Spend $400 million to demolish Diablo Canyon breakwater and haul it out of state? No way
Talk about idiotic.
Following closure of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in 2025, PG&E will be required to dismantle and remove nearly everything on site — including the massive breakwater in front of the plant.
Without a government reprieve, the breakwater must be demolished and hauled away bit by bit — sending more than 30,000 truckloads of debris through Avila Beach over the course of three or four years.
The project will cost ratepayers between $300 million and $400 million.
And it gets even more ridiculous: Due to a 2002 executive order from Gov. Gray Davis, it’s forbidden to dispose of even uncontaminated demolition waste from nuclear power plants in regular landfills like Cold Canyon and Chicago Grade. And due to ambiguities in state requirements, hazardous waste disposal sites like the Kettleman Hills landfill in Kings County are reluctant to accept construction debris from Diablo Canyon.
On top of that, there’s a capacity issue: Even if they could accept it, California landfills may not have the capacity to handle all that debris.
That means all those truckloads of broken-up breakwater would still have to be hauled out of state — at a cost of roughly $77 million
But why truck any of it off site?
There is a far more sensible approach: Regulatory agencies can — and should — allow the breakwater to either be reused or abandoned.
Port San Luis to the rescue?
The Port San Luis Harbor District, which already operates a popular fishing and boating harbor near the entrance to Diablo Canyon, has shown interest in the breakwater and the small PG&E marina.
Harbor Manager Andrea Lueker, who calls it “an opportunity of a lifetime,” outlined some of the possible uses for the breakwater and marina in a meeting of the Diablo Canyon decommissioning panel:
- Day-use sailing destination
- A boatyard
- A protected harbor for commercial and recreational fishing boats
- Mariculture
- Shared use with educational facilities, such as Cal Poly
- A location for a U.S. Coast Guard satellite facility
During a question-and-answer session, Lueker told the decommissioning panel she doesn’t envision a harbor “packed full of slips.”
“Something very minimal could work,” panel member Kara Woodruff responded.
But it’s far from settled. The takeover would have to be approved by various agencies, starting with the State Lands Commission, which controls the 3-mile-wide strip of tidelands just off the coast. PG&E operates under a State Lands lease that requires removal of the breakwater.
The California Coastal Commission also has a say in the matter, as does San Luis Obispo County.
And of course, the Harbor Commission still must decide whether it really is in the best interests of its constituents to take on such a big project.
SLO County buy-in
San Luis Obispo County, for one, has expressed at least lukewarm support for the idea of reusing the breakwater, though it has reservations about whether it can be successfully pulled off.
“The practical realities of repurposing the breakwater are complicated,” Assistant County Administrator Guy Savage testified in a recent PG&E rate case. “The county has not yet heard a proposal from PG&E or any other entity that addresses the entire universe of logistical questions that must be answered as part of such an undertaking.”
Access is one of the big challenges. Currently, the breakwater can be reached by land via Diablo Canyon Road, but once the plant is decommissioned, the road would need to be brought up to code, and that could cost $1 million per mile, Savage said.
Supervisor Adam Hill, whose district includes Avila Beach, echoed concerns about a government agency taking on the responsibility and liability for the breakwater.
“We don’t want to be on the hook for anything we couldn’t afford to take over. ... The county is not a business,” he said.
But he’s all for avoiding removal of the structure: “Ideally, the darn thing wouldn’t be pulled out. The impacts would not be fun.”
Liability concerns
Should no public or private agency step forward to rescue the breakwater, the next best thing would be to leave it in place.
There’s precedent for that: The San Onofre nuclear power plant near San Diego has been allowed to leave some underwater piping buried beneath the ocean floor.
But leaving an orphaned breakwater in place is more complicated.
For one thing, PG&E doesn’t want to be liable for the breakwater after it pulls out of Diablo Canyon, though that won’t be for quite a while. Decommissioning will take decades.
That provides plenty of time to come up with a solution that keeps the breakwater intact.
Demolition should be taken off the table — even as a last resort.
It would be an unconsionable waste of ratepayer dollars to destroy the breakwater and stick another state with the remains.
Andrea Lueker is correct in saying that reuse of Diablo Canyon facilities is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It should not be squandered because it sounds too complicated or too costly or too risky.
The harbor commission — along with any other interested agencies — should aggressively pursue acquisition of the Diablo Canyon breakwater and marina.
This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 6:46 AM.
