A coalition of anti-nuclear groups this week asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to refuse a proposed 20-year license extension for California’s last operating nuclear power plant, saying it would violate federal law, an agency filing shows.
Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) November request with NRC for a license extension for Diablo Canyon Power Plant is “unlawful” under the Atomic Energy Act and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the anti-nukers said in a petition.
The California-based environmental group San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace leads the coalition.
PG&E is seeking a license extension for the Avila Beach, Calif., Diablo Canyon plant, which was originally set to shutter by 2025. The utility wants the NRC to pick up where it left off on a license renewal request filed in 2009 but withdrawn in 2018. PG&E hopes that will allow NRC to complete the license renewal before the plant’s current license expires.
The antinukers took issue with PG&E’s plan, arguing that the company’s “abandonment” of its 2009 license renewal request “was legally binding and momentous in its practical consequences” because the utility stopped investing in operating Diablo Canyon past 2025.
“The NRC has no lawful means to reverse the binding termination of the Diablo Canyon license renewal review, or to magically erase the fundamental practical and prejudicial changes it wrought,” the petition said.
The anti-nuclear groups also railed against PG&E’s backup plan for renewing Diablo Canyon’s license: a regulatory exemption that would allow the existing license to remain in effect while an extension is under review.
Such an action would violate the Atomic Energy Act’s 40-year limit on license terms, the petitioners argued, and would “short-circuit” NEPA requirements by allowing Diablo Canyon’s license to be extended without an environmental review.
The anti-nukers asked NRC to require PG&E to submit a brand-new license extension request. If the agency is unable to complete its review before Diablo Canyon’s 2025 closure date, NRC must require “the closure of the reactors” until the process is finished.
As of Friday afternoon, NRC had yet to respond to the petition.
“This request is aligned with new California energy policies that seek to preserve operations at DCPP in San Luis Obispo County beyond its current licensed operation period to improve statewide energy system reliability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions while additional renewable energy and carbon-free resources come online,” a spokesperson for PG&E told RadWaste Monitor via email Thursday. “We will help deliver on California’s decarbonization goals while continuing to run one of the top performing plants in the country.”
PG&E aims to keep Diablo Canyon running with over $2 billion in funding from both Sacramento and the federal government.
The Department of Energy in November awarded the facility roughly $1.1 billion as part of the agency’s civil nuclear credits program, and a package of climate legislation signed into law in August by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) opened up an additional $1.4 billion in state loans for the plant.
