To close or not to close a nuclear plant? That is the question

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Friday, Aug. 19. I’m Hailey Branson-Potts, a state reporter who focuses on rural California.

In the midst of climate change, the Golden State is undergoing a major energy transition. It is moving away from fossil fuels. And although there have long been plans to shut down the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, which sits on a scenic stretch of coastline, the closure could be delayed.

I spoke to my colleague Sammy Roth, who covers energy and writes the weekly Boiling Point newsletter, about what is going on with the nuclear plant.

Tell me a little about Diablo Canyon, the seaside nuclear plant near San Luis Obispo. How old is it, and how much do Californians rely upon it for energy?

Diablo Canyon has been around for a long time. It opened in the mid-1980s. Construction began in the ’60s, and it took forever to build the thing.

There was a lot of controversy then. This was around the time of Three Mile Island, the partial meltdown of a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.

In California, there was a lot of concern about what would happen in an earthquake. There were fault lines discovered near the plant. Jerry Brown, when he was governor for the first time in the 1970s, was very out there, publicly opposing its construction.

It’s now the largest single source of electricity in California.

It’s been scheduled to close, right?

Currently, it’s supposed to shut down — the first reactor in 2024 and the second reactor in 2025. California has been making preparations for that for quite a while, trying to build the clean energy resources that we’ll need to replace it.

But those replacement energy sources are coming together more slowly than they were supposed to.

In the meantime, we’re having problems keeping the lights on even with Diablo Canyon still operating, partly because it’s getting hotter because of climate change. More people are using their air conditioning during heat waves. We’ve also been shutting down gas plants, which contribute to climate change but are useful for supplying power after the sun goes down and solar panels stop generating.

State law requires that all of the state’s electricity come from clean energy sources by 2045. So, why is Diablo Canyon, our biggest single source of zero-emission energy, targeted for closure?

From a climate change perspective, it is a clean energy source. It is zero carbon, and unlike solar and wind, it can generate power 24 hours a day.

But there is still really strong anti-nuclear sentiment: fears of radiation, fears of what would happen in an earthquake. There is a lot of debate over how high the risks are for Diablo Canyon.

The reason it was actually scheduled to shut down is because Pacific Gas & Electric Co., which owns and operates the plant, realized it was going to have to spend large amounts of money upgrading it to comply with environmental regulations, having to do with its use of ocean water. The utility company also might have had to spend a lot of money on earthquake-safety upgrades. That would have cost in the billions.

Rather than spend all that money, PG&E reached an agreement with environmental groups and with its own workforce to shut down the plant instead.

It basically sucks in a lot of ocean water?

Coastal power plants use ocean water to cool down steam once it’s passed through the electrical generators. A lot of plants do the same. California required them to either stop using ocean water for cooling or shut down.

So they suck up a lot of ocean water. It kills fish, and part of the problem is that when they release the water back into the ocean, it’s much warmer, and that has a negative impact on marine life as well.

You reported earlier this month that Gov. Gavin Newsom is trying to keep Diablo Canyon open.

Newsom’s proposal is, basically, let the plant keep running past 2025, possibly as long as 2035. PG&E wouldn’t have to upgrade equipment to comply with the environmental rules. Ocean water could still be used, and the state of California would give PG&E a loan of $1.4 billion, which it would not have to repay if used to keep the plant operating.

Why? And what is the reaction?

Newsom’s argument is, if we don’t do this, we may not be able to keep the lights on consistently. People may remember, we had rolling blackouts two years ago this month.

Nuclear is super, super divisive. You’ve got people who are pro-nuclear who are thrilled, treating Newsom’s turnaround on Diablo Canyon as the greatest thing that’s ever happened. On the other side, you’ve got the traditional contingent of folks who are — potentially for good reason — scared of nuclear and think the safest thing is to shut the plant down.

There’s also been an argument from some environmentalists who are critical of nuclear power that we do have the ability to replace it with other clean energy sources.

The ideal energy source to complement solar and wind is something that you can switch on when the sun goes down or the wind stops blowing — like a battery. A nuclear plant, you can’t do that. You’ve got to have it on all the time. It’s very inflexible.

Is it really going to shut down?

It’s so hard to predict. If you had asked me six months ago, before Newsom came out and said he was thinking we should go a different direction on this, I’d have said it was never going to be revived, and it would shut down on time.

