Dozens of stakeholders, headed by a former secretary of energy, pressed the governor of California in a letter last week to prevent the state’s last operating nuclear power plant from shutting down.
“With the accelerating threat that climate change poses to life on Earth, we write today to urge that the state reverse the decision to prematurely shut down the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, California’s single largest source of carbon free electricity,” said Obama-era energy secretary Steven Chu and a coalition of over 70 scientists, academics and entrepreneurs in a Feb. 1 letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).
The Golden State’s clean energy agenda is “incompatible” with utility Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) plans to shutter Diablo Canyon’s two reactors in 2024 and 2025, the letter said. “At the very minimum, it’s imperative that plans to close the plant be delayed.”
The San Luis Obispo County, Calif., nuclear plant saves the planet about 7.2 million metric tons of carbon emissions, the stakeholders argued. If the plant goes offline, California would need to increase its renewable energy production by 20% to meet that metric, the letter said.
The letter also cited a November report from Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which found that keeping Diablo Canyon running through 2045 or later could save the state of California around $21 million in power system costs.
“We are in a rush to decarbonize and hopefully save our planet from the worsening effects of climate change,” the letter said. “We categorically believe that shutting down Diablo Canyon in 2025 is at odds with this goal.”
The push to keep Diablo Canyon open has been gaining momentum in recent weeks. Community members and stakeholders hosted a pro-nuclear rally in San Luis Obispo, Calif., Dec. 4 to protest the plant’s planned closure. Diablo Canyon also got a shout-out from the musician known professionally as Grimes, who said that allowing the plant to shut down would make California “reliant on fossil fuels.”
Meanwhile, PG&E has not signaled whether it would reconsider shutting down Diablo Canyon. The utility has said more information about the plant’s decommissioning process should be coming soon — including information about whether PG&E will spearhead dismantling the plant or contract out to a third party.
