Groups appeal NRC’s decision to keep Diablo Canyon open: ‘Simply unacceptable’

A petition filed in federal appeals court argues that keeping California’s last nuclear power plant operating past its license expiration dates “poses an undue risk to the public health and safety.”

The opening brief was filed June 30 in the U.S. Ninth Circuit of Appeals by anti-nuclear and environmental groups San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Friends of the Earth and Environmental Working Group against the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The groups argue that the NRC’s decision to allow PG&E to operate Diablo Canyon Power Plant after its licenses expire in 2024 and 2025 was improper because the federal agency failed to hold a public hearing or do a comprehensive safety and environmental review before issuing its decision.

“The NRC decision to extend PG&E’s license renewal for Diablo Canyon without a thorough review knowing that the plant sits on active earthquake faults and has not had other safety upgrades or inspections for years puts millions of Californians at risk,” Caroline Leary, attorney for Environmental Working Group, said in a prepared statement.

“It’s simply unacceptable for federal regulators to sidestep long-established protocols to ensure a decrepit nuclear power plant like Diablo Canyon is not posing a potentially catastrophic threat to the public and the environment,” Leary said.

PG&E granted exemption from federal law to keep Diablo Canyon open

Located just north of Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County, Diablo Canyon produces about 9% of the state’s total power.

The 2,200-megawatt nuclear power plant was set to stop operating its twin reactors in 2024 and 2025,.

Efforts to keep Diablo Canyon operating past those dates started when the state, which is working to transition away from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy, failed to procure enough clean energy to replace the plant in time.

In September, the California State Legislature passed Senate Bill 846, which allocated $1.4 billion to PG&E to fund the nuclear power plant’s license renewal costs for staying open through 2030.

That was followed by a $1.1 billion grant to PG&E in November from the U.S. Department of Energy through President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law.

The NRC in March told PG&E it can run Diablo Canyon past its original closure dates without a current license as long as the utility company submits a valid license renewal application for the two reactors by the end of 2023.

Under a federal law known as the “timely renewal rule,” nuclear power plant operators must submit a license renewal application at least five years before the current license is set to expire.

Because Diablo Canyon’s licenses expire in 2024 and 2025, the NRC granted a PG&E request to exempt it from that law.

In other words, PG&E can continue operating Diablo Canyon past 2024 and 2025 while the NRC reviews the new license renewal application, which can take several years.

NRC decision puts public at risk, petition claims

The petition filed June 30 in federal appeals court challenges the NRC’s decision.

“The NRC has recklessly ignored its own reactor timely renewal rule, a key component to safeguard the safety of operating a nuclear reactor, mandating, for good reason, that license renewal applications must be submitted years in advance of license expiration to protect applicants from extended regulatory delays,” Diane Curran, legal counsel for Mothers for Peace, said in a prepared statement.

The petition asserts that exemptions to the timely renewal rule typically happen with much more time allowed for the NRC to review a license renewal application.

In this case, the NRC would have only about 11 months to review the license renewal application for Diablo Canyon before the first reactor was set to close down.

Operating the power plant without current licenses puts the public at undue risk, the petition alleges.

“The exemption decision allows PG&E to operate indefinitely past its operating license expiration dates without a safety or environmental review or hearing,” the June petition says.

Additionally, the NRC’s decision doesn’t ensure there will be a public hearing on Diablo Canyon’s license renewal application before the current licenses expire, according to the petition.

Plus, the NRC didn’t do an environmental review before allowing the power plant to continue operating.

If “there are ‘substantial questions’ as to whether an agency’s actions will have a significant effect on the environment,” then failure to prepare an environmental impact statement is a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act, the petition says.

The groups allege in the petition that an environmental review was required before the NRC granted PG&E an exemption from the timely renewal rule because it could pose a significant environmental impact.

Environmental review of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant was necessary because of the “unique” safety issues posed by extended operations, according to the petition.

Those unique issues are due to the “deteriorating effects on safety equipment caused by aging,” the petition says.

Diablo Canyon has been in operation since 1985.

The NRC has yet to respond to the petition filed in federal appeals court.

Separate lawsuit filed in San Francisco court against PG&E

The petition came after Friends of the Earth filed a lawsuit against PG&E in San Francisco Superior Court in April.

That lawsuit alleged that PG&E will violate a decommissioning contract it made with environmental and labor groups in 2016 if Diablo Canyon remains open past its originally scheduled closure dates.

PG&E and labor union International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245 both filed demurrers to dismiss the case.

A hearing in the case is set to be held on July 27 at the San Francisco Civic Center courthouse.