OPPD Reports Progress In Adding Solar, Gas Generation Despite Challenges
October 18, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
October 18, 2022
Omaha Public Power District says that, despite challenges, it is making progress on plans to add 600 megawatts (MW) of utility-scale solar and 600 MW of natural gas generation to its portfolio.
The Nebraska public power utility said the new generating resources, which are being built under its Power with Purpose initiative, will help maintain the long-term reliability and resiliency of its electric system while supporting its goal of becoming a net-zero carbon dioxide emitter by 2050.
OPPD is working on procuring the major equipment needed for its 81-MW Platteview Solar project in Saunders County for which about 30 percent of the civil and electrical design work is already complete.
OPPD is also developing a plan for pollinator friendly ground cover at the solar site that conforms with its Prairies in Progress project that aims to reduce landscape maintenance costs while providing habitat for butterflies and bees.
Progress on the solar project comes despite the challenges posed by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s investigation into foreign solar panel imports. In March, Commerce began an investigation into whether certain photovoltaic solar cells and modules imported from Southeast Asia are circumventing U.S. tariffs.
The deadline for a preliminary determination was pushed back from late August to November 28. A final determination is now likely in the spring of 2023, OPPD said. The utility said it continues “to closely follow developments to determine potential impacts and the best path forward as we bring on additional” solar projects.
OPPD has also completed the process of delivering nine Wärtsilä reciprocating internal combustion engines to Standing Bear Lake Station, the natural gas-fired generation balancing project that the utility is building.
Later this fall, OPPD said two Siemens simple-cycle combustion turbines and generators will be moved to the Turtle Creek Station, the site of its other new natural gas-fired generation balancing station project. Meantime, the utility’s construction team is building the infrastructure to support the plant. Both plants are scheduled to be completed by 2024.
Standing Bear Lake station will be capable of generating 150 MW, and the Turtle Creek station will be able to generate 450 MW, OPPD spokeswoman Julie Wasson said.
Separately, OPPD’s board of directors approved a recommendation by utility management to revise a policy directive to include a target of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions at its North Omaha Station (NOS) plant site by 3.5 million tons annually, compared with 2013 emission levels, by 2027.
The revision coincides with the utility’s anticipated timeline for the retirement of NOS Units 1-3, which were previously converted from low-sulfur coal to natural gas, and the conversion of Units 4 and 5 from low-sulfur coal to natural gas.
In August, the board approved a recommendation to temporarily postpone that transition until the utility’s new natural gas generation balancing plants are fully studied and approved for grid interconnection service in accordance with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rules.
Inflation Reduction Act, Retiring Coal Plants Create Opportunities for Advanced Nuclear Plants
October 16, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
October 16, 2022
The retirement of aging coal-fired plants combined with the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act has created an opportunity for public power utilities looking to secure long-term, reliable supplies of clean energy, according to advanced nuclear firm NuScale Power.
“The Inflation Reduction Act is the first transformative climate piece of legislation ever in the U.S. to treat nuclear energy as a clean energy source,” Chris Colbert, Chief Financial Officer at NuScale Power, said.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) provides production tax credits (PTC) for existing nuclear power plants but, more importantly, for new nuclear power plants and specifically for advanced reactors and small modular reactors – the type NuScale Power is working on. The IRA amends the definition of a qualified facility eligible for a “clean PTC” to mean any plant placed into service after Dec. 31, 2024, that produces zero greenhouse gas emissions.
The IRA also amends the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rules on qualifying for a clean energy investment tax credit (ITC) by changing the language in the code to allow investments for advanced reactors to qualify for the credit. The change provides a tax credit of 30 percent of the cost of building a zero-emission advanced nuclear power plant that is placed in service after 2025.
“If you design and plan to put in a small modular reactor at the site of a retired coal plant, there is a further 10 percent ITC available, and if you use domestic content there is another 10 percent ITC added on,” Colbert said. “That can add up to a 50 percent reduction in costs.”
