On Monday, a U. S. Senate committee announced hearings after The Associated Press revealed that Diablo Canyon plant is under constant compulsion by a senior federal expert to terminate the operations of its nuclear reactors.

U. S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, mentions that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which is the owner of Canyon Pacific Gas and Electric Co., and oversees the nation's commercial nuclear power industry, is failing to do its job to protect public safety.

A year ago, Michael Peck, Diablo Canyon's lead on-site inspector for five years, presented a 42-page, confidential report revealing that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is not applying safety rules that were set out for the plant's operation.

His analysis concluded that no one knows whether the facility's key equipment can withstand strong shaking from those faults - the potential for which was realized decades after the facility was built.

Experts want to take an immediate action to check on whether plants' reactors can withstand powerful shaking from nearby earthquake faults. However, the NRC says that the nearly three-decade-old reactors, which produce enough electricity for more than 3 million people annually, are safe and that the facility complies with its operating license, including earthquake safety standards.

The disaster preparedness of the world's nuclear plants came into focus in 2011, when the coastal Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in Japan suffered multiple meltdowns after an earthquake and tsunami destroyed its power and cooling systems. The magnitude-9 earthquake was far larger than had been believed possible. The NRC has since directed U. S. nuclear plants to re-evaluate seismic risks, and those studies are due by March.

Also, a magnitude 6.0-earthquake that struck Northern California's wine country, injuring scores of residents, knocking out power has brought the safety concerns into spotlight.