PG&E agrees to close Diablo Canyon in 2025

[KamaAina]

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/article84993992.html

In a momentous decision with far-reaching consequences, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has announced it will not pursue license renewal for the two reactors at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant and will close it in 2025 — ending a tumultuous 31-year relationship with the community and causing an annual economic impact of nearly $1 billion locally.

The closure is part of an agreement with labor and environmental organizations announced Tuesday in which the utility agrees to increase investment in energy efficiency, renewable power and electricity storage to offset the power that will no longer be produced by the nuclear plant.

Closing Diablo Canyon will mean the end of an era in nuclear power in California. Diablo is the last nuclear power plant operating in the state, after the 2012 shutdown of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Clemente.

“California’s energy landscape is changing dramatically with energy efficiency, renewable and storage being central to the state’s energy policy,” PG&E’s Chairman Tony Earley said in a prepared statement. “As we make this transition, Diablo Canyon’s full output will no longer be required.”

[petronius]

1. That's a lot of land that I hope is kept as open-space, and made more accessible

It would be great to see some hiking and biking trails connecting Avila Beach to Montana de Oro, and up over the Irish Hills. It would be a lot less nice to see developments filling in that area. (Although I suppose maybe one really nice and affordable ocean-view house--for me, natch--would be acceptable... )

[Brother Buzz]

2. The reactors might have been have been forced to close sooner, but I suspect they struck deal

JUNE 21, 2016

5 More U.S. Nukes to Close, Will Diablo Canyon Be Next?

by HARVEY WASSERMAN


A rising tsunami of U.S. nuke shut-downs may soon include California’s infamous Diablo Canyon double reactors. But it depends on citizen action, including a statewide petition.

Five U.S. reactor closures have been announced within the past month. A green regulatory decision on California’s environmental standards could push the number to seven.

The focus is now on a critical June 28 California State Lands Commission meeting. Set for Sacramento, the hearing could help make the Golden State totally nuke free, ending the catastrophic radioactive and global warming impacts caused by these failing plants. A public simulcast of the Sacramento meeting is expected to gather a large crowd at the Morro Bay Community Center near the reactor site. The meeting starts at 10 a.m., but environmental groups will rally outside the community center starting at 9 a.m.

The three State Lands Commissioners will decide whether to require a legally-mandated Environmental Impact Report under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). If ordered, a public scoping process will begin, allowing interested groups and individuals to weigh in on the environmental impacts of operation of two nuclear reactors on California’s fragile coastline.

In 1969 and 1970 PG&E got state leases for tidewater acreage for Diablo’s cooling system. These leases are set to expire in 2018 and 2019. If the State Lands Commission does not renew them, both reactors will be forced to shut down.

<more>

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/06/21/5-more-u-s-nukes-to-close-will-diablo-canyon-be-next/

[hunter]

3. To be replaced by something worse, without a doubt.

Fracked gas and it's window-dressing of solar and wind power, and increasing "property values" will encourage further coastal development.

Just as electric car use is accelerating.

There are no winners in high energy industrial economies.

Big Money has destroyed most of the California I loved.

No worries. In ten years the climate change monster will probably be chewing on the U.S.A. hard. Maybe we'll change our minds about large electric grids, automobiles, and all that other environmentally destructive rot.

Until then I see most anti-nuclear activism as another flavor of climate change denial.

I protested this plant when it was built, but I won't cheer its closure.

Cheap fracked gas is the devil.