The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday said it accepted Pacific Gas & Electric’s application to extend the operating license of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California.
The decision, announced in a Federal Register notice, officially begins what could be a contentious, year-long, federal review of California’s plan to keep nuclear power alive in the Golden State for up to five more years.
Anti-nuclear groups opposed to California’s plan are already fighting the Diablo Canyon life extension at the NRC and in two federal lawsuits, one of which is scheduled for oral arguments in early January.
Now, the environmentalists have another way to oppose the state’s plan.
With Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) application officially docketed at the NRC, members of the public have until March 24 to ask for a hearing about the application.
If NRC approves the application, Diablo Canyon would be licensed to stay open for up to 20 years, roughly into the middle of the 2040s. However, current California plans call for keeping the plant open only until 2030.
In 2022, the state repealed a 2018 law that would have closed Diablo Canyon down by 2025. Then, Sacramento teamed with the federal Department of Energy to provide more than $2 billion in aid to help PG&E keep the plant open.
Meanwhile, as the NRC weighs PG&E’s application, Diablo Canyon will be allowed to keep its two reactors on. That is significant because the review could take longer than the reactors have left on their licenses, the commission has said. Diablo Canyon Unit 1 is licensed through Nov. 2, 2024. Unit 2 is licensed through Aug. 26, 2025.
In a Dec. 19 letter to PG&E, NRC staff said they were still figuring out how long it will take to review the Diablo Canyon license renewal application.
“The NRC staff will provide you with its projected review schedule and resource estimates by separate correspondence,” staff wrote in their letter.
