The last-minute push to keep Diablo Canyon Power Plant running past 2025 just got its biggest shot in the arm yet. Draft state legislation introduced this month would loan PG&E up to $1.4 billion to help it relicense the nuclear plant for another five to 10 years of operation.
Gov. Gavin Newsom—who in recent months has signaled his interest in reversing course on Diablo’s planned closure—unveiled the legislation on Aug. 11 in the waning weeks of the state’s legislative session.
The proposed law cites the impacts of climate change on the state and the slower than expected rollout of renewable energy supplies as reasons for keeping California’s last nuclear plant around longer.
“The impacts of climate change are occurring sooner and with greater intensity and frequency than anticipated, causing unprecedented stress on California’s energy system,” the draft legislation reads. “Continued operations of the Diablo Canyon for an additional five to 10 years beyond 2024-25 is therefore critical to ensure statewide energy system reliability and to minimize the emissions of greenhouse gasses while additional renewable energy resources come online.”
State lawmakers will need to quickly deliberate on the bill, which has to be passed this month and signed by Newsom in September.
On Aug. 12, the California Energy Commission hosted a public workshop about the new legislation, with presentations from Newsom’s office and the California Independent System Operator.
The meeting also featured hours of public comment, as well as statements from a variety of local elected officials, including state Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz).
In his comments, Laird listed numerous concerns about the legislation and the possible extension of Diablo Canyon’s life, but said he “stands ready” to have the conversation.
“I don’t think we yet have all the answers as to whether Diablo Canyon’s continued operation is the key to energy reliability in California,” Laird said. “But we do know what the challenges are that would have to be met if there is to be an extension of Diablo Canyon’s life.”
Those challenges include plant safety, relicensing costs, spent nuclear fuel storage, seismic safety issues, environmental impacts, permitting, Diablo Canyon lands, and the continued development of offshore wind farms.
“I don’t see a pathway to Diablo Canyon’s continued operation unless each of these elements is addressed,” Laird said.
State Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham (R-SLO), a longtime advocate for keeping Diablo Canyon open past 2025, acknowledged Laird’s points of concern, but also echoed the problems that underpin Newsom’s legislation.
“One thing that has changed in the years since the decision was made in 2016 to decommission the plant in 2025 is that we simply are not where we thought we’d be with renewable energy production, and coupling that with storage,” Cunningham said. “It’s put the state grid in a rather precarious position.”
Among the opponents to the legislation is a coalition of environmental groups that includes the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club California, California Coastal Protection Network, Environment California, Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Earth, and the California Coastkeeper Alliance.
In an Aug. 12 letter to state lawmakers, the coalition takes issue with the way the bill allows PG&E to bypass environment review for the plant, how it hamstrings other state agencies that provide oversight of it, and how the $1.4 billion loan from the state could become forgivable.
“This trailer bill is a dangerous and costly distraction to achieving our shared goals,” the coalition’s letter read. Δ
This article appears in Aug 18-28, 2022.
Newsom is way off base here. Yes we’re going to need copious amounts of electricity as we change over to electric vehicles but this reactor is old school and out of financial reasons to exist. While PV and wind are certainly awesome, in fact cheaply supporting our needs at extremely high levels already, here’s the best option for Diablo – modular molten salt thorium reactors to replace the current plant. Why? Let’s start with safety there will be no core breach because all thats required is dropping the molten salt out the core bottom if anything goes fritzy. Second no ocean cooling required, water doesn’t cool the core. Third thorium is way cheaper than U235. Fourth these reactors can use up the old expensively on site stored fuel rods extracting 100s of times the energy of the first use and thus reducing half life from 20000 to 300 years. Fifth no weapons grade material is produced. Sixth we might be able to reuse the existing generators. And finally for now, these can be built in modules anywhere and floated or trucked in, because they operate at high temps and low pressure massive amounts of concrete containment isn’t required. The Chinese are about to fire up their first one and what we doing? Squabbling over old tech. Or making dumb decisions like Newsom is doing. We can keep our nuclear workforce as a cherry on top!!
Wow Ted, great information! Too bad you are not part of the decision making team!
Diablo Canyon produces nearly 10% of the states power. If it shuts down that power will need to be replaced by fossil fuel powered generators, adding an immense amount of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. We are told that climate change is an existenrial threat to civilization and that we must act immediately to save the planet, yet we have many in the environmental movement demanding that we add all these greenhouse gases to the environment because nuclear power is such a threat. Isn’t continuing a dangerous technology for a while longer as we develop renewalables a more pragmatic course than the certain disaster of climate change?