Indiana Michigan Power’s Cook Nuclear Plant Unit 2 will begin its twenty-seventh refueling outage Saturday, March 23, at 3:00 a.m. Power on Unit 2 was reduced on Wednesday, March 20, to allow for equipment testing before the outage begins. The unit will have operated for 12,023 hours during its last cycle at a capacity factor of 99.4 percent, generating 14,094,064 megawatt-hours of (net) electricity.

“We are very pleased with the Unit 2 capacity factor being greater than 99% over this last operating cycle,” said Shane Lies, AEP’s Senior Vice President & Chief Nuclear Officer. “It is a testament to the effectiveness of our equipment reliability initiatives. Moreover, we will complete many preventive and corrective maintenance activities during this outage that will help us to sustain this high level of performance. We would not be able to complete these activities without the assistance from all of the supplemental workers who have joined us at the plant and we are very grateful for their help.”

In addition to refueling the reactor and performing regular maintenance and testing work, the outage will also include replacing a reactor coolant pump (RCP) motor, performing periodic testing on the steam generators, and replacing the balance of plant (BOP) battery. An upgraded overspeed protection system will also be installed for the main turbine and main feed pump turbines.

Over 1,000 additional contracted workers will supplement regular plant staff leading up to and during the outage. Approximately 12,000 maintenance, inspection and equipment modification job activities totaling 184,000 work-hours are scheduled for two daily 12-hour work shifts.

Cook Unit 1 remains at 100 percent. Power to customers is not expected to be disrupted by the planned Unit 2 outage. AEP does not provide a return to service date for competitive reasons.