Repair work at San Onofre 3 has finished and the unit is back online after a five-month outage. The unit was taken offline early in January for refueling and was supposed to go back online in February. However, a fire caused by an electrical short-circuit damaged the bearings and turbine rotors, requiring extensive repair work (see NEI April 2001, p13). The total cost of the repair work is estimated at around $50 million.
The 1127MWe unit will be able to serve about 1 million homes, providing some relief for California’s electricity shortage. The unit was the largest of several generators across the state that were shut down earlier this year, adding to the state's energy problems.
Recently Diablo Canyon 2 was reconnected to the Californian grid, having completed a 29-day refuelling and maintenance outage.
