BUCHANAN – Entergy’s Indian Point 2 nuclear power plant was
returned to service Thursday night after it conducted $120 million in
refueling, inspection and upgrade of plant equipment and systems.
Engineers replaced 278 bolts following inspection on a removable liner
inside the reactor.
Inspections confirmed the plates secured by the bolts were not damaged
and remained structurally sound and capable of performing their safety
function while Unit 2 was in operation, Entergy officials said.
Both the inspection and replacement of bolts were successful and the US
Nuclear Regulatory Commission said there are no safety concerns. A separate
bolt inspection program at Unit 3 will be performed early next year.
During the outage at Unit 2, Entergy completed an additional “significant
equipment enhancement” to provide another layer of safety redundancy
to the plant’s many cooling systems.
“The levels of back-up safety protections now installed at Indian
Point are unprecedented and, while unlikely ever to be needed, they make
the facility safer than ever,” said Larry Coyle, site vice president
and Entergy’s top official at Indian Point.