In September, the Department of Energy (DOE) released a study that found that hundreds of coal power plant sites across the country could be converted to nuclear power plant sites.
Of the 157 retired coal plant sites and 237 operating coal plants surveyed, the DOE study found that 80 percent were good candidates to host advanced reactors that are smaller than 1 gigawatt (GW).
Converting retired coal plant sites to nuclear power has the potential to add 64.8 GW of clean energy to the power system, and converting operating coal plant sites to nuclear power could add 198.5 GW to the grid, the DOE found.
Between 2015 and 2020, an average of 11 GW of coal-fired capacity retired every year, according to the DOE. The pace of retirements slowed in 2021, to 4.6 GW, but is expected to pick up this year with 12.6 GW of coal retirements scheduled. Additionally, plant owners and operators say they plan to retire 59 GW of the coal-fired capacity by 2035.
Each NuScale small modular reactor (SMR) is designed to generate 77 megawatts (MW) of electricity. Up to 12 SMRs can be combined to make a 924-MW VOYGR™-12 power plant. In addition to their compact design, which makes them scalable and cost competitive, SMRs have enhanced safety features. NuScale’s Power Modules are designed to safely shut down and self cool indefinitely without the need for an external power source. And the factory-fabricated design of a NuScale SMR allows them to be built and assembled in the United States.
Converting the site of a coal plant to nuclear power could also increase employment and economic activity in affected communities, according to the DOE report. And replacing a large coal plant with a nuclear power plant of equivalent size could increase jobs in the region by more than 650 permanent positions, leading to additional annual economic activity of $275 million, implying a 92 percent increase in local tax revenue compared with the tax revenues from the operating coal power, the DOE study found. A case study included in the report was based on a NuScale design example.
For public power utilities, the employment and tax concerns could be a particularly important consideration when deciding what to do with a coal plant or how to meet growing electricity demand while pursuing goals to move toward a clean energy or zero emissions economy.
“The question is, what are you replacing it with,” Colbert said. “By converting to nuclear power, you can do it in a way that does not throw hundreds of people out of work. Those workers would basically be doing the same thing they were doing before, but they would be paid a little more. And the community would be able to keep things going as they were. Nuclear power can mean continued employment, as well as a clean, affordable and reliable energy supply.”
The benefits of SMRs fit well with the needs of public power utilities, Colbert said. Instead of having to take a share in a large nuclear power plant, public power utilities can take a stake in a nuclear plant configured with the number SMRs to match their demand while having the comfort of knowing that more units could be added, if needed, in the future.
The Inflation Reduction Act also grants other benefits to public power utilities by providing a refundable direct pay credit that allows them to take advantage of tax credits that have been available to for-profit utilities for years.
The overwhelming majority of renewable energy projects have been financed using tax credits, either a PTC or an ITC. The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the value of energy-related tax incentives in 2022 alone would be $25 billion. Because they cannot directly benefit from tax credits, public power utilities have been left out of many of those projects.
Even before the legislation was signed, several public power utilities were considering adding an SMR plant to their generation portfolio through the deployment of NuScale’s technology.
Furthest along in embracing SMRs, however, is Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), which is working toward the deployment of a NuScale VOYGR-6 SMR power plant as part of its Carbon Free Power Project at the DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls.
The prospects of the Carbon Free Power Project were bolstered in August 2020 when NuScale announced that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) had completed the last and final phase of the Design Certification Application process for the design of its SMR technology, a crucial first step in the nuclear permitting process.
NuScale is now looking forward to reaching another milestone in the regulatory process.
In July, the NRC directed its staff to issue a final rule certifying NuScale’s SMR design.
The rulemaking would amend NRC regulations to incorporate NuScale’s SMR standard plant design, which would allow applicants intending to build and operate an SMR plant to reference the design certification rule.
“If approved, the certification would be published in the Federal Register and have the effect of law,” Colbert said.
The rulemaking is on the docket for the NRC to make a decision in November.
The timing is important.
“Many people are still wrapping their heads around the impact of the IRA,” Colbert said.
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking.
