The utility company in charge of California’s last operating nuclear power plant this week suggested some flexibility on its plans to close and decommission the facility as scheduled, according to a company spokesperson.
“Given the recent amendment to the Dept. of Energy’s Civil Nuclear Credit program guidance, as well as the Governor’s request that we take steps of preserve Diablo Canyon as an option to support grid reliability, we expect to apply for CNC funding as it would reduce costs for our customers should there be a change in state policy extending operations at the plant,” a spokesperson for Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) told RadWaste Monitor via email Monday.
Actually extending the plant’s life, however, would require legislation from Sacramento as well as approvals from federal and state regulators, PG&E said.
“While federal funding would lower the cost of continued operations for the company and customers, current state policy is to retire Diablo Canyon at the end of its current licenses” in 2024 and 2025, the spokesperson said.
Amid pressure from PG&E and Sacramento, DOE June 30 decided to alter eligibility guidelines for the credit program’s first of five $1.2 billion funding cycles, doing away with a restriction prohibiting nuclear plants, such as Diablo Canyon, that use a ratemaking scheme known as cost-of-service regulation, from receiving a bailout. The agency also moved the deadline for submissions to Sep. 6 from July 5.
The utility’s possible change of heart on Diablo Canyon comes after PG&E vice president Maureen Zawalick in June downplayed reports that a nuclear credits application could be coming, saying at Exchange Monitor’s Decommissioning Strategy Forum that the utility hadn’t “changed any of our planning” and that it was “full steam ahead on decommissioning.”
Meanwhile, an amendment to a sweeping energy bill still working its way through the California state house would establish a state-stewarded fund of around $75 million that could be used to extend the life of power plants set to close, potentially helping the Golden State to prop up Diablo Canyon. As of Monday, the measure, part of an effort to streamline the Golden State’s transition to clean energy, had yet to land on Gov. Newsom’s desk.
