A group of environmentalists trying to block a life extension for the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant were scheduled to have their day in court Wednesday.
Oral arguments in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, Calif., were set for 9:00 a.m. Pacific time, or 12:00 p.m. Eastern time. The proceedings were to stream online at the court’s website. The public may also attend in person in courtroom three in Pasadena.
Filed in April, the lawsuit is one of the last remaining federal court challenges about the plant that San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace and others have brought against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The groups filed another suit in November.
The groups say that NRC broke the law by allowing Pacific Gas & Electric, Diablo Canyon’s operator, to keep the plant open even if the commission is still vetting the utility’s application for a license extension after the current plant licenses run out.
Diablo Canyon Unit 1’s operating license expires on Nov. 2, 2024. Unit 2’s expires on Aug. 26 2025. PG&E filed for a license extension on Nov. 7. The NRC officially accepted the application Dec. 19.
PG&E has filed briefs in the suit on the NRC’s side, as has the state of California, which in legislation passed in 2022 ordered the plant to remain open for another five years, until 2030.
Mothers for Peace and its co-plaintiffs filed suit in April, about a month after the NRC announced it would let Diablo Canyon stay open while commission staff performed what could be a two-year review of PG&E’s license extension application.
California and the federal government in 2022 combined to give PG&E a roughly $2-billion bailout to keep Diablo Canyon open. The federal money came from the Civilian Nuclear Credits Program created by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. the first of two major economic stimulus programs engineered by the administration of President Joe Biden (D).
