Support California's
Zero-Emission
Future
Please sign our petition to Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Energy Commission (CEC) to formally recognize our need for nuclear to successfully decarbonize all sectors of the economy while securing and growing our energy supply, commence issuing permits, support new developments and pro-actively bring
California into the 21st Century.
What it's about.
Our Asks
We are petitioning to require that the state use facts and science to best position California for energy success.
What's at Stake
California needs to take action to attract nuclear power development or risk failing to meet our SB 100 goals.
Supporting Info
We present detailed support and explain why this is the right time for the CEC and Governor to take action.
Our Asks.
Position California for success in meeting SB 100's goals while securing our energy supply.
California is one of the most progressive, productive and innovative conomies in the world. Yet we are ceding our clean energy leadership because we have blinders on about nuclear power. We seek to get the CEC to utilize facts and science because nuclear waste has both existing and new solutions and hasn't hurt anyone—but if we don't solve climate change, it will cause increasing amounts of death and destruction. There are plenty of solutions to nuclear waste but not many types of energy that can compete with fossil fuels. Nuclear is the best solution and it is increasingly clear that deploying more nuclear power is how we can achieve both energy security and a zero-carbon grid by 2045.
What's at Stake?
Basically, whether California will be able to compete for the clean energy, the companies and the advanced technologies of the future. Oh, and our planet's future, too.
In case you haven't noticed, climate change is here. The earth is warming at an alarming rate and weather is getting ever more unpredictable, weird and extreme. As good as wind and solar are, they rely on the weather to generate power. This isn't a good recipe for ensuring that we have reliable power whether or not the wind is blowing or a hurricane or tornado hits. We need alternative base load clean power that isn't weather dependent and which can help generate clean power 24x7x52. Nuclear power can do all that an we need more of it and soon! It is time to start preparing for that future now!
Read more about why the time is right
We have solutions to nuclear waste . . . with more coming.
No one has been hurt by nuclear waste. Nuclear energy is the only type of energy whose waste is safely stored. In contrast, fossil fuel waste is released into the atmosphere, where it causes chronic disease, premature deaths and climate change. There are proven and novel options for handling nuclear waste but no options for handling fossil fuels waste, which is why we need more nuclear, to be able to transition away from fossil fuels. Thus, California should declare that the terms and concerns of the 1976 moratorium have been satisfied and new permits may be granted.
We can reuse nuclear waste, rather than just store it.
As nuclear emerges as one of the most critical sources of clean, base load power, it becomes increasingly less economic to expend political effort and money into developing long-term permanent waste storage when the material that we call "waste" has enormous value for energy, industry and therapeutics. Closing the fuel cycle can enable us to extract that value and eliminate excess costs. The U.S. Government is currently exploring these alternative waste treatment options and may well determine new approaches. California needs to be prepared for this.
The Petition to the CEC and Gov. Newsom
Preamble.
The Asks.
INTRODUCTION: Fifty years ago, the California legislature declared a moratorium on building new nuclear power in the state until the CEC found that there was an approved solution to the spent fuel rods, deemed to be dangerous waste.[a] At that time, the risks of nuclear power loomed large but the risks posed by using fossil fuels whose dangerous waste—CO2 and other toxic emissions—were neither safely stored nor recognized as the primary contributor to global warming. Now, fifty years later, we know better.[b] There have been zero health or safety impacts from nuclear waste[c] but the world has seen the dire ecologic and human impacts of climate change with rising seas, ocean acidification, melting permafrost, species extinctions and rising amount of extreme weather events causing widespread death and destruction around the world.[d] Recognizing that in order to stem global warming, we must stop burning fossil fuels[e] and, to do that, we urgently need to deploy more nuclear power.[f] Many states have already repealed their earlier bans on nuclear power[g] and it is time for California to put aside unproven fears and respond on the basis of facts to the real crises we face today. Accordingly, we the undersigned, petition the CEC and the Governor to find as follows.
1. CONFIRM NUCLEAR WASTE IS ALREADY SAFE AND SOLUTIONS EXIST. The CEC shall determine that, based upon the existence of multiple safe, viable and proven methods of managing nuclear power waste successfully utilized over the last fifty years[h], combined with a wide range of emerging innovations that provide more both more storage options and which can enable the reprocessing, separation and formulation of waste in usable fuel for advanced reactors[i], that the original legislative concerns have been satisfied and the moratorium moot and no longer in the state's best interests.
2. ISSUE NEW BUILD PERMITS. Given that nuclear waste is managable and nuclear energy has proven to be reliable, safe, resilient and cost-effective[j] and that new designs for advanced nuclear power systems are emerging[k], promising to be some of the most scalable and flexible types of clean power sources ever designed[l], the CEC shall begin to issue site permits again so that developers and innovators can begin to plan for potential new builds. SB 100 enables California to include nuclear power generation as zero-emission power starting in 2030 in support of our goal of achieving 100% zero-emission grids by 2045[m], which gives us four years to get going on new nuclear projects in California and commence construction, so that California can begin adding new nuclear generation starting in 2030.
