Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

3 days ago

Trump Says He’s Willing to Let Migrant Farm Laborers Stay in US

3 days ago

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

4 days ago

Eyeing Arctic Dominance, Trump Bill Earmarks $8.6 Billion for US Coast Guard Icebreakers

4 days ago

Trump’s Sweeping Tax-Cut and Spending Bill Wins Congressional Approval

4 days ago

Americans Celebrate Their Independence With Record-Breaking Travel Numbers

4 days ago

US Supreme Court to Decide Legality of Transgender School Sports Bans

4 days ago

Nvidia Set to Become the World’s Most Valuable Company in History

4 days ago

Poll: 41% in US ‘Extremely Proud’ to Be American, Near Historic Low

4 days ago
PG&E's Avila Beach Nuclear Plant Gets OK to Keep Running for Now
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 2 years ago on
March 3, 2023

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Government regulators Thursday granted California’s largest utility an unusual exemption that could allow the state’s last nuclear power plant to continue running after the expiration of its federal operating licenses, a key piece of a contentious proposal to keep the reactors producing electricity for years to come.

The twin-reactor Diablo Canyon plant is scheduled to shut down by 2025. But the federal exemption will permit operator Pacific Gas & Electric to keep producing power while the Nuclear Regulatory Commission reviews an expected application from the utility to extend the plant’s operating run by up to two decades.

PG&E senior vice president Paula Gerfen praised the decision as an important step for the company “to extend our operations beyond 2025 to improve statewide electric system reliability.”

Environmentalists said the NRC staff contorted its own rules in an attempt to keep the aging plant online in what amounted to an ominous sign for plant safety in a region crisscrossed by earthquake faults.

“It’s inconsistent with their own rules,” said Diane Curran, an attorney for the anti-nuclear advocacy group Mothers for Peace, which has long sought to shutter the seaside plant located midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. “It’s scary.”

The decision marks the latest development in a long-running fight over the operation and safety of the decades-old plant, which Gov. Gavin Newsom says should keep running beyond 2025 to ward off possible blackouts as the state transitions to solar and other renewable energy sources.

Produces 9% of California’s Electricity

The Newsom administration is pushing to expand solar power and other clean energy, as the state aims to cut emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. Nuclear power doesn’t produce carbon pollution like fossil fuels. But it leaves behind waste that can remain dangerously radioactive for centuries.

Diablo Canyon produces 9% of the state’s electricity.

Newsom’s decision last year to support a longer operating run for Diablo Canyon shocked environmentalists and anti-nuclear advocates because he had once been a leading voice for closing the plant.

The decision by the NRC staff was critical for PG&E’s proposal.

The company has said it intends to submit an application to extend the plant’s life by the end of this year. However, the current operating licenses would likely expire before the NRC’s review could be completed, a process that can take two years or more.

Typically, if a nuclear plant files for a license extension at least five years before the expiration of the existing license, the existing license remains in effect until the NRC’s application review is complete, even if it technically passes the expiration date. But PG&E would not meet the usual five-year benchmark.

One reactor is scheduled to close in November 2024, and its twin in August 2025, and a state analysis predicted it would take federal regulators until late 2026 to act on the application. With the exemption from the NRC staff, the reactors can keep running while the agency conducts the expected review.

In documents submitted to the NRC, the company said the exemption “will not present an undue risk to the public health and safety.”

Anti-nuclear activists and national environmental groups earlier urged the federal agency to reject the exemption, saying in a petition that it amounted to a dangerous shortcut that would expose the public to safety risks. They argued critical safety reviews for an extended run would likely be incomplete by the time the current licenses technically expire.

PG&E initially was part of a complex 2016 agreement with environmentalists and plant worker unions to close the plant by 2025. But the state changed direction last year, and Newsom and the Legislature voided the 2016 pact and opened the way for PG&E to seek a longer operating run.

PG&E officials have said they are eager for certainty about the plant’s future because of the difficulty of reversing course on a plant that was headed for permanent retirement, but now needs to prepare for a potentially longer lifespan.

The proposal comes at a time when the nuclear power industry foresees future growth. The Biden administration last year launched a $6 billion effort to rescue nuclear power plants at risk of closing, citing the need to continue nuclear energy as a carbon-free source of power that helps to combat climate change.

But critics of a longer run for Diablo Canyon have depicted the plan as a huge financial giveaway for PG&E, while warning it would gut state environmental safeguards. Also unknown is how much it will cost to update the plant for a longer lifespan.

 

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

How Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Make China Great Again

DON'T MISS

What’s Caitlin Clark Worth to the WNBA? A Lot More Than Her $78,066 Salary.

