By Camas Frank ~
On June 20 a landmark agreement between seven very different organizations was signed planning an end of the Atomic Era in the world’s sixth largest economy by 2025.
Representatives for Pacific Gas & Electric Co., say they will no longer seek to renew operating licenses for its two nuclear reactors at Diablo Canyon Power Plant and will phase out energy production by the end of their current license.
If everything goes as proposed, Unit 2 at Diablo Canyon will be the State of California’s last civilian nuclear reactor, operating for a year after the shutdown of Unit 1 in 2024.
Housed under the twin domes of concrete and steel, the reactors have been operational since May 1985 and March 1986.
Parties to the agreement include advocacy and environmental organizations that have been fighting the company since before the plant was constructed, as well as the union responsible for protecting their member’s jobs.
Signatories to the “Joint Proposal” as it was announced on June 21 are: PG&E, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local No. 1245, the Coalition of California Utility Employees, Friends of the Earth, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Environment California, and the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility.
Of those groups, only PG&E and IBEW have a history of promoting nuclear energy as a “clean” power source, a fact not lost on William Gloege, founder of the pro-nuclear, Californians for Clean Nuclear Power, which held a lunchtime “Rally for Diablo Canyon Power Plant” near the SLO County Government Center on June 17.
That event was co-hosted by Californians for Green Nuclear Power — a 3-year-old group of mostly retired professionals, families and friends of industry workers — and the IBEW #1245.
At the time, Gloege said the group was out in support of the plant’s technology as a solution to global climate change. He also pointed to Diablo’s seawater desalination facility as local drought mitigation.
After the announcement, he called the decision to close the plant, “a mistake to waste 30 years of the perfect power solution.”
As even the operator of the plant turns its attention to generating 55% of PG&E’s energy from renewable sources like wind, solar and hydroelectric by 2031 and have found that the most economically viable course of action, Gloege’s group would seem to be in the extreme minority viewpoint.
In the hours after the announcement, local leaders turned their attention to the economics of the situation and the eventual loss of more than $26 million a year in property taxes alone.
“PG&E and Diablo Canyon have been longtime important partners with so many in our community. Their social and economic contributions are great,” said Ermina Karim, president of the SLO Chamber of Commerce. “We share a vision of the increased availability and reliance on a diversified portfolio of energy sources and we support the coordinated approach with stakeholders that PG&E is pursuing in order to best bridge for the changes ahead.”
SLO County District 3 Supervisor Adam Hill who had spearheaded efforts to expand seawater desalination at the plant for county use also preferred to see the silver lining in the agreement, despite it putting an end to the County’s desal plan.
“On the bright side,” Hill said, “we haven’t spent much money on those plans yet and PG&E will reimburse us some…. The loss of Diablo is a blow to the community certainly. PG&E is a major part of funding local nonprofits and of sponsorships as part of their commitment to our region. Local schools [funded by property taxes from the plant] and nonprofits will have to adjust to the inevitable, but we saw this coming.”
A blessing in disguise of sorts, he added is that unlike the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Dieago County, which shut down practically overnight in 2012, the Central Coast has nine years in which to boost investment in other economic opportunities and prepare for the plant workforce to leave the area.
The City of SLO already had a head start in that regard, noted SLO’s City Manager Katie Lichtig. In an email shortly before the June 21 City Council meeting, Lichtig said that their team “has been in discussion internally and with other key regional stakeholders [such as the Economic Vitality Corporation and SLO County] related to the possible closure of Diablo Canyon. These conversations have intensified leading up to the State Lands Commission hearing next week. Now that PG&E has made their intentions clear, the City will move forward with our internal planning and coordination with the other regional stakeholders to develop a plan to address the economic and other impacts to the City and the region.”
Staff had already been working on an Economic Development Strategic Plan Update for that meeting.
As Hill noted, the direct financial impact to area school districts could be more profound than the gradual loss of area jobs.
Ryan Pinkerton, assistant superintendent of business and support services at the San Luis Coastal Unified School District (SLCUSD) said the taxes paid annually by PG&E amount to $9 million of the district budget. However, due to their funding mechanism with the State, there could be a $12.5 million hit overall.
It happened once before in 2001 when the utility company went through its own bankruptcy restructuring and was not able to pay.
“All we know right now is that they [PG&E] will go away in 2025,” Pinkerton said. “Many of these [subjects] came out [June 21] but the devil is in the details.”
Referring to a $50 million pledge in the Joint Proposal designed to offset such revenue losses through 2025, Pinkerton said, “We don’t know where or to who that money will go. We don’t know if the $9 million is steady or will devolve over the next nine years. Once we do we can plan accordingly.”
