Nuclear power should remain on the table

California needs more juice. Our demand for electricity is rising sharply from mandated shifts away from carbon-based energy.

In 2020 Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order banning new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. Last August, the California Air Resources Board implemented it with the Advanced Clean Cars II rule. The rule said “establishes a year-by-year roadmap so that by 2035 100% of new cars and light trucks sold in California will be zero-emission vehicles, including plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.”

Add the recent bans on natural gas stoves in new homes by Berkeley, Los Angeles and other cities — meaning a move to electricpowered stoves — and the demand for electricity will rise even higher.

To survive this transition, the state needs to reconsider nuclear power. A good development came last week for the Diablo Canyon plant, scheduled to be shut down in 2024-25. On March 2 the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced it “granted an exemption to Pacific Gas & Electric Co. that would allow the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant to continue operating while the agency considers its license renewal application.”

That will buy us some time to figure out the optimal path forward. It's “wonderful,” Michael Schellenberger told us. He is the founder of Environmental Progress, which advocates for nuclear power, and was named Time Magazine's Hero of the Environment in 2008. He also ran for governor last year as an independent.

“The next step should be to restart San Onofre and add new reactors to it and Diablo,” he said. “Adding the same kinds of reactors we have experience building and operating is the key to keeping costs of new nuclear low.” The San Onofre plant in northern San Diego County was shut down in 2013 due to generator problems.

Schellenberger also advocates what are called Generation IV reactors. Existing nuclear reactors are mostly generation II and III. The Generation IV World Forum is made up of 13 countries, including the United States, coordinating the development of six promising technologies. The group has said they could be “available for industrial deployment by 2030.” With subsequent generations of nuclear technology, they become safer.

Gen IV nuclear power has been endorsed not just by Republicans, but by President Joe Biden. He dedicated $150 million to develop them in last year's Inflation Reduction Act. Because, as the Department of Energy announced, the technology is “critical to achieving America's climate goals.” Even the 2020 National Democratic Convention's platform urged, “We will advance innovative technologies,” including “advanced nuclear that eliminates waste associated with conventional nuclear technology.”

For California, Schellenberger said, what's needed now is “more education of legislators. But we are making progress. It took three years of blackouts in a row, but today, most Californians are pro-nuclear.” Also helpful, he said, would be “a new, pro-nuclear governor capable of making it happen.”

A step forward now would be to redefine nuclear power — as well as hydro — as renewable energy for meeting state non-carbon goals. Previous bills from 2020 to do so were AB 2898 by then-Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham, R-San Luis Obispo, for nuclear; and ACA 17, by thenAssemblyman Adam Gray, DMerced, for hydro. Neither passed in the Legislature. New bills like these need to be advanced to prepare for the bountiful Gen IV nuclear future.

Let's keep the lights on.