Radioactive Waste Expansion Opposed

County Supervisor Peg Pinard and Mothers for Peace want plans for expanded radioactive waste storage facilities at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant suspended until security is improved.

In a petition filed Monday with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Pinard and the anti-nuclear activist group claimed that security at the Avila Beach plant must be significantly upgraded to thwart Sept. 11-style terrorist attacks.

An NRC licensing panel was holding hearings this week in Shell Beach on the so-called dry-cask storage facility at Diablo Canyon.

“The new reality must be reflected in what we build and how we build it,” Pinard said.

Officials with the NRC and plant owners Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said the NRC is already revising and upgrading security at nuclear power plants nationwide.