zlacker

"That is because these systems use the central power grid, which largely runs on fossil fuels, as a kind of battery to cope with power shortages." - not according to PG&E reports from Sonoma County, California, where less than 5% is fossil (natural gas) for 2022.

PG&E Generation Mix: 5% Biomass & Biowaste, 1% Geothermal, 2% Eligible Hydroelectric, 22% Solar, 9% Wind, 8% Large Hydroelectric, 5% Natural Gas, 49% Nuclear.

>>imbusy+(OP)
They're just 9% away from giving 110%.

Good hustle!

>>jancsi+h2
Also, that nuclear plant is going offline in about a year [https://www.pge.com/en_US/safety/how-the-system-works/diablo...]

>>lazide+t7
I don't think that it will be. The state and PG&E want to keep it running through 2030 and the federal government is helping:

https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/environment/article...

Diablo Canyon was expected to stop operating its twin reactors in 2024 and 2025, but the state failed to procure enough clean energy to replace the plant in time. In September, the California State Legislature passed Senate Bill 846, which allocated $1.4 billion to PG&E to fund the nuclear power plant’s license renewal costs for staying open through 2030.

That was followed by a $1.1 billion grant to PG&E in November from the U.S. Department of Energy through President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law.

The NRC in March told PG&E it can run Diablo Canyon past its original closure dates without a current license as long as the utility company submits a valid license renewal application for the two reactors by the end of 2023.

PG&E has said it will file a license renewal application for Diablo Canyon by the end of this year.

>>lazide+t7
It's unlikely to go offline. They've got the funding to keep it open, they're just waiting on federal acceptance of their continuation plans.

>>lazide+t7
Planned to go offline, but probably will keep getting extended. This would be an incomprehensible decision.

>>philip+99
Hah! Still, that does rather shoot the original boast in the head, eh?

'We're renewable, as long as we do emergency measures (and override safety rules) to keep our creaking old nuke plants online because we can't get enough renewable energy.'

>>lazide+t7
This is the event that made think it'll probably stay open:

https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2022/6/why...

It seems like a big chunk of the Democratic party started supporting nuclear power at roughly the same time. The IRA passed a few months later, with subsidies for nuclear.

>>lazide+F9
Who is saying safety rules are being overridden?

>>imbusy+V24
It was slated for shutdown because of tritium leaks and corrosion issues considered too expensive to mitigate - https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1116/ML11166A174.pdf

they’ll be allowed run as long as the application is pending - regardless of any fixes or not, no? That’s very convenient!