As the company in charge of California’s last operating nuclear power plant seeks federal approval to operate the facility for an extra five years, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is weighing whether to extend the plant’s license to store spent nuclear fuel on site.
NRC is considering an application from Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) that, if approved, would allow the utility to operate the independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) at Diablo Canyon Power Plant for an additional 40 years, the agency said in a Federal Register notice dated Tuesday. The existing license for the Avila Beach, Calif., plant’s on-site spent fuel facility is set to expire in March 2024.
The commission is accepting petitions for a public hearing on the proposed license extension until March 13, according to the notice.
An ISFSI extension is necessary for PG&E’s to keep Diablo Canyon running past its planned 2025 shutdown date. The utility in November applied with NRC for an operating license renewal for the facility, following a billion-dollar bailout from Sacramento.
Diablo Canyon in November also got a roughly $1.1 billion cash injection from the Department of Energy as part of the agency’s civil nuclear credits program.
In its license extension application, PG&E asked NRC to pick up where it left off on a similar request filed by the utility in 2009, withdrawn in 2018 when it was announced that Diablo Canyon would close. Such action could prevent an extension review from outlasting the facility’s existing license, PG&E reasoned.
The utility told NRC during a December teleconference that, if all goes according to plan, Diablo Canyon could have a new license by late 2025 or early 2026.
The facility is California’s last operating nuclear power plant — the Golden State’s other plants, which include San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station and Humboldt Bay Power Plant, have all been shuttered.
