Location of Humboldt Bay Power Plant

Resources

RESOURCES

MASTER’S THESIS

"Climate Change, Policy Paralysis, and A Nuclear Waste Island? Exploring Perceptions of Risk, Trust, and Community Agency in Navigating Uncertain Futures Facing Humboldt Bay's Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Site" (MS #1885). Read the thesis online. Watch a recording of Alec’s thesis presentation.

SURVEY

We issued two surveys (one in Summer 2024 and one in January 2025) seeking perspectives on future storage locations for the spent nuclear fuel currently stored on Humboldt Bay.

We will share results in early summer 2025.

POLICY BRIEF

Alec Brown, Jen Marlow, and Julie Sorfleet (2024). “Crafting Effective Oversight for the Long-Term Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel on Sites at Risk of Climate and Coastal Hazards.” Frontiers in Climate: Climate Law and Policy, Vol. 6.

DOCUMENT REPOSITORY

  1. View the Document Repository—a collection of relevant documents collated in one place and hosted by the Cal Poly Humboldt Digital Commons.

PROJECT REPORTS

  1. A Primer on Scenario Planning, by Alec Brown

    This primer discusses the applicability of scenario planning as a means of embracing uncertainty and identifying multiple plausible scenarios to guide robust future planning.

  2. Site Characteristics: Vulnerabilities, Opportunities, and Strategies for Managing Risk from Sea-Level Rise to Humboldt Bay’s Spent Nuclear Fuel Site, by Jen Marlow, Mike Pero, and Alec Brown

    The Site Characteristics report distills thousands of pages of technical and safety documents into discrete analysis of the potential coastal and climate risks to the Humboldt Bay spent nuclear fuel site. This report describes in detail the Humboldt Bay Independent Spent Nuclear Fuel Installation, provides a thorough site and waste characterization, examines sea level rise and coastal hazard risks to the site, and issues recommendations for mitigating risk.

  3. 44 Feet: Focus Group Workshops Report, by Alec Brown, Jen Marlow, and Tom Marlow

    This 73-page report makes six recommendations for responsible long-term management of spent nuclear fuel on Humboldt Bay in a climate-changed era: 1) Form collaborative partnerships; 2) fund joint fact finding; 3) review existing standards and practices; 4) update industry and government standards; 5) explore (beyond-design-basis) nightmare accident scenarios, and 6) enhance public engagement. Recommendations are derived from four future scenarios envisioned by tribal, citizen, industry, government, NGO, and academic participants in Focus Group workshops hosted at Humboldt in the summer of 2022.

    The report can inform future governance, policy, and planning decisions around the safe storage of spent nuclear fuel in an era of climate change and increased coastal hazards. The report also recommends an adaptive pathways approach to inform step-wise future planning in light of critical uncertainties.

COMMENT LETTERS

  1. 2021 Nuclear Decommissioning Cost Triennial Proceeding Comment Letter (Feb. 16, 2023)

    Read our comment letter responding to PG&E’s proposal to perform an updated tsunami hazard and sea level rise assessment for the Humboldt Bay Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (HB ISFSI), submitted as part of a 2021 NDCTP settlement agreement.

  2. Comment Re: Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Multipurpose Marine Terminal Project
    (August 25, 2023).

    Read our comment letter to the Humboldt Bay Harbor and Conservation District requesting an impacts review of the proposed changes to the navigation channel entrance on the structural integrity of the rip rap wall protecting Buhne Point from bluff erosion.

COLLABORATIVE IMPACT

1. 2021 Nuclear Decommissioning Cost Triennial Proceeding Comment Letter (Feb. 16, 2023)

Read our comment letter responding to PG&E’s proposal to perform an updated tsunami hazard and sea level rise assessment for the Humboldt Bay Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (HB ISFSI), submitted as part of a 2021 NDCTP settlement agreement.

2. HUMBOLDT COUNTY EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS: READY OR NOT? (June 16, 2023)

A 2023 Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury 2022–2023 report issued recommendations to improve Humboldt County’s Disaster Preparedness, recommending that: “The Humboldt County Sheriff direct the Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services to include a completely updated Humboldt County Emergency Operations Plan that includes an annex or contingency plan, addressing any Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation-related emergencies by no later than December 31, 2024 (F10)” (emphasis added) (p. 12). F10: “Humboldt County officials take Pacific Gas & Electric’s assertions regarding the safety of the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation at face value. There is no Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation component or business plan included in the County’s 2015 Emergency Operations Plan. This omission may lead to a delay in emergency responses and hazard mitigation” (p. 11).

3. 2021 Nuclear Decommissioning Cost Triennial Proceeding Final Decision (September 21, 2023)

The California Public Utilities Commission’s Final Decision includes a provision noting that PG&E will perform an updated tsunami hazard assessment for the Humboldt Bay spent nuclear fuel site that incorporates “the most current information about sea level rise and tsunamigenic earthquakes benchmarked against the similar analysis performed for the SONGS ISFSI.” We will share the report here once it becomes available.

PRESENTATIONS

PRESS

  • J.A. Savage, “44 Feet,” North Coast Journal, Sept. 15, 2022. 

Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the Humboldt Bay Area
See full map here

The location of the future HB ISFSI on Buhne Point (Jurouk Higuchguk) in the early 2000s, as indicated by the gray arrow.  (U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission n.d., p. 9.)

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