3. CALIFORNIA SHALL POSITION ITSELF FOR ENERGY SUCCESS. In order to meet escalating demand for energy (n), the CEC shall review the competitive landscape for attracting nuclear projects[o] and set up suitable mechanisms to attract and support innovators and developers seeking to deploy nuclear in California by making it clear that those projects are welcome. Governor Newsom and the CEC shall also engage with the DOE and compete to respond to Requests for Information (RFI) and attract federal funding building a center for nuclear power development in California [p]. California, which is home to most of the largest tech hyperscalers—many of which are already placing orders for traditional and advanced nuclear [q]—as well as many nuclear innovators that are seeking to commercialize designs, commence manufacturing and deployment [r], must develop the programs that best retain this economic activity [s]. The CEC shall provide the support needed by nuclear power operators to remain licensed and certified to operate in the state and ensure that they can plan to operate for as long as the NRC determines them to be safe [t]. And, finally, the CEC shall support the existing nuclear power generation with its life-extension requirements[v] and provide Cap and Trade funding in support of licensing, cost-overrun insurance or other types of risk reduction for advanced nuclear developers.[w]
We appreciate your urgent attention to these requests. To accelerate your review and approval, we provide additional supporting information for this petition below.
Signed by the below individuals.
Sign the Petition below
Supporting Information
[Note: this area is still under construction! Thank you for your patience.]
Petition End Notes
We are providing the following support for the petition and plan to update it as appropriate.
a | About the Moratorium: |
b | Confirmation of Global Warming |
c | Zero Deaths |
d |
a The 1976 moratorium was enacted due to concerns about the potential hazards of nuclear waste and the lack of a federal permanent solution (not reactor safety), which was initially intended to be provided through a central repository at Yucca Mountain. In this fifty-year interim, while the central repository concept was used as a political football, the industry has managed its waste using both cooling ponds and dry cask storage systems. Despite the fact that these are located around the country on the sites of nuclear power plants, there has never been any significant nuclear waste safety issue. The industry has an exceptional record and oversees one of the strongest safety cultures of any industry.
[b] Confirmation of Global Warming
[c] Zero deaths
[d] Costs of Climate Change
[e] Need to stop fossil fuel use
[f] Why nuclear is needed
[g] States that have repealed their bans
[h] Existing solutions to waste
[i] Deep Isolation, a Berkeley, CA-founded venture, has developed a long-term waste storage method using mature deep horizontal drilling technology to store nuclear waste in bullet-shaped canisters and lowering them a mile underground into cement-encased boreholes and sealing the opening. Several types of Gen IV fission designs can also consume nuclear waste as their fuel source. Thus, groups like Oklo, Curio and SHINE Technologies are developing nuclear waste reprocessing facilities. Oklo, a Sunnyvale, CA-based company, just announced a deal with the Idaho National Lab to co-develop their fuel reprocessing technology. Other ventures see the opportunity to use valuable components out of this waste stream to create new products. Zeno Power uses Strontium-90 and Americium-241 to make space powerpacks or undersea sensors. SHINE extracts Ytterbium to produce Lutecium-90, a cancer-fighting pharmaceutical.
[j] Nuclear’s value proven
[k] Report on new nuclear designs
[l] SB 100’s acceptance of nuclear by 2030
[m] Competition by states for nuclear
[n] Examples of what states are doing to attract, incentivize nuclear
[o] President Biden helped organize and committed the U.S. to tripling nuclear power by 2050 and then his team helped achieve global support for the “Tripling Pledge” that was launched at COP 28 in Abu Dhabi and ultimately signed by 30 countries.
[p] President Trump issued a series of Executive Orders in May 2025, titled Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base, Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy and Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with the goal of "re-establishing the United States as the global leader in nuclear energy." As part of these orders, Trump set the U.S. target to aim to quadruple US nuclear capacity.
[q] Oders from hyperscalers
[r] List of ventures in Californi
[s] Statement of GDP multiplier
[t] There’s a current RFI due in April
[u] Recommendations of how we can welcome nuclear
[v] Review of Diablo Canyon’s need.
[w] Why Risk reduction subsidies can help (See Guggenheim?)
Growing Calls in Published Media
San Francisco Chronicle, California needs to end its outdate nuclear power plant moratorium, Feb. 18, 2026, an OpEd by Jeff Donovan and Cristina Talacko.
Washington Examiner, Nuclear energy revival fueled by growing embrace by the Left, February 19, 2026, by Callie Patteson.
Available Technological Solutions
1. About Dry Cask Storage
2. About the WIPP
3. About Large Mined Repositories (Finland and Canadian progress)
4. Closed fuel cycles in France, Japan and Russia
5. About the Trump EO's calling for solutions
Advanced Technologies in Development
1. Advanced Reactors that can Use former waste as fuel
2. Advanced fuel reprocessing work being done in the National Labs:
U.S. DOE, NNSA and DOE partners market major achievement in nuclear materials recovery, Dec. 19, 2025, this article describes the collaboration between the DOE's Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Office of Environmental Management and the Office of Science in waste reprocessing.
3. Companies that are planning waste reprocessing facilities.
4. Transmutation capabilities (SHINE)
5. Advanced Waste Storage capabilities (Deep Isolation)
Legislative Efforts to Repeal California's Moratorium
On February 20, 2026, Assembly Bill Number 2647 was introduced by Member Calderon, co-authored by Members Harabedian and Lee, with Senator Jones as a further co-author, that aims to amend Sections 25524.1 and 25524.2 of the Public Resources Code, which is the law which introduced the nuclear moratorium. The Legislative Counsel's digest describes this bill as follows: