Environmentalists sued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to stop the planned extension of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California, according to a court filing dated April 28.
San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Friends of the Earth, and Environmental Working Group sued the commission in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that NRC’s plan to let Diablo Canyon remain open while agency officials vet Pacific Gas and Electric’s (PG&E) application for a license renewal is illegal.
The utility, after receiving billions of dollars in federal and state bailouts in 2022, and direction from California’s state government, wants to extend the life of Diablo Canyon’s two reactors by roughly five years, to about 2030.
The reactors’ existing licenses would likely expire before NRC can vet an extension request, so the commission in March decided to let PG&E keep the plant open, if the company gets its renewal application in by Dec. 31.
By “extending the operating license terms for the Diablo Canyon reactors without conducting or completing safety and environmental reviews or conducting public hearings, the NRC violated the Atomic Energy Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act,” the environmentalists wrote in their petition.
The groups provided a copy of the filing, not yet docketed with the Ninth Circuit, to the Exchange Monitor on Thursday, when they announced the lawsuit.
The groups want a federal judge to force NRC to vacate the exception the agency gave PG&E in March, when the civilian power regulator said it could legally allow Diablo Canyon to operate beyond the expiry date of its license because PG&E had submitted a timely request for an NRC review.
