What Diablo Canyon’s outage means to North County

AVILA BEACH — Every 18 months or so, Diablo Canyon has an outage, and that means an influx of money into San Luis Obispo County’s economy and long hours for the 1,000 or so temporary employees working the outage, but as far as power usage goes, the vast majority of people on the Central Coast never notice a difference. While it’s impossible to know exactly how much power Diablo Canyon provides to Atascadero households — the power grid in the western united states is all connected — the plant’s two reactors and turbines generate enough electricity to power the needs of about 3 million people.

For the complete article see the 03-08-2013 issue.

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