Entergy's Palisades nuclear power plant in southwest Michigan recently returned to service after a $58-million investment to upgrade and inspect plant equipment, along with a $63-million investment in new fuel.
The plant shut down on Sept. 16, 2015, to begin a planned refueling outage and was reconnected to the grid on Oct. 19, 2015. The outage put 1,600 skilled professionals and $58 million to work completing more than 9,000 tasks to refuel and make upgrades, inspections and replacements to prepare the plant for continuing safe and reliable service.
"This refueling outage was a great success," said Tony Vitale, Palisades site vice president. "The equipment maintenance, replacements and upgrades prepared Palisades to deliver another 18 months of safe, clean, reliable electricity to southwest Michigan."
During the outage Palisades also completed safety enhancements ordered after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident. Those enhancements will serve as greater defense against potential external events, such as tornados, flooding and earthquakes.
In early September, Palisades also underwent an inspection by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to address occupational radiation safety related to control rod drive replacement during the 2014 refueling outage. Because of corrective actions the plant has taken, the NRC returned the plant to the agency's highest safety category.
An integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations, Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including nearly 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power, making it one of the nation's leading nuclear generators.
For more information, visit www.entergy.com.
