Refueling outage on Unit 1 began Tuesday

A refueling outage at Prairie Island nuclear plant’s Unit 1 began at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

During the scheduled outage, about 600 extra employees will help regular plant staff complete maintenance tasks and prepare the unit for its next operating cycle and replace a third of the unit’s fuel.

Each of the two units at the plant are refueled about once every 18 months. Unit 2 remains at full power during this outage.