Southern California’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station completed the replacement of two steam generators in its Unit 3 reactor and resumed operation Friday.
Repairs began in early October, according to CNBC. They follow similar steam generator replacement at San Onofre Unit 2 last year that took nearly seven months.
A Southern California Edison spokesman quoted in the San Diego Union-Tribune pegged the cost to replace all four steam generators at $671 million.
The steam-generator replacements took 10 years of planning, and a cost-benefit analysis through 2022 indicated they will save ratepayers $1 billion, SCE’s new chief nuclear officer Pete Dietrich told the San Clemente City Council last week, according to the Orange County Register.
According to the Union-Tribune, San Onofre generates about 20 percent of San Diego’s power and is Southern California’s largest power plant.