Nuclear Waste
“Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.” – Lawrence J. Peter
As the post-Covid global energy crisis began to unfold, California Governor Gavin Newsom faced a serious dilemma. With a degrading electricity grid, the prospect of ongoing rolling blackouts, and the need to import significant electricity from other states just to keep the lights on, Newsom could no longer let his state play footsie with those opposing the basic laws of physics. Environmental activists – a cornerstone of Newsom’s political coalition – had spent decades opposing new nuclear power facilities in the state while working tirelessly to shut down existing ones. California’s last remaining nuclear power plant was set to close in 2025 and under no reasonable scenario was this a responsible course of action but mustering the political support to keep it open seemed daunting. Here’s how we framed the situation in a piece we wrote in December of 2021 called California Ditzkrieg (emphasis added throughout):
“The Diablo Canyon Power Plant has been cranking out carbon-free electricity for almost 40 years. It supplies nearly 8% of the state’s total power needs and 10% of what it produces for itself (this might come as a shock to our readers, but California suffers from extreme NIMBY Syndrome, and prefers to import roughly a quarter of its electricity needs from other states). As a share of the state’s baseload power, Diablo is an even more critical asset delivering approximately 20% of the state’s needs. As of this writing, we can find no credible plan to replace this steady and reliable grid anchor.”
To Newsom’s credit, he worked behind the scenes to extend Diablo Canyon’s license to operate, spending significant political capital to do so. He won overwhelming support in the California State Legislature, collaborated with the Biden administration to help offset the costs, and faced down opposition from the most extreme elements of the state’s notoriously radical environmental movement. After California lawmakers passed the bill officially granting Diablo Canyon its much-needed reprieve, even NPR celebrated the news:
“‘Maintaining operations at Diablo Canyon will keep our power on while preventing millions of tons of carbon from being released into the atmosphere,’ said Isabelle Boemeke of the group Save Clean Energy. ‘This is a true win-win for the people of California and our planet.’
Nuclear power has seen a resurgence in recent years as the climate crisis has worsened and governments increase efforts to cut climate-warming emissions. The Biden administration launched a $6 billion effort earlier this year aimed at keeping the country's aging nuclear plants running.
‘Have no doubt, President Biden is serious about doing everything possible to get the U.S. to be powered by clean energy,’ Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Kathryn Huff told attendees at a nuclear energy assembly in Washington, D.C., earlier this summer. ‘Nuclear energy is really essential to this,’ she said.”
With near-unanimous bipartisan support and backed by the full weight of the Presidency, surely this was a done deal, right? Wrong. In his efforts to postpone the catastrophe that would undoubtedly result from the premature closure of Diablo Canyon, Newsom underestimated the response from the most violently anti-nuclear organization in the country. We turn to Power Magazine for the all-too-predictable details:
“The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has denied a request from California utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to renew a review of an operating license application for the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. The move at least temporarily puts on hold plans to extend the operation of two reactors at Diablo Canyon, the last operating nuclear power facility in the state.
PG&E in October 2022 had asked the NRC to resume consideration of an application—first submitted in 2009—to keep Diablo Canyon in operation. The NRC on Jan. 24, though, said it would not resume consideration of the previous license-extension plan. NRC staff said ‘it would not be effective or efficient’ to start the licensing review without updated information on the plant’s condition.”
It might disappoint our readers to learn that the federal agency charged with overseeing the US civilian nuclear power fleet has, since its inception nearly five decades ago, worked tirelessly to stunt the industry’s growth, oppose nuclear innovation at every opportunity, and rob the American people of the benefits of clean and reliable nuclear power. Although the NRC was created “as an independent agency by Congress in 1974 to ensure the safe use of radioactive materials for beneficial civilian purposes while protecting people and the environment,” as the logo and homepage make clear, “beneficial civilian purposes” were always deeply junior in priority.
History has shown that no benefit is great enough to offset even the most infinitesimal and imaginary risks concocted by this most bloated bureaucracy (with the knowing aid of the environmental radicals who work there). Some problems are too big to fix. It’s time to eliminate the NRC as a federal agency and start over. Let’s dig in.