Diablo Canyon, Last Nuclear Power Plant In California, Will Shut Down

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco-based PG&E Co. announced Tuesday plans to close the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, California's last active nuclear power plant, by 2025.

The proposal to close the plant in San Luis Obispo County was jointly announced by the utility and labor and environmental groups.

The groups include the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1235, the Coalition of California Utility Employees, Friends of the Earth, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Environment California and the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility.

"California's energy landscape is changing dramatically with energy efficiency, renewables and storage being central to the state's energy policy," PG&E chairman Tony Earley said in a statement.

"As we make this transition, Diablo Canyon's full output will no longer be required. As a result, we will not seek to relicense the facility beyond 2025 pending approval of the joint energy proposal," Earley said.

The California Public Utilities Commission will have to approve the plan, which would replace energy from the plant with renewable energy, increased efficiency and energy storage resources.

Diablo Canyon was generating 8.6 percent of California's in-state energy as of 2014, according to the California Energy Commission.

The environmental group Friends of the Earth was created in 1969 with opposition to the construction of Diablo Canyon as its first campaign. The opponents voiced concern over the location of the plant near multiple known earthquake faults, including the San Andreas Fault.

A technical and economic report commissioned by Friends of the Earth helped guide negotiations over the proposal announced Tuesday, according to the group.

"This is a historic agreement. It sets a date for the certain end of nuclear power in California and assures replacement with clean, safe, cost-competitive, renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy storage," Friends of the Earth president Erich Pica said in a statement.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that he also supports the proposal.

"In its recognition that renewable energy is more cost-effective and viable than nuclear power, this proposal marks the beginning of an extraordinary chapter in energy production that will command attention around the world," Newsom said in a statement.

Newsom, who serves as chair of the State Lands Commission, will join the rest of the commission at its next meeting in Sacramento on June 28 to consider PG&E's application to extend its existing leases at the plant through 2025.

-Bay City News, image via dirtsailor2003/Flickr