Pacific Gas and Electric will not pursue plans to seek renewed operating licenses for its Diablo Canyon nuclear reactors after reaching an agreement with environmental groups to replace the reactors with greenhouse-gas-free renewable energy, PG&E announced Tuesday.
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PG&E agrees to shut down one of Diablo Canyon’s reactors in 2024 and its second reactor a year later, thus closing California’s only functioning nuclear power plant by 2025 and replacing it with a new portfolio of energy efficiency, renewable energy and energy storage to make up the lost production.
“Underpinning the agreement” that would leave the state of California without any nuclear power plants, “is the recognition that California’s new energy polities will significantly reduce the need for Diablo Canyon’s electricity output”, the company said. People who have been calling for closure of the plant include several environmental groups.
It also needs the California Public Utilities Commission to approve its power replacement plan.
Nuclear power accounts for about 60 percent of the country’s carbon-free power. Diablo is the last nuclear plant in the state and provides about 9% of California’s electricity.
Hostility to the Diablo plant intensified following the Japanese quake in 2011 that caused the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Yet the Diablo Canyon plant hinders shifting to renewable energy, according to Moglen.
The San Onofre nuclear plant, between San Diego and Los Angeles, shut down permanently in 2013 after excessive wear was found in steam generator tubes.
“For the past 30 years, PG&E and the Diablo Canyon Power Plant have been important partners in our local community, providing a significant portion of our energy and serving as the largest private employer in San Luis Obispo County”, said Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara).
Daniel Hirsch, director of the program on Environmental and Nuclear Policy at UC Santa Cruz, tells the LA Times that PG&E’s plan is “thoughtful”, but he cautions that an quake risk remains while the plant is still operational.
The company says it will commit to having 55% of its energy portfolio produced by renewable energy sources by 2031, a standard that is higher than California’s targeted goal. The deal calls for the lost generating power to be replaced by a mix of renewable energy, grid-scale storage, and efficiency measures. Gas plants can be turned off and on quickly, but nuclear reactors can’t.
Underwater fault lines off the central coast of California have also been identified by seismic mapping since Diablo Canyon was built in the area in the mid-1980s.
California’s last nuclear power plant is expected to close within the decade, a regional utility giant said Tuesday.
The planned 2019 closure of the nation’s oldest operating facility, the Oyster Creek power plant in New Jersey, was attributed to a “policy” that resulted from negotiations with the administration of Gov. Chris Christie.
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In the Diablo Canyon agreement, PG&E plans to exceed that mark by another 5 percentage points.
