On September 30, 2026, the Governor signed two energy bills that are easy to confuse and important to keep apart (Neutron Bytes).
AB 2647 (Calderon) concerns nuclear power plants and directs an assessment. Nuclear fission, the technology in today's reactors, splits heavy atoms such as uranium. California's only operating plant is Diablo Canyon, and state law has long restricted new nuclear construction.
SB 925 (McNerney) concerns fusion energy. It directs the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (the California Energy Commission) to develop a strategic plan, with provisions on certification and environmental review. Fusion, which joins light atoms, has not yet produced commercial electricity anywhere. SB 925 builds on earlier state measures that began to incorporate fusion into California's clean-energy planning.
AnalysisThe two laws share a date, not a timeline. An assessment of fission plants concerns technology that exists and decisions that could be made this decade. A fusion strategy prepares a regulatory path for technology that does not yet exist commercially. Public discussion that treats them as one "nuclear" question will misjudge both.