Keeping Diablo Canyon open wasn’t political, head of U.S. nuclear regulatory agency says

The decision to keep Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant running past its originally scheduled closure dates wasn’t political, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman said during a visit to the plant last week.

Chris Hanson was designated by President Joe Biden in 2021 to lead the agency, which oversees the safety and operations of the United States’ nuclear power plants.

On Friday, Hanson took his first-ever tour of the PG&E facility near Avila Beach. Accompanying him was Rob Lewis, the acting Region 4 director for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March told PG&E that it could continue to operate Diablo Canyon, California’s last nuclear power plant, past its planned closure dates in 2024 and 2025.

“At the moment, I’m happy to say that things are operating securely and safely here at the plant,” Hanson said during his visit.

NRC chairman’s visit to Diablo Canyon comes after effort to keep the power plant open

The first big push to keep Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant open came from Gov. Gavin Newsom in late April 2022. At that time, the Los Angeles Times published an interview with the governor where he said the state would apply for federal funding to keep the power plant operating.

Diablo Canyon supplies about 9% of California’s total electricity, according to PG&E. The state has been unable to replace the 2,200-megawatt plant with other sources of greenhouse-gas-free energy sources — leading to fears of energy shortages during heatwaves and other emergencies if the plant were to shut down as previously planned.

Following Newsom’s push, the state Legislature passed Senate Bill 846 in September, which allocated $1.4 billion in a forgivable loan to PG&E to help finance the process to keep Diablo Canyon’s nuclear reactors operating past 2024 and 2025.

The U.S. Department of Energy then granted PG&E $1.1 billion in November to keep the plant open.

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

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission holds the reins for Diablo Canyon because it is the government body that chooses whether to grant its operating licenses.

After the new legislation and funding availability, PG&E sent the Nuclear Regulatory Commission a letter in October with two options for possibly keeping the plant open.

First, PG&E requested that the NRC pick up its review of an updated version of its 2009 license renewal application for Diablo Canyon — which it had withdrawn in 2018 as it moved to close the plant.

If that wasn’t acceptable, PG&E requested the agency allow PG&E to submit an entirely new license renewal application. To do this, regulators would need to grant PG&E an exemption from the federal law that mandates license renewal applications be submitted at least five years before a nuclear power plant is expected to close, according to PG&E’s October request letter.

The NRC denied the first option in January.

Two months later, the agency granted the second request, therefore allowing the power plant to operate with expired licenses while the commission reviews the new application.

‘No politics were involved’ in decision to keep Diablo Canyon open, NRC chairman says

During his visit to Diablo Canyon on Friday, Hanson noted the decision to exempt PG&E from the federal law wasn’t political.

“We’re an independent agency. We don’t take policy direction, even from the administration,” Hanson said.

Hanson added that the five commissioners, including himself, are the sole political appointees in the agency.

“The decision about whether or not to grant the exemption, whether or not to grant the request to resume review of the license, that actually wasn’t a commission decision,” Hanson said. “The technical decisions at the NRC are made by the career technical staff.”

“We do not mix — and nor do we want to — nuclear safety and politics,” he continued. “No politics were involved.”

Hanson also said in his visit that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s decision to grant PG&E the exemption was “more straightforward” than picking up its review of PG&E’s 2009 license renewal application.

PG&E is required to submit a new license renewal application by the end of this year, according to the NRC’s acceptance of the exemption request.

Diablo Canyon “is operating safely right now,” Hanson said, and the plant will operate beyond its original expiration dates with continued safety inspections.

“The only way they’ll (PG&E) get to do that is with the high standards that we impose and that they (PG&E) impose on themselves,” Hanson said during his visit.