The Diablo Canyon Independent Safety Committee held a public meeting in Avila Beach this week on the safety of California’s only operational nuclear power plant.
Representatives from Pacific Gas and Electric, the utility that runs Diablo Canyon, gave presentations on repairs, maintenance and how they’re planning for the power plant’s uncertain future.
Tom Jones, the Senior Director of Regulatory, Environmental and Repurposing at PG&E, said the California State Legislature will make the final decision on whether to keep Diablo Canyon running for an additional twenty years.
“ We'll see in the coming year, but [the decision] really needs to happen in 2026, because of our lead time for fuel purchasing,” Jones said. “It takes us about two years.”
Jones also mentioned that extending the life of Diablo in small increments could cause issues retaining qualified employees to run the plant.
PG&E expects the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board will approve two important permits pertaining to Diablo Canyon next week, and with those permits and a few other state level approvals completed, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can renew the plant’s license for another twenty years, according to Jones.
Al Bates, the director of nuclear projects for PG&E, also walked the committee through upcoming updates and inspections at Diablo. That included inspecting parts of the reactor vessel with what he called underwater drones.
Richard McWhorter, a consultant with the Diablo Canyon Independent Safety Committee, told the panel that during his visit to the power plant in December, PG&E demonstrated how they use an AI tool called Neutron.
"It was emphasized that the current uses of artificial intelligence, the current approaches keep the human in the role of decision maker and in validating that the information provided by the Neutron search tool is appropriate and correct,” McWhorter said.
The power plant started using the AI tool regularly in August of last year, according to a PG&E representative.
A 2024 press release announced the utility’s plans to use Neutron in Diablo Canyon’s operations. The statement called it “the first on-site generative AI deployment at a U.S. nuclear power plant.”
McWhorter recommended that even though there aren’t any significant safety concerns with PG&E’s plans to use AI at the plant, the committee should follow those plans and review them frequently, since the new technology could affect the safety of Diablo’s operations.
