Lawsuit challenges $1 billion in federal funding to sustain California's last nuclear power plant

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: UK Independent

1 hour ago


An environmental group has sued the U.S. Energy Department over its decision to award over $1 billion to help keep California’s last nuclear power plant running beyond a planned closure that was set for 2025. The move opens another battlefront in the fight over the future of Diablo Canyon’s twin reactors.

Friends of the Earth, in a complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, argued that the award to plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric last year was based on an outdated, flawed analysis that failed to recognize the risk of earthquakes or other serious events.

The complaint called the safety assessment “grossly deficient” and accuses the Energy Department of relying on a 50-year-old environmental analysis. “The environmental impacts from extending the lifespan of this aging power plant at this point in time have not been adequately addressed or disclosed to the public,” the complaint said. An email seeking comment was sent to the Energy Department.

Diablo Canyon lies on a bluff overlooking the Pacific midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It began operating in the mid-1980s and supplies up to 9% of the state’s electricity on any given day. In 2016, PG&E, environmental groups and unions representing plant workers agreed to close the facility by 2025. But the Legislature voided the deal in 2022 after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom reversed his position and said the power is needed to ward off blackouts as the state transitions to renewables and climate change stresses California's energy system.


Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/california-ap-los-angeles-lawsuit-gavin-newsom-b2522993.html

[former9thward]

1. The Diablo Canyon reactors are featured in a new book just released this month.

Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen. Excellent book about a nuclear war between N. Korea and the U.S.

[hunter]

2. As the world burns...

If this plant is shut down it will be replaced by filthy natural gas plants of equivalent capacity.

The renewable energy "transition" is a lie, just as plastic recycling is a lie.

Hybrid natural gas / wind / solar power systems will not save the world.

There's more than enough natural gas in the ground to destroy whatever is left of the natural environment as we know it. It's best we leave that gas in the ground.

[womanofthehills]

5. Actually, Sun Zia NM wind farm

Will produce way more electricity for less money than a nuclear reactor. Sun Zia will produce 3500 MW of electricity for 8 billion dollars & the average nuclear reactor in US produces about 900 MW and costs about 2 to 3 times more

[progressoid]

3. Yeah, shut it off so we can burn more fossil fuels

[sakabatou]

4. What we really need is a second, newer reactor plant.