Planned maintenance and refueling underway at Diablo Canyon Power Plant

AVILA BEACH, Calif. - Planned maintenance is underway at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant.

Unit 1, which has generated more than 15 million megawatt-hours of electricity since the unit's previous refueling outage in early 2019, was safely shut down on Sunday.

During the planned outage, PG&E employees and temporary workers will replace a portion of the reactor fuel, conduct maintenance, and test systems and components that are not accessible during regular plant operations.

It will take about 250,000 person-hours to work on more than 10 major projects during this outage.

Proactive measures are in place for employee and community health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. These include having all workers adhere to current county and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention protective guidance and by implementing industry best practices related to COVID-19 prevention, including daily wellness self-checks and temperature checks.

"We are prepared to safely conduct this planned work because of meticulous planning and preparation, our commitment to operational excellence, a highly trained workforce, and robust regulatory compliance. Our work during this refueling outage will enable the continued safe and reliable operation of Unit 1 and the generation of clean electricity for our customers."

Jim Welsch, Senior Vice President, Generation and Chief Nuclear Officer

Each of DCPP's two reactor units is safely refueled approximately every 20 months. Unit 2 will continue to safely generate electricity while Unit 1 is offline.