The Biden administration has set a goal for the country to reach 100 percent carbon dioxide pollution-free electricity by 2035. And the support provided by the IRA has an expiration date. The expanded ITC benefits go away in 2032 or when 75 percent decarbonization is reached.
“It is a great opportunity – the expanded ITC and the potential availability of former coal plant sites – but folks are going to need to get ahead of this if they want to ensure a secure supply of affordable, reliable electric power,” Colbert said.
Company Looks to Extend Operation of 2,400-MW Texas Nuclear Power Plant
October 8, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
October 8, 2022
Vistra Corp. on Oct. 3 announced that it is seeking to extend the operation of Luminant’s Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant in Texas through 2053, an additional 20 years beyond its original licenses.
Luminant is a subsidiary of Vistra.
The company has officially submitted its application for license renewal with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The two-unit nuclear plant has a capacity of 2,400 megawatts.
The current licenses for units 1 and 2 extend through 2030 and 2033, respectively. The company is applying to renew the licenses through 2050 and 2053, respectively.
Oak Ridge Lab Report Helps Hydropower Operators Prepare for Climate Change
October 8, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
October 8, 2022
A new report from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) aims to provide hydropower operators data that will better enable them to plan for changing climate conditions.
The data collected and analyzed in the report can aid operators in shifting operational schedules and seasonal water use as part of an overall mitigation strategy in the face of changing climate conditions and reduced water availability, the report’s authors said.
Among other findings, the report projects that earlier-than-expected snowmelt season in the western United States is likely to impact water runoff, resulting in less water for hydropower generation in the summer months, just as energy demand grows. In addition, Increased evaporation because of rising temperatures is also putting a strain on water needed for flood control, navigation, municipal water supplies and industrial and agricultural use.
The report also found that, except for part of summer and fall, there is a persistent increase in projected precipitation, especially in the winter, resulting in a net annual precipitation increase of up to 8 percent.
On a seasonal basis, the report found that winter and spring runoff are generally projected to increase across the conterminous United States while summer runoff is projected to decrease for many parts of the country, especially in the West and the South, resulting in a shift in the timing and seasonality of the water availability.
That effect may be magnified in the Southwest and Southeast because hydropower reservoirs in those regions have less storage capacity than federal hydropower reservoirs under the control of the Bonneville Power Administration and the Western Area Power Administration, the report found.
As a result, on a seasonal basis, most models project increasing hydropower generation in winter and spring, and decreasing generation in summer and fall caused by earlier snowmelt and changing runoff, the report said.
The combination of declining winter heating load and increasing hydropower generation suggests that federal hydropower surpluses are likely during the winter months, the reports’ authors said. Thus, they said, the ability to shift water from winter to summer months and to maximize the revenue from winter surpluses to compensate for potential increased power purchase requirements in the summer will be valuable for all power marketing administrations.
The ORNL researchers used downscaled global climate projections to simulate future hydrologic conditions at 132 federal hydropower facilities across the United States to compile the report.
In order to provide more hydropower stakeholders with the tools and data to plan for climate change impacts, the Department of Energy said it is extending its research to non-federal hydropower facilities, whose operators may not have the resources to study and address these challenges.
PNNL Report Says Hydropower Can Still Perform During Extreme Droughts
October 8, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
October 8, 2022
Even during the severe droughts of the last two decades, hydropower has sustained 80 percent of average power generation levels, according to a report by researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
“That’s a noticeable dip — but it’s still a lot of renewable energy,” Sean Turner, water resources modeler at PNNL and main author of the report, said in a statement.
The megadrought in the Southwest is the driest and longest in the last 1,200 years, depleting water reservoir levels to critically low levels over the past 22 years and has raised concerns among policymakers and system planners over the reliability of the electric grid.
Droughts particularly affect hydroelectric power dams, as well as some thermoelectric power plants that require large amounts of water for cooling. But drought rarely impairs hydroelectric power across all regions of the Western United States simultaneously.
