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During the outage, Entergy is investing more than $75 million in the plant, reinforcing the company’s commitment to safe and secure operations until its shutdown, officials said.
Unit 2 was online generating electricity more than 96 percent of the time since its prior refueling outage concluded in June 2016.
Unit 3, which remains in service at full power, will conduct its final refueling outage next spring before shutting down permanently by April 30, 2021.
“We remain dedicated to operational excellence at Indian Point and are investing millions of dollars to ensure the facility’s continued safe, secure and reliable operation until permanently closing,” said Tony Vitale, site vice president and Entergy’s top official at Indian Point. “During the next several weeks, approximately 2,000 workers will perform equipment maintenance, comprehensive safety inspections and refuel the reactor so we can continue to meet our rigorous operational safety standards and provide clean, reliable power to millions of New Yorkers.”
About 1,000 additional contract workers are supplementing the nearly 1,000 full-time Entergy facility employees during the outage to complete the refueling and other important maintenance projects, including:
- Comprehensive inspections of baffle bolts on a removable liner inside the reactor
- Reactor coolant pump seal replacement
- Fuel oil storage tank repair for one of the unit’s three emergency diesel generators
- Steam generator inspection
- Low-pressure turbine blade inspection
In January 2017, Entergy announced its plan for the early shutdown of Indian Point as part of a settlement with New York State. In exchange, New York State agreed to drop its legal challenges and support renewal of the operating licenses for the facility.
The plant has helped power New York City and the lower Hudson Valley since 1974.
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