The chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission paid a visit to the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in Avila Beach, Calif., last week, local media reported.
Chair Christopher Hanson toured the facility, located about 200 miles northwest of Los Angeles, while commission staff are working with plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric to keep the plant up and running while its two reactors clear regulatory hurdles to a new lease on life.
Hanson said Diablo Canyon’s coastal Pacific environs were among the most beautiful conceivable for a nuclear power plant, local NBC affiliate KSBY reported Thursday.
In February, the NRC decided it would let Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) keep Diablo Canyon’s reactors running beyond the expiration date of their current federal operating license, provided PG&E submits an application to renew the licenses by Dec. 31.
In 2022, PG&E moved to keep Diablo Canyon open until at least 2030 after the utility secured billions of dollars in federal and state cash. The bailouts were driven by the Joe Biden (D) administration’s policies to cut U.S. carbon emissions and the partial repeal of a 2018 California law that effectively banned nuclear power.
Before California’s ban, PG&E had an application in with NRC that could have renewed Diablo Canyon’s operating licenses well before they expire, on Nov. 2, 2024 and Aug. 26, 2025. The company yanked that application in 2019, when it looked like there was no reason to deal with the red tape. Now, NRC is making them go through the process again.
At this point, it would take NRC longer to review a Diablo Canyon renewal application than the reactors have left on their licenses, the commission has said.
On Friday, NRC published a previously unreleased memo in which commission staff explained their legal reasoning for giving PG&E grace to keep the reactors on. Essentially, staff agreed with PG&E that there were extraordinary circumstances afoot and that the public would benefit from the plants staying on.
