SLO County: Court upholds decision to keep Diablo Canyon open

A federal court has upheld the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s decision to keep the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant operating after its permits expire in 2024 and 2025.

Three anti-nuclear groups sued the NRC in April 2023 over its decision, arguing that the agency should have held public hearings and completed certain safety and environmental reviews of the plant before PG&E could keep it running.

Those groups were Friends of the Earth, Mothers for Peace and Environmental Working Group.

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However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided that the environmental and safety reviews were not legally required, according to a decision released Monday. The court supported the NRC’s decision to keep the plant open while it reviewed PG&E’s application to renew Diablo’s operating permit.

According to a press release from Friends of the Earth, the anti-nuclear groups have rejected the court’s ruling and may request a rehearing of the lawsuit.

The group said the NRC and now the federal court are failing to hold PG&E to a high enough safety standard.

“Today’s decision is disappointing,” Friends of the Earth legal director Hallie Templeton said in the news release. “We filed our lawsuit because NRC played fast and loose with decisions that could literally lead to a meltdown. We will continue to fight to ensure that all relevant officials correctly and thoroughly apply the relevant laws to Diablo’s renewal attempt.”

The NRC did not want to comment on the lawsuit.

The court ruled that NRC was justified in continuing Diablo’s activities

The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, hidden in the hills near Avila Beach, generates 9% of California’s energy.

The plant’s twin nuclear reactors were originally scheduled to stop operating in 2024 and 2025.

In 2022, the state legislature passed Senate Bill 846, which directed PG&E to take action to extend the plant’s operating license to support California’s energy grid, as not enough clean energy had been produced in the state to replace it.

Normally, the NRC requires facility operators to apply for permit renewal at least five years before the existing permit expires.

However, in October 2022, PG&E submitted an application to the NRC for a waiver of the five-year term, requesting permission to resubmit a permit renewal application.

The NRC granted PG&E’s request in March 2023, allowing the utility to operate the nuclear plant beyond its scheduled shutdown dates, pending the NRC’s review of the application — as long as PG&E filed the application by the end of the year.

The NRC application review process will take a minimum of 18 months, according to the decision.

The NRC said continued operation of the plant was justified by California’s energy needs, outlined in SB 846, and would not endanger public health and safety.

The three anti-nuclear groups have taken the NRC to court over their decision in April 2023. Their lawsuit argued that allowing the planned plant closure should count as a modification of PG&E’s operating permit, which would require the NRC to hold a public hearing and conduct various safety and environmental reviews.

In addition, the groups said outdated safety equipment at the plant endangers the public.

However, in a decision released Monday, the court said the groups had not provided enough evidence to prove that continued operation of the plant would harm the public or the environment.

The court ruled that the NRC exemption does not count as a change to the plant’s operating license. This means that the public hearings and environmental and safety assessments were not legally required.

Meanwhile, “the NRC adequately explained why California’s changing energy needs constitute a special circumstance, and why its findings supported the findings that no undue risk to public health and safety exists,” the decision said.