Keeping Diablo Canyon open can help California achieve its climate goals, researchers say
By John Engel -12.2.2021


Extending the life of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant could help California achieve its ambitious climate goals, while saving customers billions of dollars and reducing reliance on natural gas, according to a new study.

Researchers at Stanford University's Precourt Institute for Energy and the Massachusetts Institute for Technology Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems found that extending Diablo Canyon's life by 10 years would reduce carbon emissions from California's power sector by more than 10 percent annually from 2017 levels and save ratepayers a total of $2.6 billion. By keeping the plant open until 2045, ratepayers would save $21 billion, they determined.

“The worsening climate crisis requires urgent action to accelerate emission reductions,” said lead author Jacopo Buongiorno, director of the MIT Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems. “An inclusive strategy that utilizes Diablo Canyon, in addition to an aggressive build-out of renewables and other sources of clean generation, would significantly reduce California’s power sector emissions over the course of the next two decades.”

In 2018, the California Public Utilities Commission approved a settlement to shut down Diablo Canyon, which currently provides 8 percent of California's electricity production and 15 percent of its carbon-free electricity.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, a proponent of nuclear energy, told Reuters that she would be open to talking with state officials about extending the life of Diablo Canyon because of "… a change underfoot about the opinion that people may have about nuclear."