Diablo Canyon Power Plant

Diablo Canyon Power Plant
Diablo Canyon Power Plant
Diablo Canyon Power Plant
Map
CountryUnited States
LocationSan Luis Obispo County, California
Coordinates35°12′39″N 120°51′22″W / 35.21083°N 120.85611°W / 35.21083; -120.85611
StatusOperational
Construction beganUnit 1: April 23, 1968
Unit 2: December 9, 1970
Commission dateUnit 1: May 7, 1985
(39 years ago) (1985-05-07)
Unit 2: March 13, 1986
(38 years ago) (1986-03-13)
Decommission date2030 (planned)
Construction cost$11.556 billion (2007 USD)[1]
($16.4 billion in 2023 dollars[2])
Owner(s)PG&E Corporation
Operator(s)Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Employees1,500[3]
Nuclear power station
Reactor typePWR
Reactor supplierWestinghouse
Cooling sourcePacific Ocean
Thermal capacity2 × 3411 MWth
Power generation
Units operational1 × 1138 MW
1 × 1118 MW
Make and modelWH 4-loop (DRYAMB)
Nameplate capacity2256 MW
Capacity factor90.93% (2017)
87.25% (lifetime)
Annual net output17,718 GWh (2023) [4]
External links
WebsiteDiablo Canyon Power Plant
CommonsRelated media on Commons
[edit on Wikidata]
Diablo Canyon Power Plant, 2008. The light beige domes are the containment structures for Unit 1 and 2 reactors. The reddish-brown building is the turbine building where electricity is generated and sent to the grid. To the left is the Administration Building (black and white stripes).

The Diablo Canyon Power Plant is a nuclear power plant near Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County, California. Following the permanent shutdown of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in 2013, Diablo Canyon is now the only operational nuclear plant in California, as well as the state's largest single power station. It was the subject of controversy and protests during its construction, with nearly two thousand civil disobedience arrests in a two-week period in 1981.

The plant has two Westinghouse-designed 4-loop pressurized-water nuclear reactors operated by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). Together, the twin 1100 MWe reactors produce about 18,000 GW·h of electricity annually (8.6% of total California generation and 23% of carbon-free generation), supplying the electrical needs of more than 3 million people.[5] The plant produces electricity for about 6 cents per kWh, less than the average cost of 10.1 cents per kWh that PG&E paid for electricity from other suppliers in 2014.[6]

Though it was built less than a mile from the Shoreline Fault line, which was not known to exist at the time of construction, and is located less than three miles (4.8 km) from the Hosgri fault, a 2016 NRC probabilistic risk assessment of the plant, taking into account seismic risk, estimated the frequency of core damage at one instance per 7.6 million reactor years.[7] The plant is located in Nuclear Regulatory Commission Region IV.

In 2016, PG&E announced that it plans to close the two Diablo Canyon reactors in 2024 and 2025, stating that because California's energy regulations give renewables priority over nuclear, the plant would likely only run half-time, making it uneconomical.[3] (Nuclear plants are used for base load in order to spread their large fixed costs over as many kWh of generation as possible.)[3] In 2020, experts at the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) warned that when the plant closes the state will reach a "critical inflection point", which will create a significant challenge to ensure reliability of the grid without resorting to more fossil fuel usage, and could jeopardize California's greenhouse gas reduction targets.[8][9][10] In 2021 the California Energy Commission and CAISO warned that the state may have summer blackouts in future years as a result of Diablo's closure coinciding with the shutdown of four natural gas plants of 3.7GW total capacity, and the inability to rely on imported electricity during West-wide heat waves due to reduced hydroelectric capacity (from the decades-long drought) and the closure of coal plants.[11] A 2021 report from researchers at MIT and Stanford states that keeping Diablo Canyon running until 2035 would reduce the state's carbon emissions from electricity generation by 11% every year, save the state a cumulative $2.6 billion (rising to $21 billion if kept open until 2045), and improve the reliability of the grid.[12][13][14][15] Full decommissioning of the plant is estimated to take decades and cost nearly $4 billion.[16]

  1. ^ "EIA – California Nuclear Profile 2010". www.eia.gov. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). April 26, 2012. Archived from the original on May 19, 2017.
  2. ^ Johnston, Louis; Williamson, Samuel H. (2023). "What Was the U.S. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved November 30, 2023. United States Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
  3. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference SFC_2016-06-21 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Electricity Data Browser – Diablo Canyon". www.eia.gov. Retrieved March 21, 2024.
  5. ^ Economic Benefits of Diablo Canyon Power Plant Archived May 28, 2023, at the Wayback Machine, PG&E, June 2013
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference SFC_2015-11-14 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Pruitt, Tony (October 3, 2016). "Diablo Canyon Power Plant – NRC Inspection Report" (PDF). nrc.gov. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference CAISO_report was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference UD_1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference LAT_2021-05-18 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference WSJ_2021-10-16 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Economist_2021-11-10 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference LAT_2021-11-14 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference BB_2021-11-09 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference EENews_2021-11-10 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference SFC_2018-04-13 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).