American Electric Power’s Cook Nuclear Plant Unit 1 returned to service at 1:24 p.m. April 9 following a refueling outage that began March 3.
– By Linton Levy –
In addition to refueling the reactor and regular outage maintenance and testing work, the 37-day, 13-hour outage included Reactor Protection System Process Transmitter upgrades, a Control Rod Indication System upgrade, an Emergency Diesel Generator Fuel Oil System upgrade, Reactor Vessel Alloy 600 weld mitigation activities, and Reactor Vessel 10-year inspection activities.
"We thank our great employees and the many local and regional workers who supplemented our workforce for a successful refueling, and we appreciate the dedication and commitment to safety shown by the entire team," said Joe Jensen, senior vice president and chief nuclear officer. "We’re proud to have the right daily focus on safety and quality, and we’re doing the right work during outages as well to prepare our units to operate reliably."
More than 850 contracted workers supplemented the regular 1,300-person plant staff during the outage. Approximately 10,000 maintenance, inspection and equipment modification job activities were completed over the course of more than 205,000 work-hours.
The combined 1,030 net megawatt (MW) Unit 1 and 1,077 net MW Unit 2 produce enough electricity for more than 1.5 million average homes.
American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765-kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP’s transmission system directly or indirectly serves about 10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern Interconnection, the interconnected transmission system that covers 38 eastern and central U.S. states and eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers much of Texas. AEP’s utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). AEP’s headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio.