local power news -- 7/22/04
Pacific Gas & Electric Company Incorporated, a wholly owned regulated subsidiary of its unregulated holding company, PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is in the early stages of preparation of a steam generator replacement project at their Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Station.
In particular, PG&E is seeking to make its ratepayers pay for the $900 million investment. The effort, which is being conducted at the California Public Utilities Commission in parallel to a similar effort relative to the San Onofre nuclear generating station, would saddle electric ratepayers with the cost of replacing the power turbines at these stations, which the Bush administration has conceded to be vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Terror Issue As Fuel Rods Disappear PG&E's nuclear pitch comes as the company admits itself unable to account for radioactive fuel rods.
On July 16 the recently bailed out of bankruptcy company admitted it was investigating the whereabouts of about four pounds of nuclear waste, but the dilemma does not pose a public threat, the company said July 16. The company is looking at records of the movement of three half inch diameter, 18-inch long spent nuclear fuel from 34 years ago at the Humboldt Bay Power Plant near Eureka, Calif.
According to the plantīs records, the company may have shipped the segments off-site for reprocessing in 1969. But documents the company has reviewed recently indicate that the fuel may be in the plantīs used fuel pool, where it may have been stored with other used nuclear fuel since 1968. LNG Parallel
At once, Sempra Gas and other energy companies are aggressively seeking to rate base multi-billion dollar investments in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) infrastructure to make California's power grid dependent on foreign imported fuels for the first time. Contradicting the Governor and state agency promises of a 2010 acceleration of the state Renewable Portfolio Standard law and a growing municipal green power movement led by San Francisco, the rush to over investment in fossil and nuclear infrastructure threatens to lock Californians into massive new energy investment schemes.
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