Pacific Gas & Electric, the electricity provider for northern California, has reached a deal with environmental and labor groups to close the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant and replace it with a combination of renewable energy, efficiency and energy storage.
Under the terms of the deal struck with Friends of the Earth, the Natural Resources Defense Council and others, PG&E will renounce plans to seek license renewals for the plant's two reactors, which expire in 2024 and 2025 respectively. In the meantime, the utility will propose a plan to the California Public Utilities Commission to replace the generation from the 2,240 MW plant with clean energy resources.
The deal ends an extended struggle over the future of the plant, the Washington Post notes, during which critics raised concerns over the safety of the plant, located near a major geological fault line on the central California coast. Diablo is the last nuclear plant in the state and provides about 9% of California's electricity.
