The San Luis Obispo City Council wants the leases at Diablo Canyon Power Plant extended to ensure the facility’s units 1 and 2 remain operational until 2024-25, so city officials can better gauge impact of the planned shutdown.
Operator Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) announced last week that it would let the units’ Nuclear Regulatory Commission operating licenses expire in 2024 and 2025 as the company shifts toward investment in “greenhouse-gas-free” sources. In a letter last week to the California State Lands Commission, the council, which said it supports PG&E’s decision, expressed concern that the reactors might shut down prematurely in 2018-19, when the leases expire. The letter followed the council’s special meeting on Thursday, two days after PG&E made the announcement.
“(The lease extension) provides for additional time for the city to analyze the impacts of the closure of the DCPP, understand PG&E’s future plans and assess ways to mitigate the local impacts, both regionally and specifically to the city,” the letter, penned by Mayor Jan Howell Marx, reads. “The city would like to ensure that opportunities are provided to all impacted communities to propose possible additional mitigations or alternative solutions regarding the closure and decommissioning process.”
The letter then asks the State Lands Commission to recommend to the California Public Utilities Commission that PG&E participate in “meaningful discussion” with impacted communities about mitigating the negative impacts of the closure.
The Diablo Canyon facility, which is about 12 miles southwest of San Luis Obispo, is the last operating nuclear power plant in California.
