For nearly a decade, PG&E has been planning to shut down Diablo Canyon Power Plant and decommission it. But now that the plant has pivoted to possible continued operation, what happens to those plans?
As part of a nuclear power plant’s licensing, a utility company must plan for what happens after a plant ceases operation and that includes getting local input from various stakeholders.
That’s what PG&E did by establishing a decommissioning panel as part of the initial proposal to stop generating power at the end of the current licenses in 2024 and 2025.
“They're required by different reasons,” explained Maureen Zawalick, Vice President of Business and Technical Services at Diablo Canyon Power Plant. “Ours was a condition of our joint proposal that I talked about that got approved in 2018 to have external stakeholder input on the process of what to do with lands and facilities and so forth, so we formed the engagement panel with representation from various parts of San Luis Obispo County.”
The plant itself sits on a relatively small parcel of land but is surrounded by hundreds of acres which is the ancestral land of the Northern Chumash Tribe.
PG&E proposed continuing to own and control the smaller parcel the plant sits on while it was being decommissioned and to continue to store spent nuclear fuel there. The surrounding land would be liquidated or sold off.
The California Public Utilities Commission, meantime, was working on a land transfer policy. That policy said that if a public utility has surplus land, it must first be offered to the local tribe. The local tribe viewed it as an opportunity to get their land back and started working with various stakeholders including the San Luis Obispo County Land Conservancy.
The utility was also working with Cal Poly to create a Clean Tech Innovation Park that would maximize the co-use and reuse of existing facilities, including the desalination plant and infrastructure.
But then came the reality of what losing the power from Diablo would mean to the state’s power supply.
“That's the largest generating facility in California and it's the largest clean generating facility in California — makes up about 18% to 28% of California's clean energy, and so, you know, that that needs a voice and it needs a platform as much as we need to address the increased demand and greater stability and reliability needed for any human being and, of course, Californians,” Zawalick said.
Those plans for what it looks like in the future haven’t been abandoned, but they have been put on hold.
Whether it’s five years from now in 2029 and 2030, ten or even 20 years from now, at some point, the Diablo Canyon Power Plant will be decommissioned.
So for now, PG&E is moving ahead on parallel tracks — planning for decommissioning but also upgrading and refueling the plant assuming that the final permits and approvals will happen.
“So we are planning for 2029 and 2030, but when we look at long-term reliability projects, you know, equipment upgrades and so forth, we're looking further,” Zawalick said. “We have to, in a very cost-effective manner and a very, you know, affordable manner, but we have to, you know, continue to make those investments like we did since 2016, 2018 to ensure that if we are called upon again, we continue to be ready.”
In essence, it’s back to business as usual while the plant continues to operate with the temporary approval of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission while the agency reviews a 20-year federal license extension application.
Meanwhile, those opposed to the nuclear power plant are also continuing their fight against the still controversial power source.
“You know, I'm just an individual. I'm not powerful, but if we all work together, if there's that sliver of hope that we can get it shut down before 2045, then I'll just keep working. I won't last til 2045, but I'll work as long as I can,” said Jane Swanson, Mothers for Peace.
For now, the momentum appears to be on the side of continued operation of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant — a chance for plant operators to continue to bring what they say is an important reliable and green, if not renewable, energy source to Californians.
WATCH: Part 1 of The Diablo Dilemma: A look back at the nuclear power plant's complicated history
WATCH: Part 2 of The Diablo Dilemma: What led to a last-minute attempt to keep the nuclear power plant running
WATCH: Part 3 of The Diablo Dilemma: Nuclear power plant faces multiple hurdles in effort to keep reactors in operation