The Port San Luis Harbor is among many smaller agencies in the same position. Harbor Director Andrea Lueker reports that, “we get unitary tax of about $400,000 from PG&E. As soon as we find out some additional details, we will begin to plan for the loss.”
She added that she has been through this before with losses when the Houston-based company Dynegy closed the Morro Bay Power Plant during Lueker’s tenure as Morro Bay city manager.
One thing probably won’t be effected, access through PG&E property to the Port San Luis Lighthouse is not expected to change. The PSL Harbor District owns the lighthouse property.
Pinkerton pointed out that the concerns of local agencies are likely to take a backseat for the moment, as the PG&E’s primary concern no doubt rests with the1,500 Diablo Canyon employees and the impact the announcement will continue to have.
Among the key provisions of the 20-page Joint Proposal is a retention program for plant workers that, reads the company announcement, “will provide, among other things, incentives to retain employees during the remaining operating years of the plant, a retraining and development program to facilitate redeployment of a portion of plant personnel to the decommissioning project or other positions within the company, and severance payments upon the completion of employment.”
They also said the company had reached agreement on these benefits with IBEW and would, “immediately engage in bargaining with its other labor unions to ensure appropriate benefits for represented employees.”
Unique among signatories of the Joint Proposal the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility has long been concerned with the finances of the plant and PG&E’s answerability to local citizenry for the risks associated with a nuclear power plant.
In addition to the concerns of the employees who will stick with the plant through a decommissioning process, the Alliance’s Outreach Coordinator David Weisman issued a statement focused on the “significant achievements of this settlement … the utility’s commitment to preserve offsite emergency services after the shutdown. This has been a key concern at many former reactor sites, and we support PG&E’s leadership in endorsing this critical post-operation protection for the local community.”
Not part of the Joint Proposal was the San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, although many of its concerns were represented at the negotiating table by Friends of the Earth and the Alliance.
“We are pleased that PG&E now recognizes that renewables can replace Diablo Canyon economically,” Mothers for Peace spokesperson, Jane Swanson, said after they received PG&E’s announcement. “Mothers for Peace also applauds the agreement’s provisions to provide economic protection for workers and the community.”
However, they’re still concerned about the continued safe operation of the plant and decommissioning over the next decade.
The elephant in the room for them is the majority of the high level radioactive waste produced at the plant since 1985, and remains in spent fuel pools which they believe represents the largest liability at the site.
During a June 22 national radio interview, Damon Moglen, senior strategic adviser for Friends of the Earth, explained the confluence of factors in the Joint Agreement. “Diablo Canyon, when it closes, is going to be a massive nuclear waste dump,” he said. “There are thousands of tons of highly radioactive waste that are going to be at that plant. And we need the workers to know how to work there safely, to be protected, but also to isolate that very dangerous material from the environment. So, we were able to get the agreement to contain very large sums of money, hundreds of millions of dollars, ultimately, for worker retraining and retention, and also money for the community, because it’s going to be a big shock when the plant ultimately closes down, on the tax base for the community itself in San Luis Obispo.”
Ultimately, the decision to close Diablo Canyon comes in the wake of policy changes by the State Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown.
With the 55% renewables by 2031 commitment, PG&E will be ahead of the mandate signed into law requiring such utilities to get 50% of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030.
Congresswoman Lois Capps also released a statement about the decision not only influencing the State of California but also leading national energy policy.
“I am pleased to hear that they have been working with a wide range of stakeholders, including representatives from both the labor community and environmental interests, to ensure a responsible transition,” Capps said. “PG&E’s decision highlights the shift in our nation’s energy landscape — one that is moving more and more toward a clean, renewable energy future. The plant’s shutdown plan recognizes California’s move towards a modern, renewable energy economy by calling for increased development and expansion of locally provided clean energy alternatives. These investments will ensure the Central Coast continues to be a leader in the green energy economy.”
One other nagging problem Diablo Canyon has faced is a mandate by the State Water Resources Control Board to phase out so-called “once through cooling,” the use of seawater for cooling nuclear power plants, by 2020. Coming into compliance with that law would have meant building cooling towers at Diablo Canyon, an expense that had been estimated at as much as $12 billion.
This Joint Proposal is contingent on a number of conditions, starting with the extension of land leases by the California State Lands Commission at a meeting set for Tuesday, June 28 at the Inn at Morro Bay.
For further updates, a pdf file of the Joint Proposal and video clips of the June 17 demonstration, go online to: tolosapress.com.
