Busy Year Ahead For Cook Plant

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mkl-39

It’s going to be a busy year at the Cook nuclear power plant in Bridgman as American Electric Power is planning two complete refueling outages in 2022. Site Vice President Shane Lies told St. Joseph Rotarians Monday one of the refueling outages will be in the spring and the other in the fall in regular rotation for the two Cook generating units. Each unit must be shut down and refueled every 18 months, and every now and then, both outages fall into the same year. That will mean anywhere from 1,000 to 1,700 additional workers in town as the refueling and maintenance is done. Lies said the specialized employees travel around the country to similar nuclear plants, doing three or four such stints a year, working 12 hour shifts, six days a week. Then, many of them enjoy several months off and repeat the cycle again. Those workers are a boost to the local economy while they’re in town.