Palisades Nuclear Plant Returns to Service After Planned Refueling, Upgrades

Entergy Corp.'s Palisades Power Plant returned to service on Oct. 19, following a month-long outage to implement upgrades, inspections, and safety enhancements.

The Michigan plant was shut down on Sept. 16 to begin a planned refueling outage. The company spent $58 million for upgrades and plant inspections, and $63 million for new fuel. The outage required 1,600 skilled professionals and 9,000 tasks, said Entergy.

"During the outage Palisades also completed safety enhancements ordered after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident, an additional $50 million safety investment," the company said.

In early September, Palisades underwent a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspection to address occupational radiation safety related to control rod drive replacement during a 2014 refueling outage. "Because of corrective actions the plant has taken, the NRC returned Palisades to Column 1 of the agency's Reactor Oversight Process-the highest safety category," it said.

-Sonal Patel, associate editor(@POWERmagazine, @sonalcpatel)

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