In the last 20 years, there has not been a drought that has affected all major hydropower generation regions at once, the report said, noting that current river flows and reservoir levels in California and the Southwest are low due to ongoing drought, which affects hydropower generation in those regions, but the lion’s share of hydropower generation in the West is dispatched to the grid from the Northern Cascades and Columbia River Basin, in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia.
“The current drought is severe but it’s nowhere close to being the worst hydropower generation year for the West and water resource conditions are actually above average right now in the Northwest,” Turner said.
The report combined 20 years’ of annual power generation data from more than 600 hydroelectric power plants with historical precipitation data from eight hydropower climate regions of the Western United States and used the data to extrapolate hydropower generation as far back as 1900.
The findings were published in a retrospective report funded by the Water Power Technologies Office within the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
Meanwhile, another PNNL researcher is investigating how well hydropower dams perform during heat waves and exceptional load demand. PNNL power systems modeler Konstantinos Oikonomou that a heat wave can actually create favorable conditions for hydropower plants.
Rapid snowpack melt during a heat wave can help reservoirs fill with water, which can allow hydropower plants to meet increased load demand, Oikonomou said.
To further test their results, PNNL hydrologists and power system modelers simulated the effect of compound heat waves and droughts on the power grid and found that regional interconnections are critical to manage extreme events.
Oikonomou’s research is now focused on creating a new framework for simulating grid behavior under extreme weather conditions, such as compounding droughts and heat waves, and under occurrences like faulty transmission lines.
“This information will help power plant operators and system planners explore mitigation strategies to fortify the grid against outages,” Oikonomou said.
Florida’s Cane Island Power Park Named Top Power Plant
October 7, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
October 7, 2022
Florida’s Cane Island Power Park has received a Top Plant Award from POWER magazine for its continued success in providing affordable, reliable and clean power.
The power generating facility is one of five natural gas-fired power plants in the world to be recognized and the only one located in Florida.
Cane Island Power Park, located in Intercession City, Fla., is jointly owned by Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA) and Kissimmee Utility Authority (KUA). Units 1, 2 and 3 are a 50/50 split between the two utilities, and Unit 4 is wholly owned by FMPA. KUA manages the day-to-day operations of the plant.
The award recognizes top performing power plants that have distinguished themselves as industry leaders through equipment enhancements, innovative design and successful operations.
The plant received the award for its excellent operating record in 2021, which plays an essential role in providing customers with affordable, reliable power. This was especially true when Hurricane Ian hit Central Florida as a Category 4 storm on Sept. 28.
Cane Island operated throughout the storm and supplied electricity to customers who were able to take power.
“We rely on Cane Island to generate nearly half of our energy,” said Jacob Williams, FMPA General Manager and CEO. “The facility’s operating performance during Hurricane Ian shows just how reliable the units are.”
Cane Island Power Park includes two baseload units, one intermediate load unit and a peaking unit. The two baseload units were available approximately 95% of the time in 2021 to provide electricity for 24 Florida cities served by FMPA. The industry average for similar units is 85%.
In Spring 2022, Cane Island Unit 3 completed a major maintenance and upgrade, its first performance upgrade since it came online in 2001. Maintenance work was conducted to replace and repair major components to ensure continued reliable service over the next decade. The upgrades also increased the unit’s output by 12 megawatts.
“We are extremely honored to receive this award in recognition of the reliability, maintenance and operation of our Cane Island Power Plant,” said KUA President and General Manager Brian Horton. “This award is a true testament to our 42 staff members who do an excellent job operating the facility.”
DOE Begins Accepting Applications for $7 Billion in Funding for Hydrogen Hubs
October 4, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
October 4, 2022
The Department of Energy (DOE) recently opened the application process for a $7 billion program to create regional clean hydrogen hubs (H2Hubs) across the country.
As part of a larger $8 billion hydrogen hub program funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the DOE said the H2Hubs will be a driver in helping communities across the country benefit from clean energy investments, good-paying jobs, and improved energy security while supporting the Biden administration’s goal of achieving a net-zero carbon economy by 2050.
