BRIDGMAN, Mich., September 20, 2011 – Indiana Michigan Power’s Cook Nuclear Plant’s Unit 1 began power reduction Sunday in preparation for its twenty-third refueling outage. Testing at 50 percent power will conclude after midnight Tuesday when the unit is taken out of service. The projected capacity factor for the fuel cycle is 95.5 percent with a net generation of 12,498 gigawatthours.

Each of Cook’s two units requires refueling every 18 months. Aside from refueling the reactor and performing regular maintenance and testing work, the current outage also includes installation of new low-pressure turbine rotors. The three 180-ton rotors are 38 feet long, 17 feet in diameter and were fabricated by Alstom Corporation in facilities in the United States, Switzerland, Poland, Germany, Canada and Mexico. The new rotors replace rotors that were repaired and returned to service in December 2009 following a turbine failure in September 2008.

Over the course of the outage, about 1,000 contracted workers will supplement the regular 1,100-person plant staff. More than 11,000 maintenance, inspection and equipment modification job activities and more than 250,000 work-hours are scheduled. The expected outage duration is not released for commercial reasons.

At full capacity, the 1,030-net MW Unit 1 and 1,077-net MW Unit 2 combined produce enough electricity for more than one and one half million average homes.

Indiana Michigan Power is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Electric Power (NYSE:AEP).