LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dozens of environmental and anti-nuclear organizations on Tuesday expressed opposition to any attempt to extend the life of California’s last working nuclear power plant, challenging suggestions that the electricity is needed to cover possible future shortages in the most populous state in the country.
Last month, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom raised the possibility that the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant — which sits on a coastal bluff halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles — could go beyond a planned 2025 shutdown. His office said the governor in favor of “keeping all options on the table to ensure a reliable (electricity) grid.”
In a letter to Newsom, groups including San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, the Oregon Conservancy Foundation, the Snake River Alliance and the Ohio Nuclear Free Network said the plant is old, unsafe and too close to earthquake faults that threaten the double reactors.
“Your suggestion to extend the operational life of the nuclear facility at Diablo Canyon is an outrage,” they wrote. “Diablo Canyon is dangerous, dirty and expensive. It should retire as planned.”
The Democratic governor has no direct control over the plant’s operating license. He put forward the idea that owner Pacific Gas & Electric could get a $6 billion share of federal funding that the Biden administration has set up to rescue nuclear plants at risk of shutting down.
PG&E, which decided in 2016 to close the plant by 2025, did not respond directly to Newsom’s suggestion at the time and did not say whether the company would consider asking federal dollars to remain open after the planned shutdown.
PG&E announced the shutdown plan in 2016 as part of a deal with environmentalists and union workers, citing an “acknowledgment that California’s new energy policies will significantly reduce Diablo Canyon’s need for electricity production.” But Newsom’s suggestion highlights that thinking has shifted as the state seeks reliable energy sources in a changing global climate as California gradually transitions to solar, wind and other renewable energy sources.
Recently, state officials warned that prolonged drought, extreme heat and wildfires — coupled with supply chain and regulatory issues hampering the solar industry — will create challenges to energy reliability this summer and years to come.
Environmental groups argued that continuing to operate the plant after the planned shutdown would generate hundreds of tons of highly radioactive waste, with no permanent repository for it. And they said the state, it says, is lining up enough wind, solar and other renewables to replace Diablo’s electricity.
They also questioned whether federal funds would be enough to unravel the complex deal to close Diablo Canyon, which is regulated by state and federal agencies.
The issues at play at Diablo Canyon range from a long-running debate over the ability of structures to withstand earthquakes – one fault runs 594 meters from the reactors – to the possibility that PG&E will be ordered by state regulators to spend potentially billions of dollars to upgrade the cooling system. of the factory, which sucks up ocean water and is blamed for killing fish and other marine life.
Newsom continues to support “long-term” plant closures as the state transitions to renewable energy.
There are 55 commercial nuclear power plants with 93 nuclear reactors in 28 US states. Nuclear power provides about 20% of the electricity in the US, or about half of the country’s carbon-free energy.
