PG&E can run nuclear plant for now, federal agency says
Pacific Gas & Electric cleared a major hurdle Thursday in its bid to operate the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant beyond 2025, with a federal agency ruling that PG&E can keep the reactors humming while the company navigates a lengthy relicensing process.
The decision by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission comes six months after California lawmakers overwhelming approved a bill aimed at keeping Diablo Canyon running until 2030 five years past its current scheduled shutdown date.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has argued the state still needs the nuclear plant its single largest electricity source to help keep the lights on as global warming drives higher demand for air conditioning, and as California increasingly relies on solar farms that stop generating electricity after sundown. Two evenings of brief rolling blackouts in August 2020 and several close calls since then have highlighted the need for climate-friendly energy sources that can be counted on 24/7.
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who previously supported Diablo Canyon's shutdown but changed her mind last year, praised the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
“This decision will allow Diablo Canyon to serve as a bridge to a clean-energy future, maintaining a reliable source of carbon-free power as we continue to invest in renewable energy,” Feinstein said in a written statement.
The California Energy Commission agrees. The agency ruled this week that keeping Diablo running through 2030 is needed to ensure electric
reliability.
“As California confronts a rapidly changing climate, extraordinary heat events and record energy demand are becoming increasingly ordinary. The state needs to keep all options on the table to protect public health and safety,” said Siva Gunda, the Energy Commission's vice chair, in a written statement. “This includes maintaining Diablo Canyon's operations.”
It's not yet a guarantee that the reactors will be allowed to keep spinning past 2025. Under last year's Diablo Canyon bill, the governor's appointees on the California Public Utilities Commission still must approve the plant's continued operation.
But it's looking likely that nuclear power will remain part of the state's energy mix, at least through the end of the decade.
The Biden administration announced in November that it would give PG&E a $1.1-billion loan
to help the utility cover the costs of federal relicensing, as well as maintenance, fuel purchases and additional on-site storage for radioactive waste.
A poll last year co-sponsored by The Times found that 39% of California voters opposed shutting down Diablo, compared with 33% who supported closure a dramatic change from earlier decades, when the public largely opposed atomic energy.
Nuclear critics continue to argue that the technology is fundamentally unsafe.
They note that Diablo Canyon sits near several seismic fault lines along the Central Coast in San Luis Obispo County. PG&E says the plant would handle an earthquake just fine, but critics worry about the possibility of a meltdown spreading deadly radiation a scenario that calls to mind previous nuclear disasters at Chernobyl in Ukraine, Three Mile Island
in Pennsylvania and Fukushima in Japan.
Nuclear waste is another concern. In the absence of a permanent storage repository for spent fuel, radioactive waste is piling up at power plants across the country, including the shuttered San Onofre facility along the coast in San Diego County.
Three anti-nuclear groups San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Friends of the Earth and the Environmental Working Group filed a petition with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last month urging the agency to deny PG&E's bid to keep Diablo Canyon running after the plant's licenses expire. The groups wrote that completing a full relicensing review, including public hearings, “is essential to assure that continued operation of the reactors will be safe for the public and the environment.”