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California’s only nuclear plant could now operate beyond 2025 The two-unit Diablo Canyon nuclear station could now remain online beyond its scheduled shutdown in 2025. California’s last commercial nuclear power plant could get a new lease on life after the Biden administration announced the approval of up to $1.1bn (€1.07bn) in conditional funding.

The grant funds may offer a path to keeping the two-unit Diablo Canyon nuclear station online beyond its scheduled shutdown in 2025.

In June 2016, station owner and operator PG&E announced that it had reached an agreement with organised labour and environmental organisations to increase its investment in energy efficiency and storage, as well as renewables, and to close Diablo Canyon upon the expiration of the reactors’ operating licences – November 2024 for Unit 1 and August 2025 for Unit 2.

But in September 2022, California legislators voted to extend the life of the state’s last nuclear power station by five years as protection against possible blackouts – provided the federal government pays much of the cost.

Mr Newsom, a longtime proponent of shutting down the station, reversed course and embarked on a last-minute effort to extend its operation. His administration cited “unprecedented stress” on the state’s energy system as a reason for keeping open Diablo Canyon, which alone accounts for 9% of the state’s generation and 17% of its electricity from carbon-free sources.

Newsom said “This investment creates a path forward for a limited-term extension of the Diablo Canyon power plant to support reliability statewide and provide an onramp for more clean energy projects to come online.

The Biden administration believes nuclear power is critical in curbing climate change and wants to keep plants open ahead of the development of next-generation reactors. President Joe Biden wants to decarbonise the power grid by 2035.

PG&E applied for funding from the DOE programme on 6 September.

Funding For Michigan’s Palisades Rejected

US energy Jennifer Granholm said the grant was a “critical step toward ensuring that our domestic nuclear fleet will continue providing reliable and affordable power to Americans as the nation's largest source of clean electricity”.

Final terms of the grant to PG&E are subject to negotiation and finalisation, the DOE said.

Diablo Canyon has two Westinghouse pressurised water reactors. Unit 1, a 1,138-MW PWR, began commercial operation in May 1985, while the 1,118-MW Unit 2 started providing power in March 1986.

Not every plant that applied is getting funding in the initial phase of the programme. Holtec International, which in May bought the single-unit Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, said the DOE had rejected its application for funding.

“We fully understood that what we were attempting to do, restarting a shuttered nuclear plant, would be both a challenge and a first for the nuclear industry,” Patrick O'Brien, a spokesperson for Holtec said.

Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer described keeping Palisades open as a “top priority” for the state.

“I will do everything I can to keep this plant open, protect jobs, increase Michigan’s competitiveness, lower costs and expand clean energy production,” Whitmer wrote in a letter to energy secretary Jennifer Granholm.

She said keeping Palisades in operation would protect 600 high-paying jobs at the 805-MW pressurised water reactor facility and 1,100 additional jobs throughout the community while also “shoring up clean, reliable energy production in Michigan”.

Date: Wednesday, 23 November 2022
Original article: nucnet.org/news/diablo-canyon-gets-usd1-1-billion-to-keep-reactors-online-but-palisades-misses-out-11-2-2022