Avila Beach, Calif. (CN) — California residents, who already pay the most expensive electric bills in the country, worry they could see more rate hikes as utility giant PG&E seeks to extend operation of the controversial Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, the state’s sole remaining nuclear energy facility.
While some see that extension as a necessary bridge until California builds a better renewable energy infrastructure, others say the power plant represents a safety hazard due to its location near fault lines and decades of wear and tear.
“Diablo’s old,” said Caroline Leary, chief operating officer and general counsel for the nonprofit Environmental Working Group. “We haven’t seen or heard any plans to monitor or manage those aging impacts.”
While the plant has exceeded its original 40-year operating licenses, PG&E maintains it's continually upgraded and undergoes regular inspections by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission — with strong reviews.
“We have maintained and continue to make investments to ensure the continued safe and reliable operations of Diablo Canyon Power Plant per regulations and our operating licenses,” wrote Suzanne Hosn, a spokesperson for PG&E, in an email to Courthouse News. “We have and will continue to maintain the plant to the very highest standards and will ensure we meet all additional regulations and requirements to support extended operations.”
Diablo Canyon, which has operated since 1985, has always been controversial. And its continued operation will cost more than $6 billion — troublesome news for already burdened PG&E customers.
“This is actually impacting real people in real time, and it’s going to continue to happen,” Leary said.
In January, the California Public Utilities Commission approved a 13% increase in rates in a state where residents now pay close to $300 a month on average for gas and electricity. At the same time, regulators voted to allow PG&E to operate Diablo Canyon for another five years as the state pursues solar and wind energy.
The state had previously planned to shut Diablo down by next year, but ambitious clean energy goals have made it necessary to continue to operate the plant, Governor Gavin Newsom has argued, to avoid blackouts. Meanwhile, the Biden administration recently approved $1.1 billion to keep the plant running.
Newsom, who once opposed Diablo Canyon, set goals for the state to reach 90% clean electricity by 2035 and 100% by 2045. While nuclear plants don’t produce planet-warming CO2 emissions, Leary said the state could produce enough renewable energy now with rooftop solar panels — avoiding the risk of radioactive damage. Meanwhile, the state is pursuing lofty offshore wind projects, including one in Morro Bay, just a few miles up the coast from Diablo Canyon.
But pro-nuclear activists argue that wind and solar simply don’t produce enough energy to power a state with nearly 40 million people.
“As a scientist, I really oppose the idea of basing an energy policy on wishful thinking,” said Gene Nelson, a biophysicist and senior legal researcher with Californians for Green Nuclear Power, which advocates for keeping Diablo Canyon as a clean energy source. “We need reliable power. Wind and sun — neither are reliable sources.”
When reached for comment, Sophie Lee, a spokesperson for Invenergy — one of the companies selected to create wind power in California — sent a link to a report from the American Clean Power Association that concluded, “California foresees that offshore wind will provide 13% of the state’s power supply” by 2045.
That would be significantly more power than Diablo Canyon, which produces roughly 9% of California’s power. But Nelson isn’t convinced.
Both wind energy and solar, he said, rely on the vagaries of the weather. And if a lack of power resulted in blackouts, he added, that could cause safety concerns.
“Think about hospitals,” said Nelson, who frequently testifies about Diablo Canyon’s safety. “Think about airports. Think about pumping water into this Golden State. All of those things need power 24/7.”
The risks associated with nuclear energy, he said, are often exaggerated, pointing to the nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. After a major earthquake and tsunami hit the area in 2011, there were no direct deaths related to the plant, though one plant worker died in 2018 as a result of lung cancer related to radiation exposure.
Diablo Canyon features significant security and is said to be built to withstand a collision with a significant-sized plane. While several fault lines exist in the area, Nelson said he’s confident the plant’s two reactors would hold up to a major earthquake.
“When the Big One occurs, I would be very happy to be at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant because the plant is built so ruggedly,” he said.
The plant was built to last 70 years, he said, and parts were designed to be replaceable.
“It really can run for a century, easily,” he said.
The decadeslong safety debate is likely to continue, though. A researcher from UC Berkeley recently concluded the plant does represent a significant risk due to deterioration, according to the Los Angeles Times. And Daniel Hirsch, a retired director of the Program on Environmental and Nuclear Policy at UC Santa Cruz, told the Times that Diablo’s twin reactors contain an alarming amount of radioactivity that could trigger a meltdown if disrupted by an earthquake or accident.
“If you approve overturning the Diablo shutdown agreement, you risk culpability for a nuclear catastrophe,” he said.
Then there’s the issue of trust and accountability.
PG&E has been accused of repeatedly prioritizing profits over safety, the Guardian reported, enriching shareholders at the expense of safety. Faulty PG&E equipment has caused dozens of wildfires since 2017 that resulted in over 100 deaths. Those fires prompted the utility to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter and pay billions in settlements and fines.
And while PG&E has worked to modernize its technology, it's passing off the cost of those upgrades to customers — despite profits that rose nearly 25% in 2023, amounting to $2.4 billion.
“The shareholders don’t have to pay for the dilapidated equipment that causes wildfires,” said Alex Formuzis, who leads the Environmental Working Group’s communications efforts. “I don’t know of any other state where utility bills go up this much, this fast.”
Now costs related to Diablo’s continued operation are likely to appear in ratepayer bills.
“Those same customers will receive the benefit of 100% of market revenues to offset those costs,” Hosn wrote. “PG&E will be filing cost recovery applications at the CPUC annually that will address customer impacts going forward, the first of which will be filed this month.”
Nelson said research suggests rates will eventually decrease. And he thinks Diablo Canyon should continue to operate beyond five years because it produces clean energy and five times the power the Hoover Dam generates every year.
“You truly have a goose that lays golden eggs,” he said. “We need to keep it running for a long time, and we need to build lots more of them.”
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