I was surprised. I think because of climate change and the power shortage issues in California and other parts of the country, and support from the Biden administration for nuclear, there seems to be a little bit of a sea change happening.

Is there anything else that would be good to know?

One of the other big questions with nuclear is, where do we store all the nuclear waste?

There are ongoing efforts to build temporary nuclear waste storage facilities in Texas and New Mexico, but those are facing local opposition. And the federal government still has not fulfilled its promise made long ago to build a permanent repository for nuclear waste.

Right now, you’ve got radioactive waste basically just piling up at Diablo and other nuclear plants. That’s a problem that still needs to be solved.

And now, here’s what’s happening across California:

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L.A. STORIES

It was once the nation’s largest trash heap. Now it’ll be an inspirational L.A. County park. Puente Hills Regional Park is being carved from 142 acres of a former 1,356-acre landfill that once held one-third of Los Angeles County’s garbage. It is set to become the first regional park the county has created in 30 years. Los Angeles Times

L.A. is finally separating food waste from trash. Will residents embrace composting? (Yes, another story that involves trash.) Los Angeles is rolling out its curbside composting program, delivering composting pails to an initial group of 40,000 homes. If all goes as planned, the expansion of this program will allow every Angeleno to conveniently recycle kitchen scraps, thereby reducing the burden on landfills and helping stem the production of Earth-warming greenhouse gases. Los Angeles Times

Strippers have a new tactic in a North Hollywood labor fight. Organizing with an actors union. For months, former dancers at Star Garden in North Hollywood have picketed outside, alleging the bar is a workplace plagued by unsafe conditions, a lax attitude toward dangerous patron behavior and unfair terminations. Now, they want to unionize. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Ex-Congressman TJ Cox blames politics for federal charges. He plans a “vigorous” defense. After being released from Fresno County Jail on Tuesday night, the former Democratic representative said he would vigorously defend himself against 28 federal charges, including wire fraud, money laundering, financial institution fraud and campaign contribution fraud. Fresno Bee

A bill that would seal certain criminal records could open doors for millions of Californians. State lawmakers on Thursday approved legislation that would allow some Californians with criminal convictions to have those records sealed if they maintain a clean record. The bill is being celebrated by criminal justice reform advocates and harshly criticized by law enforcement. Los Angeles Times

CRIME, COURTS AND POLICING

A man who kidnapped a bus full of children in 1976 has been officially granted parole. Frederick Woods and two other men kidnapped 26 children and their bus driver in Chowchilla, Calif., in 1976 and ordered their victims into a van buried six feet underground. After 16 hours, the driver and children dug themselves out and escaped as the kidnappers slept. Now, Woods has been granted parole. CNN

He collected his dead father’s funds as the body decomposed for years, officials say. A man who died last month in the Amador County town of Jackson is suspected of leaving his father’s body in a chair in their home for about three years in order to collect the older man’s Social Security and retirement funds, authorities say. Los Angeles Times

Nevada County police blotter: Caller concerned about possible voodoo at crosswalk. I got my start at a tiny rural Oklahoma newspaper and can’t resist a local crime blotter like the ones I used to transcribe from a daily fax from the police department. This was reported in Grass Valley: “A caller from Neal Street requested assistance after she got an electric shock after pressing the crosswalk button. She thought voodoo was possibly involved, but said it wasn’t bad and she was fine.” The Union

HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Here’s where California’s cliffs are collapsing into the sea the fastest. The consequences of cliff erosion in California are severe, with roads, railways and other critical infrastructure potentially at risk. A detailed new study and map show that cliffs along the northernmost coast have been eroding faster than the more populated bluffs of Southern California. Los Angeles Times

Coastal fog has kept the Bay Area cool. What happens now that “Fogust” is fading? Pull out your short sleeves if you live in the Bay Area because the winds are shifting and temperatures are expected to rise — just as pumpkin spice latte season begins. San Francisco Chronicle

Federal officials announce funding to combat “megadrought.” The Department of the Interior plans to allocate more than $310 million on efforts, including 20 water recycling projects in California, to combat the phenomenon throughout the West that is being compounded by climate change. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: Sunny, 85. San Diego: Partly cloudy, 76. San Francisco: Sunny, 71. San Jose: Sunny, 84. Fresno: Sunny, 106. Sacramento: Sunny, 102.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory is from Victoria Tucker:

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

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