Watch CBS News

Cook Nuke Plant Going Down For Maintenance

Indiana Michigan Power's Cook Nuclear Plant Unit 1 near Bridgman, on the southeast shore of Lake Michigan, powered down late Friday in preparation for a planned maintenance outage that took the unit offline early Saturday.

The primary purpose of the outage is to repair the main generator hydrogen seal system.

Although a mid-cycle shutdown to make the repair was not required, taking the unit off-line supports AEP's conservative approach to maintaining safety and reliability at Cook Plant. The unit will be at zero percent power while the hydrogen seal system work is in progress. However, the reactor will remain at full temperature and pressure, ready to return to full power as soon as the repairs are complete.

"We have taken the time up front to develop an outage plan that puts safety first, and maximizes opportunities for repairs and maintenance while minimizing the amount of time the unit will be off-line," said Joel Gebbie, Cook Nuclear Plant Site Vice President.

At full capacity, the 1,030-net MW Unit 1 and 1,077-net MW Unit 2 combined produce enough electricity for more than 1.5 million average homes.

Indiana Michigan Power is a unit of Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), which delivers electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP has 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity and a 39,000-mile transmission network.

More at www.aep.com.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.