Cook Plant Refueling

Indiana Michigan Power is working to refuel Unit 2 of the Cook Nuclear power plant in Berrien County. The unit had been running for 18 months with no issues, and the refueling outage will start at midnight Tuesday. About 25-hundred contracted workers are being brought in to help about 12-hundred regular employees at the Cook plant, according to Cook plant spokesman Bill Schalk. He says in addition to refueling, there is a big project related to the Life Cycle Management program. Schalk explains that they are putting in large Feedwater Heaters. A pair of them weigh 70 tons. He says they’ve been under fabrication for about three years, were shipped to the site, and will now be installed during this outage. Cook officials do not release details on the expected length of the outage for commercial reasons. The plant received license renewals back in 2005 from the Nuclear Regulator Commission to run Units 1 and 2 to 2034 and 2037 respectively, which is 20 years beyond the original licenses.  (MRN)