Why California should reconsider shutting down its last nuclear plant, scientists say

Scientists from the MIT and Stanford have published a proposal 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.