Aspen Environmental Group, Agoura Hills, Calif., on Tuesday got a one-year contract extension, worth a little under half a million dollars, to continue work on an environmental impact report about decommissioning the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in southern California.
Though owner Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is trying to keep Diablo Canyon online in Avila Beach, Calif., after the state and federal government bailed the plant out last year, the utility is proceeding with some decommissioning plans, just in case.
To that end, all five members of the San Luis Obispo county board of supervisors on Tuesday approved the contract extension unanimously during a meeting webcast from the county seat. Aspen Environmental, a company with 80 employees, according to its LinkedIn page, got the contract in 2021. PG&E funds the pact, County Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Aspen says it needs the extra money to cover changes PG&E requested to the environmental impact report (EIR), officially called the PG&E Diablo Canyon Power Plant Decommissioning and Future Reuse Project, after the utility reviewed an internal draft the company provided in September. Aspen also said that there could be even more changes required after the EIR is released in draft form on July 28 and the public is allowed to comment over 60 days.
“Completion of the Draft EIR has been delayed by Applicant [PG&E] changes to the project and by unanticipated delays in coordinating with responsible agencies,” Aspen wrote in a proposed contract modification and supporting documentation posted online. “The extension date includes some contingency time to cover additional unexpected delays.”
Aspen’s $407,378 modification includes $193,366 in contingency funding to cover other unexpected work that crops up during the next 12 months. The contract now runs through July 13, 2024 and has a total value of just under $2.5 million. The deal was last amended on April 19, 2022.
“The reason for the change order is that we had originally anticipated that their participation in planning commission activities and public meetings for the draft and final EIR would be covered by contingency,” Susan Strachan, power plant decommissioning manager for San Luis Obsipo County, said at Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting. “We also anticipated that the production of the draft EIR and the final EIR would be covered from contingency. However, the contingency has now been expended so we need to replenish those funds.”
If PG&E is not able to extend the plant’s operating license with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the company will have to decommission the facility.
In 2022, the federal government and California provided roughly a combined $2 billion to keep Diablo Canyon online rather than close its two reactors down in 2024 and 2025 as previously required under state law.
With less time left on Diablo canyon’s operating license than it will take for the NRC to vet an application to extend those licenses, the commission has agreed to let PG&E keep the reactors running beyond their license expiration dates, provided the utility submits a license renewal application to the commission by Dec. 31.
Diablo Canyon Unit 1’s license will expire on Nov. 2, 2024. Unit 2’s license will expire Aug. 26, 2025. Environmental groups are contesting PG&E’s plans to keep the reactors online both at the NRC and in federal and state court.
