BRIDGMAN – The D.C. Cook Nuclear Plant Unit 1 returned to service on April 9, following a 37-day refueling outage that employed more than 800 building trades workers.

Plant owner AEP (American Electric Power) reported that about 10,000 maintenance, inspection and equipment modification job activities were completed over the course of more than 205,000 work-hours.

“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, AEP’s 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.”

In addition to refueling the reactor and regular outage maintenance and testing work, the 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.

“The improvements made to Unit 1 during this refueling outage demonstrate AEP’s ongoing commitment to the future of Cook for the benefit of our customers in Indiana and Michigan,” Jensen said.

At full capacity, the 1,030-net megawatt Unit 1 and 1,077-net megawatt Unit 2 combined produce enough electricity for more than 1.5 million average homes. The plant is located about 15 miles south of St. Joseph near the Indiana border.

THE TURBINE FLOOR at the D.C. Cook Nuclear Power Plant during the refueling outage. Each of the plant’s two units undergoes a 30- to 40-day refueling outage every 18 months. Photo courtesy AEP