LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥 An environmental group has sued the U.S. Energy Department over its decision to award over $1 billion to help keep California鈥檚 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鈥檚 twin reactors.
Friends of the Earth, in 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District Court in Los Angeles, argued that the award to plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric last year was based on an outdated, flawed analysis that failed to recognize the risk of or other serious events.
The complaint called the safety assessment 鈥済rossly deficient鈥 and accuses the Energy Department of relying on a 50-year-old environmental analysis.
鈥淭he 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,鈥 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鈥檚 electricity on any given day.
In 2016, PG&E, environmental groups and unions representing plant workers the facility by 2025. But the Legislature voided the deal in 2022 after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and said the power is needed to as the state transitions to renewables and climate change stresses California's energy system.
Since then, disputes have swirled about the safety of Diablo Canyon's decades-old reactors, whether taxpayers might be saddled with hundreds of millions of dollars in additional costs and even if the electricity is needed in the age of solar and other green energy.
PG&E has long said the twin-domed plant is safe, an assessment endorsed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The Biden administration approved $1.1 billion in Energy Department funding in . The financing came through the administration鈥檚 , which is intended to bail out financially distressed owners or operators of nuclear power reactors as part of the administration鈥檚 effort to by 2030 compared with 2005 levels.
PG&E has said it wants to keep the plant open to 鈥渆nsure statewide electrical reliability and combat climate change鈥 at the direction of the state.
The utility is seeking a 20-year extension of its federal licenses, typical in the industry, but emphasized the state would control how long the plant actually runs. A state judge has conditionally approved a blueprint to keep it operating for an additional five years, until 2030.
California is the birthplace of the modern environmental movement and for decades has had a fraught relationship with nuclear power. The fight over Diablo Canyon is playing out as the long-struggling nuclear industry in the era of global warming. Nuclear power doesn鈥檛 produce carbon pollution like fossil fuels, but it leaves behind waste that can remain for centuries.
