Diablo Canyon Power Plant

June 25, 2024

California set to loan $400 million to controversial nuclear power plant

By Benjamin Purper

California will loan $400 million to utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to keep the state’s last nuclear power plant running, according to the final budget deal between the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The agreement authorizes a $400 million loan from the state’s general fund to help PG&E continue operating the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant near San Luis Obispo, California, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

Diablo Canyon, which accounts for about 9% of the state’s total electricity supply, became California’s last operating nuclear power plant after the closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in 2013. The plant has been controversial from the beginning, as some environmentalist and anti-nuclear organizations fear the plant could suffer a catastrophic failure and endanger nearby communities.

PG&E maintains that the plant is safe, citing the lack of any major accidents in its nearly 40-year history.

The loan was a point of contention in this year’s budget process. Gov. Newsom originally included it in his budget proposal to the legislature, which then cut it from their own counterproposal in June.

Legislators including Budget Committee Chair Scott Weiner raised concerns that the agreements with PG&E “do not provide the state with sufficient access to information to ensure fiscal accountability.” Weiner and other lawmakers worried that the state could never receive reimbursement for the loan, leaving taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars.

The new loan adds to the $1.4 billion the state authorized to PG&E in 2022 to keep the plant running until 2030. The utility had planned to fully decommission the plant by next year, but the state intervened, citing projected energy shortages.

PG&E did not respond to request for comment on the new loan.

April 30, 2024

Controversial California power plant set to stay online after court decision

By Shannon Kelleher

A federal court on Monday cleared the way for California’s last nuclear power plant to keep operating for five years after its licenses expire, rejecting arguments from environmental advocates that the facility poses ongoing risks that could prove catastrophic, including the potential for a “nuclear meltdown”.

The move by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) decision to exempt Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant from a rule that would require its two reactors to shut down in 2024 and 2025. The court rejected the environmental groups’ claims that the NRC did not properly account for safety and environmental concerns.

“We filed our lawsuit because NRC was playing fast and loose with decisions that could quite literally lead to a nuclear meltdown,” Hallie Templeton, legal director for the nonprofit Friends of the Earth, said in a statement. “We will keep fighting to ensure that all involved officials properly and thoroughly apply pertinent laws to Diablo’s attempted extension.”

The NRC’s decision to grant an exemption for Diablo Canyon, which has been operational since 1985, was not “arbitrary, capricious, or contrary to law,” US Circuit Judge Consuelo Callahan wrote in his opinion. “NRC adequately explained why California’s changing energy needs constituted a special circumstance, and why the record supported its findings of no undue risk to the public health and safety.”

The court decision comes on the heels of a lawsuit Friends of the Earth filed earlier this month against the US Department of Energy (DOE) over a more than $1 billion award the agency is granting PG&E to help keep Diablo Canyon up and running. The group alleges that the DOE’s assessment of Diablo Canyon’s environmental impact relies on an outdated analysis that fails to incorporate a range of safety risks posed by the plant, including an outdated cooling mechanism, dangerous wear and tear, potentially catastrophic risks from earthquakes, and increased flooding risks due to climate change.

Critics of the plant also say it will be costly for Californians. A 2023 analysis by the Environmental Working Group suggested Diablo Canyon could cost the public nearly $45 billion if it stays open through 2045.

January 12, 2024

Environmental groups ask court to reverse nuclear plant exemption

By Shannon Kelleher

Regulators violated federal law in granting an exemption to keep California’s last nuclear power plant operating past 2025, when the 40-year-old plant was originally set to shutter operations, environmental groups argued in a court hearing this week.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) could only legally grant Pacific Gas & Electric Power Co. (PG&E), the plant’s operator, an exemption from a license renewal rule in the Atomic Energy Act if the agency expressed confidence that there was time to conduct environmental and safety reviews and to hold a public hearing before the reactors’ licenses expired, Diane Curran, counsel to the local nonprofit San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, told a three-judge panel hearing the case in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“If they don’t make that finding, they’re putting public health and safety at risk without justification,” Curran told the court. “The safety guardrails that the Atomic Energy Act puts on nuclear reactors can’t be just thrown out the window, which has happened here. The NRC has never abandoned its original finding that to operate a reactor past 40 years raises new and significant safety concerns that need to be addressed in the license renewal process.”

San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Friends of the Earth (FOE) and the Environmental Working Group (EWG) filed a lawsuit against the NRC in June, alleging that the agency violated the Atomic Energy Act when it issued the exemption. The groups have raised concerns about safety issues at the Diablo Canyon power plant, including deteriorating equipment and earthquake risk.

August 24, 2023

California court dismisses lawsuit over nuclear power plant

By Shannon Kelleher

A California state judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by an environmental group seeking to force Pacific Gas & Electric Power Co. (PG&E) to adhere to a 2016 pledge to fully retire the state’s last nuclear power plant by 2025.

Instead of preparing to shutter its operation, PG&E is seeking approval to keep the Diablo Canyon plant open through 2045. The plant, which has come under fire for environmental and safety concerns, rests on the coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The San Francisco County Superior Court decision, issued August 23, sided with PG&E’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit on procedural grounds. The decision followed a court hearing on Monday.

“It didn’t come as a huge surprise, but we’re still very disappointed in the outcome,” said Hallie Templeton, legal director of Friends of the Earth (FOE), which filed the lawsuit in April alleging that PG&E is violating the agreement it signed with the group in 2016. “It was very clear to us after the hearing that the judge didn’t want to touch this case with a ten-foot pole.”

The court decided to dismiss the case after taking the position that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) continues to have jurisdiction over matters related to the contract between FOE and PG&E.

“The issues presented by FOE’s claim are policy matters that fall squarely within the CPUC’s authority,” wrote Judge Ethan Schulman in the decision.

August 18, 2023

Critical hearing looms in battle over California’s last nuclear power plant

By Shannon Kelleher

Opponents of a nuclear power plant in California face a key court hearing next week, a potential turning point in a long-running battle over the fate of the state’s last nuclear power plant.

The environmental group Friends of the Earth (FOE) is set to square off against Pacific Gas & Electric Power Co. (PG&E) in an effort to keep alive the group’s legal challenge to PG&E’s continued operation of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, which is located on the coast roughly halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

FOE filed suit in April in San Francisco County Superior Court alleging that PG&E is violating an agreement it signed with the group in 2016 pledging to fully retire the plant by 2025. Now, with the support of state and federal officials, the utility is seeking approval from regulators to keep the plant running until 2045.

PG&E is asking the court to stay or dismiss the FOE lawsuit. Both sides will air their arguments on the issue Monday morning in San Francisco County Superior Court.

PG&E says the plant can “ensure the long-term availability of a valuable source of safe, clean, affordable and reliable electricity for more than three million Northern and Central Californians.”

In contrast, FOE, along with several scientists and environmental advocates, says the Diablo Canyon plant is a danger to public safety and the environment. Plant critics fear the plant’s continued operations put the state at risk of a nuclear accident, prevent the state from fully embracing a transition to clean energy, and saddle the public with an unnecessary financial burden.