Environment

Coastal Commission Considers Seismic Studies Near Nuclear Plant

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published November 13, 2012 at 3:00 AM PST

This story was published more than 12 years ago.

Coastal Commission Considers Seismic Studies Near Nuclear Plant

California Coastal Commission staff will recommend denial of a permit to study earthquake faults off the coast near California’s nuclear power plants.

The California Coastal Commission meets in Santa Monica on Wednesday to consider whether to issue permits for seismic studies off California's coastline.

The studies are to find out more about the risk that earthquake faults deep beneath the ocean floor could threaten Diablo Canyon and San Onofre.

The companies that operate the two nuclear power plants, PG & E and Southern California Edison, want the multi-million dollar studies done soon. Their license renewals depend on it.

Become a KPBS sponsor

But Rochelle Becker of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility said objections have surfaced that may mean the initial research into fault lines near Diablo Canyon has to be postponed.

"The marine experts, who came in rather late on their concerns for the seismic studies, hadn’t been there at the beginning to say, ‘before you do the scope, you need to consider a myriad of impacts that will happen to marine life.’”

Commission staff write that powerful acoustic pulses from air guns used to identify faults deep beneath the sea bed would harm marine life, specifically Morro Bay dolphins.

Proposed studies off the coast near San Onofre north of San Diego face similar issues.

Tags

Environment Energy

Alison St John

twitter

Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.