The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday renewed Diablo Canyon’s license to operate, ensuring that California’s last remaining nuclear facility will continue to run through at least 2030.

The plant was originally slated to close in 2025, but lawmakers extended the deadline by five years in 2022, citing ongoing need for power from a plant that provides more than 8% of the state’s electricity.

The approval from the body that regulates nuclear reactors and waste marks the final hurdle in Pacific Gas & Electric’s multiyear journey to gather the necessary state and federal permits to keep its facility online.

In December, PG&E received a key permit from the California Coastal Commission by agreeing to give up 12,000 acres of nearby land for conservation in exchange for the loss of marine life caused by the plant’s operations.

Another key step took place in February when the Central Coast Regional Water Board approved waste discharge permits for the plant and granted a certification under the Clean Water Act, the last step required before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission could issue its final approval.

The license renewal from the commission allows the plant to remain running for 20 years, although extending it past 2030 would require additional action from the California Legislature.

“Today’s milestone reminds us that when discipline, science, responsibility and vision all come together, we can build an energy future that is both sustainable and secure,” said NRC Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation acting Director Jeremy Groom at a signing ceremony.

Already this year some lawmakers and regulators have expressed interest in extending the plant’s life through 2045, citing growing electricity demand and the plant’s central role in helping the state meet its climate goals by providing carbon-free power to the grid.

Groups that oppose the plant want to make sure that doesn’t happen. Last week, the California Coastkeeper Alliance filed a petition asking the State Water Resources Control Board to throw out the facility’s water discharge permit. The group alleged that the Central Coast Regional Water Board illegally allowed the facility to continue operating without technology required under the federal Clean Water Act to protect marine life.

Other groups have petitioned the board to limit Diablo Canyon’s Clean Water Act certificate to 2030, rather than 2045.

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced new initiatives to tackle microplastics in the human body and drinking water on Thursday.

Kennedy said the government will create a $144-million program called STOMP, for the systematic targeting of microplastics.

“We are focusing on three questions, what is in the body, what’s causing harm, and how do we remove it?” Kennedy said.

Zeldin said the environmental agency will add microplastics and pharmaceuticals to its list of concerning chemicals in drinking water.

“For the first time in the program’s history, EPA is designating both microplastics and pharmaceuticals as priority contaminant groups,” he said.

The two Cabinet members sat a table before a crowded room at EPA headquarters in Washington, flanked by microplastic researchers, including Marcus Ericsson, an environmental scientist and co-founder of the antiplastic Five Gyres Institute; Matthew Campin, a biomedical scientist at the University of New Mexico; and Leo Trasande, a pediatrician and public policy expert at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine and Wagner School of Public Service.

On either side of the table were two large posters that read “Confronting Microplastics” in capital letters.

Zeldin had been under fire by the movement known as MAHA, or Make America Health Again, in recent months over federal plans to loosen restrictions on harmful chemicals, and approve new pesticides — including two that contain what are internationally recognized as “forever chemicals,” linked to serious health risks.

Kennedy, who is the political face of the MAHA movement, has also been criticized for capitulating on issues he once embraced. In February, President Trump signed an executive order to shore up production of the herbicide glyphosate, for “national security and defense reasons.”

Kennedy publicly supported that decision and in a social media post said that while herbicides and pesticides were “toxic by design” and “put Americans at risk,” the food supply depends on them.

Glyphosate, known commercially as Roundup, has long been a target of the MAHA movement. Produced by Bayer, which acquired the original manufacturer, Monsanto, in 2018, the herbicide has been the subject of tens of thousands of lawsuits, many from users who claim to have developed non-Hodgkins lymphoma as a result of exposure.

Antiplastic advocates applauded Thursday’s announcement.

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken an important first step to regulate microplastics in drinking water,” said Judith Enck, a former regional director of the agency and the founder of Beyond Plastics, an antiplastic waste environmental group based in Bennington, Vt. She urged the regulators to “move rapidly,” not only to regulate the plastic in drinking water, but also prevent it from getting into drinking water.

So, too, did Kimberly Wise White, vice president of regulatory and scientific affairs at the American Chemistry Council, the trade group for the chemical industry.

“We support science-driven monitoring of microplastics in drinking water and research to better understand potential impacts,” White said in a statement.

Others, however, seemed dubious.

There is reason to be concerned about microplastics in drinking water, said Erik Olson, strategic director of health for the Natural Resources Defense Council, “but the EPA’s actions speak louder than its words. The Trump EPA is trying to scrap key PFAS standards and just two weeks ago said it wouldn’t issue any new protections for toxins in drinking water. So, which is it?”

In 2022, California became the first government in the world to require microplastics testing for drinking water. The state has not yet begun reporting its results.

Blair Robertson, a spokesman for the State Water Resources Control Board, said regulators are “working on it and being very deliberate as they proceed and try to quantify how microplastics are impacting drinking water.”

A report was expected in 2025, but has not yet been issued.

Micro- and nanoplastics have been found everywhere scientists have looked. They’ve been found in human organs and tissue, such as brains, livers, placentas and testicles. They’ve also been detected in blood, breast milk and even meconium — an infant’s first stool. In addition, they are prevalent throughout the environment — in alpine snow, deep sea sediment and drinking water.

On March 31, a coalition of MAHA groups associated with Kennedy sent a letter to Zeldin requesting the Trump administration halt permitting for new plastics manufacturing plants and step up monitoring of microplastics in drinking water.

In December, Zeldin told MAHA groups he would include measures on plastics as part of the agency’s agenda, after several prominent MAHA groups called for him to be fired. They said he was too close to chemical companies.