. Public opinion turned strongly against nuclear power, and, combined with the enormous capital costs of plant construction, the proceedings effectively ended new nuclear power development in the state.

The case generated 92 boxes of litigation records, now housed at Cal State San Luis Obispo's library.

Nuclear energy is back in the national conversation today. Whatever position you take on it, the Diablo Canyon case established an important principle: when you're building a facility that carries catastrophic risk, the public has a right to demand that safety standards match the actual conditions on the ground, not just the ones in the original plans.