Washington (Platts)--23Oct2008

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a 3-1 vote on Thursday declared
that agency staff adequately addressed the potential environmental impacts of
a terrorist attack on the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant's dry-cask spent fuel
storage facility.

In its decision, the commission rejected arguments by San Luis Obispo
Mothers for Peace, which claimed the staff's August 2007 analysis failed to
consider potential land contamination and latent health effects that could
follow a successful terrorist attack on the spent fuel facility.

A finding in favor of the group's position would have required the agency
to conduct a detailed environmental impact statement on plant owner Pacific
Gas & Electric license for the facility.

Commissioner Gregory Jaczko, who cast the sole dissenting vote, argued
that staff failed to show it had addressed land contamination and latent
health effects and warned that the agency is "standing on a very weak
foundation to reject this contention."

Mothers for Peace has conducted a long-running challenge to the
commission's March 2004 decision to license a dry cask spent fuel storage
facility at the Diablo Canyon plant. The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in
June 2006 ruled that NRC improperly failed to consider the impacts from a
terrorist attack in the environmental review it conducted in support of the
licensing decision.

In response to the court ruling, NRC staff conducted a supplemental
environmental review that focused specifically on potential terrorist attacks.
That review, which was completed in August 2007, concluded that even if an
attack succeeded, it would result in radiation doses to nearby residents below
what the NRC considers acceptable.

Mothers for Peace told the commission in July that staff provided no
evidence it had considered a worst-case scenario that would involve an attack
that breached security and penetrated the robust storage casks, igniting the
spent fuel inside and releasing cesium into the atmosphere.