The utility in charge of California’s last operating nuclear power plant has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to pick up where it left off on a decade-old request to extend the facility’s license, according to agency filings.
If approved, Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) Monday request would see NRC revisit the utility’s 2009 license extension application for Diablo Canyon Power Plant. PG&E pulled the initial request in 2018 after it announced plans to shutter the San Luis Obispo County, Calif., plant’s two reactors in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
The proposed license renewal comes amid efforts to keep Diablo Canyon from shutting down as originally planned. A sweeping climate bill signed in August by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) authorized up to $1.4 billion in state loans for the facility, but mandated that PG&E apply for a license extension within six months.
In its Monday letter, the utility asked NRC to consider reopening its 2009 review rather than start a brand-new license extension process, saying it was “the most prudent and efficient regulatory path to completing the NRC’s license renewal review.”
If the commission decides to make PG&E submit a fresh license renewal application, however, the utility asked the agency to grant it a regulatory exemption that would allow Diablo Canyon’s operating license to remain in effect even after its 2025 expiration date while the extension is under review.
PG&E asked NRC to make its decision “as soon as possible … to serve California’s urgent energy needs and help ensure grid reliability.”
“We are proud of the role Diablo Canyon plays in providing safe, reliable, low-cost and carbon free energy to our customers and Californians,” the utility’s chief nuclear officer Paula Gerfen said in a statement dated Monday. “This request to renew our licenses is another step to help California reliably achieve its bold decarbonization goals. We will help deliver on those goals while continuing to run one of the top performing plants in the country.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for PG&E told RadWaste Monitor via email Wednesday that it was still waiting to hear back from the Department of Energy about a federal bailout for Diablo Canyon as part of the agency’s roughly $6 billion civil nuclear credits program. DOE has said it would notify the first round of awardees within 30 days of the application deadline — which passed Sept. 6.
The power reactors have a combined generating capacity of 2,400 megawatts, enough to power about 3 million homes, according to the utility’s website.
