Keeping Diablo Canyon could save $21 billion: MIT, Stanford

Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University have published a 113-page report outlining ways to retrofit California’s Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, which is currently scheduled to be decommissioned and closed in August 2025.

The plan would save up to $21 billion in power grid costs if Diablo Canyon were kept open until 2050.

In addition, keeping the plant open to 2050 would preserve 90,000 acres of land that would otherwise need to go to be covered in photovoltaic solar panels to meet California’s climate goals. The scientists also propose that Diablo Canyon could be used as a site for a desalinization plant to provide much-needed water to the state, and a plant to produce hydrogen for use in clean-energy solutions.

The report, entitled “An Assessment of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant for Zero-Carbon Electricity, Desalination, and Hydrogen Production” and published in November, is meant to spark new public conversations about the nuclear power plant’s future.

PG&E, the owner of Diablo Canyon, told CNBC it is not reconsidering its decision to decommission and close the plant. But the scientists behind the report hope another utility might take it over.

“There have been many such changes of ownership of nuclear power plants in the U.S. over the years,” said Jacopo Buongiorno, a nuclear science and engineering professor at MIT who co-led work on the report.

Buongiorno started the project in Sept. 2020 with Sally Benson, a professor of energy resources engineering at Stanford University. The final report lists eight authors, including seven academics and one consultant from Lucid Catalyst, a clean energy and decarbonization strategy firm.

“Funding for the study was all from internal university resources and philanthropic donations; no money from industry was sought or accepted,” Buongiorno told CNBC.