The slow-motion crawl to keep the nuclear power plant at Diablo Canyon running vaulted another hurdle on Monday when the State Lands Commission approved extending the plant’s mean high-tide-line lease off San Luis Obispo County. The lease extension, which goes through October 2030, is part of California’s push to retain the electricity generated by Diablo after the years leading to epic drought, low reservoir levels, and extreme summer heat — despite the fact that operator PG&E had decided in 2018 to abandon the site and not continue with its permit extension.
The effort to persuade Pacific Gas &Electric to re-up included a $1.4 billion loan from the State Legislature and $1.1 billion from the feds — the federal funding to be used to pay back the state — and the utility resumed seeking a new permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which gave PG&E until the end of this year to file its application.
The utility noted in a press release that it had a number of state and federal regulatory decisions ahead before the plant can be relicensed, but called the State Lands Commission vote a “key milestone of Senate Bill 846,” the legislation that adopted the loan, along with several regulatory and oversight requirements. PG&E stated Diablo was the state’s largest producer of clean energy, to the tune of 2,300 net megawatts of power — enough to light up about 1.7 million homes.