What should happen to the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant?
Positions compiled by: Analysts at The Society LibraryLast Updated: Mon May 20 2024
The Diablo Canyon Power Plant is the only operational nuclear plant in California. At the start of this debate, its two nuclear reactors were set to be decommissioned in 2024 and 2025 respectively. However, there are efforts to extend the life of the power plant. This paper details the different positions that various stakeholders' take on the issue of whether the plant should remain open or closed. We have collected over 5,000 arguments, claims, and pieces of evidence from the different points of view we discovered. Parts of this collection are incomplete and need more research and analysis. Please excuse the work in progress, this collection was released early due to legislative activities. To see more information about this collection or get more background context of this issue, unpack this sentence by clicking on it.
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Position: The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant's license should expire and the plant should be decommissioned as scheduled because of (expand for more) economic, environmental, safety, wellbeing, energy-related, ethical, educational, and political reasons.•
Position: The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant should be decommissioned immediately and not as scheduled because of economic, , environmental, energy-related, and ethical reasons.•
Position: In general, the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant's license should be extended and the power plant should be left to operate past its set decommissioning date (for example, for an additional five, ten, or twenty years) because of economic, environmental, safety, wellbeing, energy-related, ethical, educational, and political reasons.•
Position: The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant's operating license should only be extended if it is retrofitted with upgrades to operate more efficiently, safely, cheaply and/or in compliance with environmental regulations because of environmental, safety-related, economic, and efficiency reasons.•
Position: The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant's license should be extended and it should also become either a thorium reactor, or be used for hydrogen production or desalination as a polygeneration plant because of political, safety, energy-related, environmental, economic, and practical reasons.•
Position: The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant's license should be extended and it should continue producing nuclear energy, but only if regulations are changed to be more favorable to nuclear energy production because of economic, environmental, and safety, wellbeing reasons.•
Position: The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant should not be decommissioned, but it should not continue to be operated by PG&E. It should be purchased and operated by another entity because of safety, trust-related, political, and economic reasons.•
Position: Even if Diablo Canyon is not in active use daily, it should not be fully decommissioned in the event we need emergency dispatchable power and don't have time to build new reactors because of economic, energy-related, and safety-related reasons.•
Position: Who knows? It may be impossible to really know what the best course of action is in regards to Diablo Canyon because of epistemic reasons.