Keeping Diablo Canyon open could come with hidden costs | Opinion

President Donald Trump’s changes to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission — which give the White House de facto control over the agency — should be a wake-up call for California’s governor and the state Legislature.

A series of executive orders intended to reduce costs and streamline regulations for the nuclear industry make the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant more vulnerable.

Nuclear power is the most expensive way to produce electricity due to high capital costs and necessary safety measures. That is why the nuclear industry is dependent on government subsidies. In 2022, California Senate Bill 846 authorized significant tax dollars and ratepayer funds to pay for five additional years of operation for the 1960s-era nuclear plant that would have otherwise been mothballed this year.

SB 846 was structured to give the owners, PG&E, a $1.4 billion “forgivable loan,” of which $1.1 billion was supposed to come from the federal government. While the state paid the full amount to PG&E, the federal funds to reimburse the state have yet to be paid.

It’s possible the Trump administration may withhold the promised funding as it has for other grants approved under the Biden administration.

It will cost at least $8 billion to keep Diablo open

While $1.4 billion is a lot of money, it is not sufficient. The additional cost to keep Diablo operating for those five years is estimated to exceed $8 billion, a cost that will be borne by ratepayers throughout the state. This is because SB 846 also requires Southern California Edison customers and San Diego Gas and Electric customers pay PG&E for operating the nuclear plant, even though they don’t receive any of its electricity. (Diablo Canyon’s power goes to central and northern California.) All these additional funds, and more, are necessary to pay for an exceedingly expensive energy source.

That is why the Trump administration seeks to reduce costs by loosening safety regulations, including an executive order to raise the limits on human radiation exposure levels.

According to the past chair of the NRC, Allison Macfarlane, taking the oversight of our nation’s radiation safety away from experts at the NRC and giving it to politicians and non-experts increases the risk of nuclear accidents. Will a gutted Federal Emergency Management Agency be prepared to respond if there is a nuclear accident, or will that, too, be something the state must shoulder on its own?

The steamrolling of the NRC was further exemplified by President Trump’s firing of Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Christopher Hanson in June. As described by the Associated Press, “The firing of Hanson comes as Trump seeks to take authority away from the independent safety agency, which has regulated the U.S. nuclear industry for five decades.”

Commissioner Hanson was the one commissioner who made a commitment to review the seismic adequacy of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in its relicensing decision. Given the existence of an active thrust fault directly under the plant that has not been fully assessed, President Trump’s decision to remove Mr. Hanson from the NRC is even more troubling.

State should not be on the hook

It is folly for the state to give PG&E hundreds of millions of dollars and possibly be on the hook for over $1 billion at a time when it is facing a severe budget deficit and grappling to find funds for food banks, health services and schools.

It is unfair for ratepayers to have to endure higher electricity bills when they already pay the highest rates in the nation, save for Hawaii.

It is disingenuous for PG&E to apply for a 20-year license extension — which would strengthen its stranglehold on ratepayers and government for an additional two decades — when state legislators agreed to only five additional years of operation.

It is incumbent on the state to reevaluate its funding of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. When SB 846 was passed, the state’s budget was flush with revenue. That is no longer the case and the heightened financial and safety risks of continuing to fund an old nuclear plant with less oversight, on an active earthquake fault, demand an accounting.

Since SB 846 was passed, California has added significantly more energy to the grid, along with an unprecedented amount of battery storage. We can make California a more sustainable, less expensive and less risky place to live and do business by pulling the plug on the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant.

Linda Parks serves on the boards of Mothers for Peace and the Environmental Defense Center. A resident of Los Osos, Ms. Parks is a Cal Poly alumni and served on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors and is a past mayor of the city of Thousand Oaks.

This story was originally published July 9, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Keeping Diablo Canyon open could come with hidden costs | Opinion."