The owner of California’ last operating nuclear power plant last week bid for a chunk of federal bailout cash to help the facility’s twin reactors running, a utility spokesperson said this week.
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) Sep. 2 applied for a portion of the $6 billion in civilian nuclear power credits administered by the federal Department of Energy, the spokesperson for the owner of Diablo Canyon Power Plant said by email.
Diablo Canyon, located in San Luis Obispo, Calif., was slated for closure in the next couple of years. PG&E had said it planned to take the plant’s two reactors offline in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
That was before California passed a bailout for the plant last week as part of a massive climate package crafted by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).
With its federal bailout application, PG&E has satisfied one of two conditions needed to receive a roughly $1.4 billion loan from the California government, according to the climate legislation signed into law last week. The law passed in Sacramento Aug. 31 also gives the utility around six months to apply with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license extension for the Diablo Canyon plant.
A license renewal would be required to keep Diablo Canyon offline — PG&E in 2009 asked NRC for an extension, but withdrew that request in 2018 after it decided to shutter the plant.
“PG&E is committed to California’s clean energy future. As a regulated utility, we follow the energy policies of the state,” utility CEO Patti Poppe said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “We are proud of the role Diablo Canyon plays in providing safe, reliable, low-cost and carbon-free energy to our customers and Californians.”
PG&E’s nuclear credits bid came just days before DOE’s Sep. 6 deadline for applications — a date that had been extended at the utility’s request from July 5.
DOE has said that it should notify awardees for its first $1.2 billion funding cycle within 30 days of the deadline, although it could be longer depending on the volume of submissions. The agency plans to issue similar bailouts over the next four years or so.
Meanwhile, at least one other nuclear power plant is under consideration for a federal bailout. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has said that she would try to secure a DOE credit for Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, which former operator Entergy in June sold to nuclear decommissioning company Holtec International after shuttering the plant May 20.
Whitmer’s office told RadWaste Monitor in August that Lansing was working with potential buyers and other stakeholders to restart the Covert, Mich., plant. A spokesperson for the governor as of Friday had not returned a request for comment on whether such support had been secured.
