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News Releases
03/31/2008
Prairie Island reactor returns to full power
after refueling outage
RED WING, MINN. - Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant’s Unit 1 reactor returned to full power at 2.22 a.m. CDT Saturday after completing a scheduled maintenance and refueling outage.
During the outage, which started on Feb. 13, about 700 contractors helped plant staff replace one-third of the unit’s fuel assemblies and perform more than 1,300 preventive maintenance activities. The preventive maintenance work completed during the outage positions Prairie Island for high reliability during the summer months when demand for electricity is highest.
The two-unit Prairie Island plant near Red Wing generates approximately 1,100 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 1.1 million homes. The plant is owned by Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy and operated by Nuclear Management Co., based in Hudson, Wis.
Each of Prairie Island's reactors undergoes a maintenance/refueling outage approximately once every 18 months. During the outages, Xcel Energy purchases power from other utilities or increases electricity production at its other generating plants to ensure an adequate power supply for its customers.
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