By John Stang
Pacific Gas & Electric has asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to chime in on whether it believes the California utility’s bankruptcy proceeding will affect the future decommissioning of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.
In doing so, PG&E is following the order of a California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge.
In a Feb. 26 letter, Jon Franke, PG&E’s vice president for safety and health, asked for the NRC opinion on whether the Chapter 11 bankruptcy would affect the safety of operations and future decommissioning of Diablo Canyon – including whether there will be sufficient funding to maintain required safety levels.
Franke also requested the NRC’s opinion on whether the bankruptcy could delay the scheduled 2024 and 2025 targets to shut down the two reactors and begin decommissioning of the San Luis Obispo County power plant. He further wanted to determine if the bankruptcy could enable application of the decommissioning trust fund for Diablo Canyon for other operations.
Separately, CPUC President Michael Picker on Feb. 14 directed the utility to obtain an NRC advisory regarding potential worries on PG&E’s capacity to meet its safety and financial commitments at Diablo Canyon and the largely decommissioned Humboldt Bay nuclear power plant in Humboldt County. That would include “any concerns or opinions the NRC has regarding whether PG&E’s bankruptcy creates any risks” for either plant’s nuclear decommissioning trust fund, Franke wrote.
The California Public Utilities Commission requested a response from PG&E by today – 1 1/2 months prior to the judge’s deadline. The NRC said it is reviewing the questions, but did not know yet when it might provide answers.
But the agency has already shown what its responses to PG&E might be in a March 7 letter to U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), who had raised similar questions.
“The bankruptcy filing does not relieve Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation or its subsidiary, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), the licensee operating Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant (Diablo Canyon), of their obligations to comply with NRC requirements. Moreover, the NRC’s inspection and oversight responsibilities will not change as a result of the bankruptcy protection filing,” according to an attachment to the letter to Carbajal from NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki.
The NRC will conduct an inspection plan to confirm the bankruptcy will not undermine safe operation of the Diablo Canyon reactors. The bankruptcy will not excuse PG&E from any safety responsibilities, the attachment said.
“Should the NRC staff identify deficiencies in the licensee’s performance in safely maintaining and operating the plant, the NRC would utilize enforcement actions available under our regulations and policy, up to and including the issuance of orders to the licensee,” the agency said.
Pacific Gas & Electric’s questions to the NRC were prompted by a Feb. 6 order from CPUC Administrative Law Judge Darcie Houck in a late 2018 filing in PG&E’s rate case brought by The Utility Reform Network (TURN) to get a better grasp on decommissioning finances.
The issue focuses on the utility’s proposed Diablo Canyon Decommissioning Planning Memorandum Account. In November, PG&E applied for CPUC authorization to establish the account to monitor decommissioning expenses ahead of a state decision on increasing customer rates to pay for cleanup at the plant. TURN is questioning the accounting procedures in the planning memorandum account, which was proposed as part of PG&E’s general rate case before the California PUC.
Other questions raised by Houck address PG&E putting the transfer of used fuel to dry storage as an operational cost in the past in the decommissioning planning account. PG&E is now trying to switch fuel movement to a decommissioning cost despite being several years from shutting down the first reactor.
The administrative law judge also wants a breakdown on each task involved in transferring used fuel, the cost of each task, and whether PG&E will categorize each task’s cost as operational or as decommissioning.
Houck set a May 1 deadline for PG&E to submit its answers, with TURN to provide its responses to the PG&E information by May 31. She set June 14 as the deadline for PG&E to respond to TURN’s responses.
In 2016, PG&E announced plans to retire Diablo Canyon’s two pressurized water reactors as their Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses expire in 2024 and 2025. The site is the last operating nuclear power plant in California.
On Jan. 29 of this year, PG&E filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California, due to expected liabilities of $30 billion or more connected to wildfires in the state in 2017 and 2018. PG&E’s transition lines and other equipment have been blamed for many of the fires.
The Diablo Canyon decommissioning trust fund currently has $3.2 billion, with the utility seeking permission from the California Public Utilities Commission to increase rates to provide another $1.6 billion it says it will need to complete that work. The commission is expected to take 12 to 18 months to rule on that matter.
So far, the utility has publicly said the bankruptcy and reorganization will not affect its decommissioning plans.
