The Diablo Canyon Power Plant is the last operating nuclear power plant in California and the largest power generating plant of any kind, producing about nine percent of the state’s electricity.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) first proposed building a nuclear power plant in 1963, and it has had a complicated relationship with the Central Coast ever since.
PG&E originally proposed constructing the plant on the Nipomo Dunes, but after immediate protests and a meeting between the Sierra Club president and the president of the power utility, an alternate site was chosen – Diablo Canyon near Avila Beach.
The Atomic Energy Commission formally approved the construction permit three years later in 1968. Over the next decade, applications, hearings and debate became the norm.
A local organization originally formed to fight against the Vietnam War and the continued development of nuclear weapons turned its attention to the proposed plant. Jane Swanson was one of the original members of Mothers for Peace and continues the fight against nuclear power to this day.
“When we learned about Diablo Canyon, about PG&E’s plans to build a nuclear power plant, we had to study up because we did not know what a nuclear power plant was, and the way we got to focusing against nuclear power was when we realized that the radioactive fallout from the weapons testing that was happening in the atmosphere at that time in the late 60s, that's the same thing as the radioactive waste from a commercial reactor,” Swanson explained. “We were against radioactive fallout, which I think everybody in their right mind is, so therefore, we had to oppose a nuclear power plant in our backyard.”
In 1979, after the Three Mile Island meltdown, protests were formed statewide against Diablo Canyon. In June of that year, a rally by the Abalone Alliance brought 40,000 people to Avila Beach. Nearly 2,000 protestors were arrested.
During the construction of the power plant, a new fault line just a few miles offshore was discovered. Because of a USGS report that said Diablo's seismic design could not withstand the maximum potential quake possibly generated by the Hosgri fault, PG&E was forced to revise designs and make construction modifications.
After 14 years of hearings, protests, blockades, interventions, court cases, retrofits and reconstruction, PG&E was granted full power licenses by the NRC for the Unit 1 and Unit 2 reactors.
In May of 1985, Unit 1 began commercial operation and in March of 1987, Unit 2 followed.
With the plant fully operating, significant benefits for the local area rolled in.
The plant provides more than a thousand “head of household” or high-paying jobs and adds millions of dollars to the local economy.
“Our property taxes contribute $16 million to our schools and to public safety agencies and to our county and so forth, the volunteer hours of the workers out here, the donations of the workers out here, head of household jobs of 1,300 people,” said Maureen Zawalick, Vice President of Business and Technical Services at Diablo Canyon Power Plant. “You see that devastating communities where nuclear plants have prematurely shut down. That's been hard for, you know, counties and communities to recover from. Our county is better for it. Our schools are better for it of having Diablo here.”
Ultimately, the political climate and the push for renewable energy was too much for PG&E. After initially announcing plans to apply for license extensions in 2011, the company president pulled out of the application process in 2016.
PG&E said they’d let the current licenses expire this year, 2024, and next as scheduled. A decommissioning panel was formed and plans were made for shutting down the plant and decisions about what to do with the site were under discussion.
For Swanson and Mothers for Peace, a 50-year fight was over.
“For a while, we did think that the biggest battle had been won,” she said.
But, of course, that would not be the end of the story.
In April 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom told the LA Times that he’d changed his stance on nuclear power.
“And then, finally, they came right out and said, ‘We are going to apply for a license renewal,’ and I thought, ‘Oh no, we have to do this all over again,’” Swanson said. “So that's what we're doing all over again. I'll be 80 years old pretty soon. I had no idea in my late 20s that I would be doing this when I was a great-grandma.”
Less than five years ago, most people expected the Diablo Canyon Power Plant to shut down beginning with Unit 1 this year and Unit 2 next year, but pressure on California’s electric grid from air conditioners fighting climate change and even electric vehicles had regulators wondering if losing nearly 10% of the generating capacity was wise.
Next Tuesday, tune in to KSBY News at 6 for part two of our series, “The Diablo Dilemma.” Anchor Richard Gearhart will take a closer look at what was behind the pressure to rethink the plant’s closure.
UPCOMING MEETING
On May 22, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will hear oral arguments on a petition to hold an adjudicatory hearing on PG&E’s application to extend Diablo Canyon’s operating licenses.
Mothers for Peace is one of the petitioners, along with Friends of the Earth and the Environmental Working Group. They’ll have a chance to make their argument, and the board will hear also hear from PG&E and NRC staff.
The oral argument will be held at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, but the public can listen in by calling 301-576-2978 and entering the passcode 628 518 148 #. It can also be viewed online via the NRC’s webcast portal.