For the initial funding opportunity launch, the DOE aims to select six to 10 hubs for a combined total of up to $7 billion in federal funding.
Hydrogen is a versatile fuel that can be produced from clean, diverse, and domestic energy resources, including wind, solar, and nuclear energy, or by using methane while capturing resulting carbon to reduce emissions, the DOE said. Hydrogen’s characteristics also make an option to decarbonize energy-intensive heavy industry and support heavy-duty transportation, the agency added.
Concept papers for H2Hubs proposals are due by Nov. 7 with full applications due by April 7. Additional funding opportunities may follow to accelerate and expand the network of clean hydrogen projects, the DOE said.
The DOE has also released a draft of the National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap for public feedback. A final version of the strategy and roadmap is scheduled to be released in the coming months with an updated version at least every three years.
In February, the DOE released requests for information to inform the implementation and design of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s hydrogen programs, which includes $8 billion for Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs, $1 billion for a Clean Hydrogen Electrolysis Program, and $500 million for Clean Hydrogen Manufacturing and Recycling Initiatives to support equipment manufacturing and strong domestic supply chains.
NYPA Project Demonstrates CO2 Reduction Potential of Green Hydrogen
September 27, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
September 27, 2022
The New York Power Authority (NYPA) recently concluded a demonstration project that showed decreased carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions when using green hydrogen blended with natural gas to generate power.
The demonstration project, at NYPA’s Brentwood Small Clean Power Plant on Long Island, was led by NYPA in collaboration with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), General Electric and Airgas, an Air Liquide company.
While NYPA and other power companies already use hydrogen for equipment cooling, the Brentwood project marks the first retrofit of an existing U.S. natural gas facility that enabled use of green hydrogen blended with natural gas to fuel a power plant.
Green hydrogen is produced using renewable resources.
The project used blends of 5 percent to 40 percent hydrogen to identify and document any effects on the operation of General Electric’s LM-6000 combustion turbine engine and found that CO2 emissions decreased as the amount of hydrogen increased.
In addition, at steady state conditions, the exhaust stack levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide, and ammonia showed that emissions could be maintained below limits mandated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation using the existing post-combustion technologies and with no known detrimental effects on the gas turbine operations.
The results could prove consequential for power plant operators to begin testing and using hydrogen fuels to lower CO2 output with minimal or no required modifications to plant systems, NYPA said.
In March, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey formed a coalition to develop a proposal to become one of at least four regional clean energy hydrogen hubs designated by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. In September, Maine and Rhode Island joined the coalition.
DOE Study Says Hundreds Of Coal Plant Sites Could Be Converted To Nuclear Plant Sites
September 16, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
September 16, 2022
A new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) study finds that hundreds of coal power plant sites across the country could be converted to nuclear power plant sites.
“This would dramatically increase the supply of firm and dispatchable clean electricity to the grid and deliver huge gains to the nation’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050,” DOE said.
According to the report, this coal-to-nuclear (C2N) transition could help increase nuclear capacity in the U.S. to more than 350 gigawatts (GW). The existing fleet currently has a combined capacity of 95 GW and supplies half of the nation’s emissions-free electricity.
The transition would also bring tangible benefits back to energy communities with additional jobs, new economic activities, and improved environmental conditions, DOE said. The report is available here.
The Investigating Benefits and Challenges of Converting Retiring Coal Plants into Nuclear Plants report analyzed a hypothetical but representative coal power plant site and the surrounding region to investigate the detailed impacts and potential outcomes of a C2N transition.
After screening recently retired and active coal plant sites, the study team, comprised of multiple DOE national labs, identified 157 retired coal plant sites and 237 operating coal plants sites as potential candidates for a C2N transition.
Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory conducted the study, which was sponsored by the Office of Nuclear Energy.
The team further evaluated the potential coal power plant sites based on a set of ten parameters, including population density, distance from seismic fault lines, flooding potential, and nearby wetlands, to determine if they could safely host a nuclear power plant.
