Diablo Canyon Power Plant
A two-unit pressurized water reactor plant near San Luis Obispo, California, operated by PG&E. It is the state’s last operating nuclear power plant, with closure now delayed beyond the original 2025 target.
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
Diablo Canyon appeals court arguments possible early next year
Antinuclear activists suing the U.S. government to stop a life extension for the Diablo Canyon Power Plant could present oral arguments to a federal court in Pasadena, Calif., in early 2024, a recent court filing shows. In an order last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said it might order the parties to court […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
California gets off sidelines, opposes federal lawsuit to stop Diablo Canyon life-extension
California waded into a lawsuit filed by environmental groups opposed to a life-extension for the state’s last nuclear power plant, writing in a legal filing last week that the plan “presents no undue risk” to the public. In a friend-of-the court brief uploaded Friday and dated Sept. 5, California asked the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
California gets off sidelines in federal lawsuit to stop Diablo Canyon life-extension
California waded into a lawsuit filed by environmental groups opposed to a life-extension for the state’s last nuclear power plant, writing in a legal filing last week that the plan “presents no undue risk” to the public. In a friend-of-the court brief uploaded Friday and dated Sept. 5, California asked the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
NRC staff recommend tossing environmentalists’ contention of Diablo Canyon fuel facility
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission board should toss an environmentalist group’s effort to block a license extension for Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s spent fuel storage facility, commission staff recommended Sept. 5. The group, San Luis Obsipo Mothers for Peace, had successfully used a legal technicality to steer the renewal application toward a hearing with an NRC […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
NRC staff recommend tossing environmentalists’ contention of Diablo Canyon fuel facility
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission board should toss an environmentalist group’s effort to block a license extension for Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s spent fuel storage facility, commission staff recommended Sept. 5. The group, San Luis Obsipo Mothers for Peace, had successfully used a legal technicality to steer the renewal application toward a hearing with an NRC […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
California court tosses enviros’ challenge to Diablo Canyon life-extension
A state court ruled last week that California can proceed with its effort to keep the Diablo Canyon Power Plant online into the 2030s, spurning an environmentalist group’s argument that the plan violated a contract. A 2022 state law that allowed a five-year life extension for the plant’s two reactors essentially voided the contract that […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
California court tosses enviros’ challenge to Diablo Canyon life-extension
A state court ruled last week that California can proceed with its effort to keep the Diablo Canyon Power Plant online into the 2030s, spurning an environmentalist group’s argument that the plan violated a contract. A 2022 state law that allowed a five-year life extension for the plant’s two reactors essentially voided the contract that […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
Twenty-year extension request for Diablo Canyon coming, PG&E says
Recently, Pacific Gas and Electric formally communicated to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it intends to apply for a license extension that could keep the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant operating into the 2060s. By Dec. 31, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) will ask NRC to extend Diablo Canyon’s two reactors “for up to 20 […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
To formalize financial aid to Diablo Canyon, Energy Department adopts NRC’s environmental reviews of plant
The Department of Energy said Friday it cleared a paperwork hurdle for a planned five-year extension of California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant by adopting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s environmental reviews of the plant. DOE had a duty under federal law to do environmental diligence on Diablo Canyon after the department in 2022 agreed to provide […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
To formalize financial aid to Diablo Canyon, Energy Department adopts NRC’s environmental reviews of plant
The Department of Energy said Friday it cleared a paperwork hurdle for a planned five-year extension of California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant by adopting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s environmental reviews of the plant. DOE had a duty under federal law to do environmental diligence on Diablo Canyon after the department in 2022 agreed to provide […]
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Commercial Decommissioning
Group gets about another $500k for more work on Diablo Canyon environmental impact report
Aspen Environmental Group, Agoura Hills, Calif., on Tuesday got a one-year contract extension, worth a little under half a million dollars, to continue work on an environmental impact report about decommissioning the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in southern California. Though owner Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is trying to keep Diablo Canyon online in Avila […]
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Decommissioning
Group gets about another $500k for more work on Diablo Canyon environmental impact report
Aspen Environmental Group, Agoura Hills, Calif., on Tuesday got a one-year contract extension, worth a little under half a million dollars, to continue work on an environmental impact report about decommissioning the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in southern California. Though owner Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is trying to keep Diablo Canyon online in Avila […]
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Commercial Decommissioning
NRC board should decide fate of environmentalist blockade of Diablo Canyon fuel facility this summer
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel should decide this summer whether to force Pacific Gas and Electric to formally defend its request to relicense the Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s spent fuel storage facility. The environmental group San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace has mounted a multipronged legal attack on Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) effort to […]
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Commercial Decommissioning
NRC board should decide fate of environmentalist blockade of Diablo Canyon fuel facility this summer
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel should decide this summer whether to force Pacific Gas and Electric to formally defend its request to relicense the Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s spent fuel storage facility. The environmental group San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace has mounted a multipronged legal attack on Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) effort to […]
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Commercial Decommissioning
Antinukers want to hurry up lawsuit against Diablo Canyon restart
Antinuclear activists want the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to speed up oral arguments in a federal lawsuit aimed at blocking a life extension for California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant. The groups, San Luis Obsipo Mothers for Peace, Friends of the Earth and Environmental Working Group, asked the U.S. Ninth Circuit of Appeals bump the scheduled briefings […]
