Diablo Canyon Power Plant begins scheduled maintenance and refueling outage on Unit 1

Work supports continued safe and reliable plant operations

AVILA BEACH, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) safely shut down Unit 1 of Diablo Canyon Power Plant (DCPP) at approximately 6 p.m. on Saturday, October 2, 2010, for scheduled refueling and maintenance.

 

Plant operators ramped down the unit approximately six hours ahead of schedule to begin work on a maintenance item located on the plant's Unit 1 secondary or "non-nuclear" side. This item was previously identified to be addressed during the plant's scheduled maintenance work that will occur during the refueling outage.

 

In this outage, DCPP personnel, along with more than 1,000 additional temporary employees, will replace a portion of the reactor fuel, perform maintenance and test plant systems and components that are not readily accessible during regular plant operation. The Unit 1 reactor vessel head, which helps maintain pressure in the reactor, will also be replaced as scheduled. The Unit 2 reactor head was replaced in the fall of 2009.

 

"For 25 years, Diablo Canyon Power Plant has been a reliable source of low-cost and clean energy for our customers," said Jim Becker, DCPP site vice president. "The essential work that we will accomplish in the weeks ahead will support the continued safe and efficient operations of the plant and enhance its strong performance history."

 

DCPP is a nuclear power plant owned and operated by PG&E. Its two units together produce 2,300 net megawatts of greenhouse-gas-free electricity, about 10 percent of all electricity generated in California and enough to meet the needs of over three million homes in Northern and Central California.

 

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric utilities in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation's cleanest energy to 15 million people in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit http://www.pge.com/about/newsroom/.