The team found that 80% of the potential sites, with over 250 GW of generating capacity, are suitable for hosting advanced nuclear power plants. These nuclear power plants vary in size and type and could be deployed to match the size of the site being converted.
While these coal power plant sites possess the basic characteristics needed, further investigation is required before a C2N transition can occur.
This includes an investigation into ownership of the plant, an in-depth evaluation of the remaining coal power plant infrastructure, and a consideration of other factors that could pose siting challenges.
After identifying a study site, the team examined how a C2N transition would bring significant financial, economic and environmental benefits to energy communities.
According to the study, if a large coal plant site is replaced by a nuclear power plant of equivalent size, jobs in the region could increase by more than 650 permanent jobs for the NuScale design example in the case study. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently directed its staff to issue a final rule that certifies NuScale’s small modular reactor (SMR) design for use in the U.S.
These jobs are spread across the plant, the supply chain supporting the plant, and the community surrounding the plant and most typically come with wages that are about 25% higher than any other energy technology.
The occupations that would see the largest gains include nuclear engineers, security guards, and nuclear technicians, DOE said.
“Nuclear power plant projects could also benefit from preserving the existing experienced workforce in communities around retiring coal plants sites. Many of these workers already possess the necessary skills and knowledge requirements needed to help transition their skills to work at a nuclear power plant,” DOE said.
The study also indicates that as new jobs increase economic output and improve wages across the community, the economic well-being of community members in the region will improve.
Based on the case study, long-term job impacts could lead to additional annual economic activity of $275 million. This includes an increase of 92% tax revenue from the nuclear plant for the local county when compared to the tax revenue from the coal plant prior to its closure.
These tax payments would also increase the amount of money given to improve local schools, infrastructure projects, and public services.
DOE also noted that high construction costs “have consistently plagued the nuclear energy industry for years, but a C2N transition can help lower these costs — especially for first-of-a-kind development projects.”
The study shows that reusing coal infrastructure for new, advanced nuclear reactors can save around 15-35% in construction costs.
C2N projects could use the existing land, connection to the grid, and office buildings. Reusing the coal plant’s electrical equipment (transmission connection, switchyard, etc.) and civil infrastructure (roads, buildings, etc.) would also save millions of dollars upfront.
Next Steps
Other analyses can use this study’s methods to set up a site analysis based on a specific coal plant site and a specific type of nuclear reactor.
Conducting parts of this study for different sites would determine more accurate estimates of the environmental and economic impacts of the C2N transition on the region, DOE said.
These new analyses would also determine how specific nuclear plants could use certain infrastructure at the coal plant sites, resulting in more accurate estimates of savings associated with avoided construction costs.
Michigan Governor Backs Effort To Reopen Nuclear Power Plant
September 15, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
September 15, 2022
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Energy in support of Holtec International’s application for a federal grant under the Civil Nuclear Credit (CNC) program that would keep the Palisades nuclear power plant in Southwest Michigan operational.
On May 20, the 800-megawatt plant’s former owner, Entergy, made the decision to close the plant 11 days ahead of the planned May 31 shutdown “due to the performance of a control rod drive seal.”
The Palisades plant was shut down on May 20, when its current fuel supply ran out and the power purchase agreement with investor-owned Consumers Energy expired. The plant was sold to Holtec Decommissioning International in June 2022.
“With your support, Holtec plans to repower and reopen the Palisades,” Whitmer wrote in the Sept. 9 letter to Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.
Holtec International applied for a CNC on July 5 in an effort to keep Palisades open.
If Holtec is approved for a CNC, Michigan is ready to support the company by identifying state funding and facilitating a power purchase agreement, Whitmer’s office said.
California Lawmakers Approve Legislation That Allows For Nuclear Plant’s Continued Operation
In related news, California lawmakers recently voted to approve legislation that allows for the possible extension of the operation of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant (DCPP), California’s only remaining operating nuclear power plant.
The vote to approve the measure followed on the heels of a recent California Senate Committee hearing related to the possible extension of the operation of the DCPP.