Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Plant, California

The Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Plant is a small nuclear power plant in northern California. It is located just south of Eureka, California, near the mouth of Humboldt Bay, and has been closed for years, though its spent fuel remains on site. It was home to a single natural circulation boiling water reactor, whose net output capacity was 65MW. Unit 3 was in operation from 1963 until 1976, when it was shut down for refueling and seismic improvements. The work took longer than anticipated, and by the time it was completed, owner Pacific Gas and Electric decided to permanently close the plant rather than implement the additional regulatory upgrades mandated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in the interim. Although PG&E formally announced its intention to decommission Unit 3 in 1988, the plant sat in SAFSTOR mode for decades, until 2008, when decommissioning efforts began in earnest. Since then, all spent fuel has been transferred to an on-site Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI), while the majority of plant-related structures (including the reactor vessel itself) have been removed. PG&E operates a gas powered plant at the location too.