BRIDGMAN, Mich., October 26, 2011 – Indiana Michigan Power’s Cook Nuclear Plant Unit 1 returned to service early this morning at 1:47 a.m. following a refueling outage that began September 21. In addition to refueling the reactor, the 35-day, one-hour outage included performing regular maintenance and testing work.
It also included 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 located in the United States, Switzerland, Poland, Germany, Canada and Mexico. The new rotors replaced 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 supplemented 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 were completed.
“Many thanks go to our talented employees as well as the local and regional workers who supplemented our workforce for a successful refueling,” said Larry Weber, senior vice president and chief nuclear officer. “We appreciate the high quality work and commitment shown by the entire team and are pleased to continue to provide safe, reliable power to our communities.”
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.
Indiana Michigan Power is a unit of American Electric Power [AEP:NYSE]. 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.