On the surface, Pacific Gas & Electric’s recent decision not to seek to renew its U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission operating licenses that expire in 2024 and 2025 — for two nuclear reactors at the Diablo Canyon power plant in San Luis Obispo County — makes sense for a variety of reasons.
The fracking revolution in energy production has unleashed such a glut of cheap natural gas that nuclear power can’t compete on a cost basis, prompting plans to close aging plants around the nation in recent years. State laws require that utilities must rely much more on renewable energy going forward, and the declining cost of solar power makes that switch easier. The State Lands Commission, at the behest of a commission member, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom,appeared intent on making it difficult for the Diablo plant to renew leases expiring in 2018 and 2019 on state tidelands where intake and outflow chutes for the plant’s cooling system are located. The State Water Resources Control Board is also concerned about the plant’s effect on nearby marine life. Many politically influential California environmentalists have for years demanded Diablo Canyon’s immediate closure, citing its vulnerability to earthquakes and raising concerns about the earthquake-driven disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011.
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