Nuclear plant returns to full power after refueling outage

Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant’s Unit 1 reactor returned to full power at 5:21 a.m. Thursday after completing a scheduled maintenance and refueling outage.

During the outage, which started April 29, about 600 contractors helped plant staff complete maintenance tasks to prepare the unit for its next operating cycle and replaced one-third of the unit’s fuel.

Each of the two 550-megawatt reactors at Prairie Island is refueled about once every 18 months. During refueling outages, Xcel Energy purchases electricity from the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator or other utilities or increases production at its other generating plants to ensure an adequate power supply.

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