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The Palisades nuclear power plant in Van Buren County is back in service following a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage. Palisades tells us control room personnel returned the plant to operation Friday morning. The refueling and maintenance outage started October 28. During the outage, crews replaced about one-third of the fuel in the reactor, and inspected and upgraded hundreds of pipes, pumps, and electrical components. The project took 1,900 professionals, including nearly 1,300 specialist contractors. The work they did was designed to prepare Palisades for operations over the next three and a half years. This was the 26th refueling outage in the plant’s history. Palisades is slated for permanent closure in 2022.