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Hearing Underway On Critical Leases Needed By Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant

The State Lands Commission is holding a day long hearing on whether it should extend some key leases for state land necessary for the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant’s continued operation.

Leases needed for the plant’s water intake, and cooling discharge channels are set to expire in 2018, and 2019. Without those leases, it could force the shutdown of the facility.

However, word that PG and & E has developed a plan with environmental, and labor groups to permanently close the plant by 2025 reduced some of the opposition to renewal of the leases. Some environmental, and community leaders say the nine years allowed under the plan is needed for an orderly shutdown of the facility, as well as to plan for replacement green power. But, others have been arguing that the shutdown needs to happen much sooner, citing seismic safety concerns, as well as impacts from the water releases from the plant.

The hearing is taking place in Sacramento, but dozens of people have been testifying remotely from a satellite site set up in Morro Bay.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.