Biennial refueling outage begins at Pilgrim
Plymouth nuclear power station will remain offline during scheduled inspection and maintenance
Entergy, the owners of the Pilgrim Nuclear Plant in Plymouth announced this week that the faciilty commenced a power reduction. The power reduction is the start of the plant's biennial refueling outage, according to a release from Louisiana-based Entergy.
During the refueling outage, or RFO, hundreds of pieces of equipment will be inspected, replaced and upgraded by the plant's 600 full-time employees with the assistance of an additional 1,100 skilled, temporary workers, Entergy said. The RFO, Pilgrim Nuclear's 20th, is expected to cost Entergy $70 million.
According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, the work being done during such outages is much more efficient than it was twenty years ago--outage days have been more than cut in half. The outages are performed during the fall or spring to prepare for the higher energy seasons of summer and winter, NEI said. During such outages, one-third of spent fuel rods are typically replaced with new fuel, according to NEI.
In a blog post for the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Neil Sheehan said, "Nuclear power plants are baseload electricity generators designed to run at 100 percent, but they need to occasionally take a strategic timeout to refuel and kick the tires, so to speak."
Entergy has not yet announced when the facility will be returned to the grid.
Pilgrim was last shut down for a refueling outage two years ago.
http://www.capecodtoday.com/article/2015/04/21/224174-Biennial-refueling-outage-begins-Pilgrim
During the refueling outage, or RFO, hundreds of pieces of equipment will be inspected, replaced and upgraded by the plant's 600 full-time employees with the assistance of an additional 1,100 skilled, temporary workers, Entergy said. The RFO, Pilgrim Nuclear's 20th, is expected to cost Entergy $70 million.
According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, the work being done during such outages is much more efficient than it was twenty years ago--outage days have been more than cut in half. The outages are performed during the fall or spring to prepare for the higher energy seasons of summer and winter, NEI said. During such outages, one-third of spent fuel rods are typically replaced with new fuel, according to NEI.
In a blog post for the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Neil Sheehan said, "Nuclear power plants are baseload electricity generators designed to run at 100 percent, but they need to occasionally take a strategic timeout to refuel and kick the tires, so to speak."
Entergy has not yet announced when the facility will be returned to the grid.
Pilgrim was last shut down for a refueling outage two years ago.
http://www.capecodtoday.com/article/2015/04/21/224174-Biennial-refueling-outage-begins-Pilgrim
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