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Commercial Decommissioning
NRC chair visits Diablo Canyon as commission works to help keep plant on
The chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission paid a visit to the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in Avila Beach, Calif., last week, local media reported. Chair Christopher Hanson toured the facility, located about 200 miles northwest of Los Angeles, while commission staff are working with plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric to keep the plant […]
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Commercial Decommissioning
Antinukers want to hurry up lawsuit against Diablo Canyon restart
Antinuclear activists want the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to speed up oral arguments in a federal lawsuit aimed at blocking a life extension for California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant. The groups, San Luis Obsipo Mothers for Peace, Friends of the Earth and Environmental Working Group, asked the U.S. Ninth Circuit of Appeals bump the scheduled briefings […]
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Commercial Decommissioning
NRC chair visits Diablo Canyon as commission works to help keep plant on
The chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission paid a visit to the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in Avila Beach, Calif., last week, local media reported. Chair Christopher Hanson toured the facility, located about 200 miles northwest of Los Angeles, while commission staff are working with plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric to keep the plant […]
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Recommissioning & Restarts
Company has no right to develop coastal property near Diablo Canyon, judge says
A land developer will not soon be building what amounts to a small city in the buffer zone around the Diablo Canyon Power Plant after a California court ruled Monday that the developer does not have a valid lease on the land. The Local San Luis Obispo Tribune first reported the proposed ruling in the Superior Court of […]
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Decommissioning
NRC to hear details about Palisades restart, Diablo Canyon extension
Holtec International and Pacific Gas and Electric were scheduled to speak to Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on Wednesday about novel regulatory efforts to extend the lives of two nuclear power plants. Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., was scheduled to go first, with their 10:00 a.m. Eastern presentation to commission staff about the regulatory pathway to restart […]
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Recommissioning & Restarts
NRC board to hear enviros’ case for renewing Diablo Canyon fuel storage license
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission board in May plans to decide whether a citizen’s group can contest a utility’s plan to renew a license for storing the spent fuel of California’s last nuclear power plant, the commission said Monday. An NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board planned to hear arguments on May 24 from the San […]
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Recommissioning & Restarts
NRC board to hear enviros’ case for renewing Diablo Canyon fuel storage license
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission board in May plans to decide whether a citizen’s group can contest a utility’s plan to renew a license for storing the spent fuel of California’s last nuclear power plant, the commission said Monday. An NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board planned to hear arguments on May 24 from the San […]
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Recommissioning & Restarts
Enviros sue to stop Diablo Canyon extension
An environmentalist group on Tuesday sued the operator of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California, seeking to keep the facility’s recently bailed-out reactors from operating beyond 2025. If it keeps Diablo Canyon open until at least 2030, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) would violate a 2016 contract with Friends of the Earth which stipulated […]
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Recommissioning & Restarts
Enviros sue to stop Diablo Canyon extension
An environmentalist group on Tuesday sued the operator of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California, seeking to keep the facility’s recently bailed-out reactors from operating beyond 2025. If it keeps Diablo Canyon open until at least 2030, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) would violate a 2016 contract with Friends of the Earth which stipulated […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
NRC dodges enviros’ argument about legality of Diablo Canyon operating extension in detailed agency decision
In offering California’s last nuclear power plant a new lease on life, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sidestepped a legal argument from antinuclear activists who said the agency might be illegally extending the plant’s operating license. The NRC on Wednesday published a roughly five-page explanation in the Federal Register explaining the agency’s decision to conditionally let Pacific Gas […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
NRC dodges enviros’ argument about legality of Diablo Canyon operating extension in detailed agency decision
In offering California’s last nuclear power plant a new lease on life, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sidestepped a legal argument from antinuclear activists who said the agency might be illegally extending the plant’s operating license. The NRC on Wednesday published a roughly five-page explanation in the Federal Register explaining the agency’s decision to conditionally let […]
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Decommissioning
California Energy Commission recommends Diablo Canyon life extension
California’s energy policy and planning agency said this week that the Golden State should take action to keep its last operating nuclear power plant online through the end of the decade, according to a press release. The California Energy Commission’s (CEC) staff analysis of Diablo Canyon Power Plant, published Tuesday, recommended that Sacramento pursue keeping […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
NRC clears hurdle for Diablo Canyon extension, rules plant can run on expired license
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will allow California’s last operating nuclear power plant to remain online after the facility’s federal license expires while the agency considers a 20-year extension, the commission said Thursday. The exemption, which NRC announced in a Thursday press release, allows Diablo Canyon Power Plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to ignore […]
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Recommissioning & Restarts
California Energy Commission recommends Diablo Canyon life extension
California’s energy policy and planning agency said Tuesday that the Golden State should take action to keep its last operating nuclear power plant online through the end of the decade, according to a press release. The California Energy Commission’s (CEC) staff analysis of Diablo Canyon Power Plant, published Tuesday, recommended that Sacramento pursue keeping the […]
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Decommissioning
Diablo Canyon license extension perfectly legal, PG&E tells NRC
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission can allow California’s last nuclear power reactor to operate with an expired license, the plant’s owner wrote in a recent regulatory filing Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) was rebuffing claims by a coalition of anti-nuclear groups who told the NRC the utility was asking the government to break the law in […]



