For local advocacy group, Mothers for Peace, who've been fighting to close Diablo for decades, the decision caught them by surprise.

Why don't we look at this?

Oh, yes.

This is some of our scrapbooks.

-Yes.

-So cute.

Amazing.

It was 1969 when I got initiated into that world of activism.

Our focus was the anti-Vietnam war.

We were also environmentalists, so we were witnessing the huge oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, which is very close to us.

Meanwhile, we were learning more about radioactive fallout because weapons testing was happening at the Nevada test site, and we were aware of the health effects that this radioactive fallout was causing there.

This meager knowledge that we had about radioactive fallout is what led us to opposing nuclear power.

Our two strongest legal arguments were that we didn't have a workable emergency plan.

The even bigger one was the seismic risk.

In 1969, oil geologists had discovered what they named the Hosgri Earthquake Fault, which is 3.5 miles from the Diablo Canyon site.

PG&E seemed to not know about this for some reason.

I guess they didn't read the oil industry's journals or something, but it was published.

Later when PG&E was backed into a corner, they had to admit, "Oh, look at that.

There is a fault there."

Further studies showed that it is an active fault.

Now that word does not come from Mothers for Peace.

That's from the United States Geological Survey.

In fact, to this very day, our biggest objection to relicensing the Diablo plant is seismic.

Let's look at this one from '84.

Oh yes, that was a very significant year.

Because they were just about to switch the plant on, and you try the legal methods.

That's what Mothers for Peace was doing and still is doing.

Exactly.

The Abalone Alliance took a different route, including leafleting, vigils, walks, civil disobedience, all nonviolent.

You participated in that civil disobedience.

I did.

In '84, the Abalone Alliance called for vigils, protests, an encampment, all sorts of stuff.

A lot of us want to do an action at the gates of Diablo as families and how we can most effectively say to the NRC that we as people who live here in this community don't want Diablo to open because we really believe that it's very unsafe for us.

I'm sure all of you have seen the poster that says, "What you do in case of a nuclear accident.

Kiss your children goodbye."

Excuse me while I cry a moment.

[chuckles] I don't like the thought of kissing my children goodbye.

When the plant finally did open in '84, we were very distressed.

I wouldn't say we felt defeated, but we felt scared.

We had to figure out different strategies.

We had failed at preventing it from opening, so we had to start figuring out ways to get it to shut down.

Basically, that's what we've been doing ever since.