San Onofre Nuclear Plant Back Online Generating Power

The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is nearly 100 percent back online after a .

Unit 3 at the plant was reconnected to the Southern California grid late last week, and , was operating at 97 percent of capacity Tuesday morning, said plant spokesman Gil Alexander in a phone interview.

Restarting the plant takes several days, ramping up power about 3 percent every hour and stopping a specific thresholds for testing, Alexander said.

According to a release from Southern California Edison, the project created roughly 1,300 construction jobs during 2009 and 2010, and generated about $300 million in local spending, including wages, equipment, material and services purchased from local businesses.

Each of the four new steam generators – two per reactor – is 65 feet tall, 22 feet in diameter and weighs 640 tons. The components produce steam that drives the plant’s huge turbines, generating enough total electricity to serve 1.4 million average homes, the release states.