Enlarge / California’s last nuclear plant will operate for at least another five years thanks to a new state loan. (credit: George D. Lepp)
On Wednesday, California legislators approved a plan to keep the state’s last nuclear plant open until at least 2030. While the timing of the vote was set by the end of the legislative session, it turned out to be symbolic: The state is facing a massive heat wave that is likely to break temperature records and set off a surge in energy demand. Even with the Diablo Canyon plant operating, the state announced a series of measures that are meant to help its electric grid manage the crunch.
Legislature acts fast
Many countries are facing debates similar to California’s: Nuclear power provides a significant amount of their carbon-emissions-free electricity, but the plants are less-than-ideally sited, aging, and getting increasingly expensive to operate. Combine that with publics that are often ambivalent about nuclear power, and it gets challenging to keep the plants operating—yet meeting climate goals without the plants is also extremely challenging.
In California, Diablo Canyon became the state’s last operating nuclear power plant after replacement boilers at the San Onofre plant started failing early in their planned life span. Diablo Canyon’s siting was always controversial—it turned out to be near a fault line that hadn’t been described prior to construction, and the cooling water it returned to the nearby ocean disrupted the ecosystems there. Eventually, resistance led to the decision not to seek extended licensing for the plant when its current one expired in 2025.
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