DON'T MISS

Trump to Sign Tax-Cut and Spending Bill in July 4 Ceremony

DON'T MISS

Madre Fire Spurs Evacuations Across 3 Counties, Grows to More Than 70,000 Acres

DON'T MISS

Clovis, Sanger, Madera, and Bass Lake Will Light the Sky With Fireworks Shows Tonight

DON'T MISS

Oil Dips Ahead of Expected OPEC+ Output Increase

DON'T MISS

613 Killed at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites, Near Humanitarian Covoys, Says UN

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Authorities Investigating Suspicious Death of Transient Man

DON'T MISS

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

DON'T MISS

Israeli Military Kills 20 in Gaza as Trump Awaits Hamas Reply to Truce Proposal

UP NEXT

Madre Fire Spurs Evacuations Across 3 Counties, Grows to More Than 70,000 Acres

UP NEXT

Madre Fire Burns More Than 52,000 Acres in San Luis Obispo County

UP NEXT

Valadao, Costa Spar on What Passage of Trump’s Bill Means for Medicaid Recipients

UP NEXT

Over 100 Former Senior Officials Warn Against Planned Staff Cuts at US State Department

UP NEXT

Trump to Sign Bill on Friday at 5 p.m., White House Says

UP NEXT

Trump’s Sweeping Tax-Cut and Spending Bill Wins Congressional Approval

UP NEXT

Presidential Election Reveals Big Shift in California Voting Patterns. Will It Last?

UP NEXT

After Record Democratic Speech, House Republicans Begin Final Vote on Trump Tax-Cut Bill

UP NEXT

Jeffries Sets Record for Floor Speech Before Vote on Trump Tax Bill

UP NEXT

Trump Administration Will Focus on Fed Chair Replacement in Fall, Bessent Says

Iran President Says Open to Dialogue With US, Accuses Israel of Assassination Attempt

24 minutes ago

Shy but Sweet Field Survivor, Poppy the Pup, Now Up for Adoption

33 minutes ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Douglas Wayne Brittain

37 minutes ago

Tesla Slides as Musk’s ‘America Party’ Heightens Investor Worries

44 minutes ago

US-Backed 60-Day Gaza Ceasefire Envisages Gradual Return of Hostages, Official Says

47 minutes ago

Trump to Terminate Deportation Protection for Thousands of Hondurans and Nicaraguans in US

51 minutes ago

One Killed, Dozens Wounded in Russian Strikes on Kharkiv in Ukraine

54 minutes ago

Texas Girls’ Camp Mourning Dozens Dead in Floods as Search Teams Face More Rain

56 minutes ago

Netanyahu to Meet Trump at White House as Israel, Hamas Discuss Ceasefire

60 minutes ago

TikTok Building New Version of App Ahead of Expected US Sale, the Information Reports

17 hours ago

Schumer Wants Probe of National Weather Service Response in Texas

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate’s top Democrat on Monday asked a government watchdog to investigate whether cuts at the National We...

9 seconds ago

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a press conference after the Senate passes U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping spending and tax bill, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 1, 2025. (Reuters/Annabelle Gordon)
9 seconds ago

Schumer Wants Probe of National Weather Service Response in Texas

Palestinians inspect the damage at an UNRWA school sheltering displaced people that was hit in an Israeli air strike on Sunday, in Gaza City, June 30, 2025. (Reuters/Mahmoud Issa)
3 minutes ago

Israeli Guilt Over Gaza Lurks Beneath Silence and Denial

President Donald Trump comes out of the White House onto a balcony on the day he is expected to sign a sweeping spending and tax legislation, known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 4, 2025. (Reuters/Leah Millis)
14 minutes ago

Trump Criticized for Using Antisemitic ‘Shylock’ to Describe Bankers

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a meeting in Ilam, Iran, June 12, 2025. Iran's Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
24 minutes ago

Iran President Says Open to Dialogue With US, Accuses Israel of Assassination Attempt

Poppy, a smart and sweet 2- to 3-year-old dog who survived months alone in a field, is now ready for adoption into a loving home. (Mell's Mutts)
33 minutes ago

Shy but Sweet Field Survivor, Poppy the Pup, Now Up for Adoption

Douglas Wayne Brittain
37 minutes ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Douglas Wayne Brittain

The TESLA logo is seen outside a dealership in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, U.S., April 26, 2021. (Reuters File)
44 minutes ago

Tesla Slides as Musk’s ‘America Party’ Heightens Investor Worries

Palestinians displaced by the Israeli military offensive, shelter in tents, in Gaza City, May 20, 2025. (Reuters File)
47 minutes ago

US-Backed 60-Day Gaza Ceasefire Envisages Gradual Return of Hostages, Official Says

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend