They re-branded themselves as the company with “Boundless Energy” earlier this year and that becomes even more true this weekend when Indiana Michigan Power Company’s Cook Nuclear Plant Unit 2 will begin operations beyond its initial 40-year license period in an historic moment.
At midnight tomorrow, Saturday, December 23, the Cook Nuclear Plant’s Unit 2 will advance beyond that original license thanks to the renewed license granted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2005. The unit is now licensed to operate until 2037. Cook Unit 2 began commercial operation on July 1, 1978.
Cook Unit 1’s original license period ended in October of 2014, and is currently licensed until 2034.
Joel Gebbie, who serves as Chief Nuclear Office and Senior Vice President at Cook says, “Welcome to the next generation of safe, reliable and low-cost electricity produced by Cook Nuclear Plant Unit 2.” Gebbie adds, “Thank you to the countless men and women who have operated and maintained our plant for the past 40 years. We are also very proud to be a part of this community and we thank our neighbors for their outstanding support.”
To enhance safety and reliability during the extended period of operation, Cook is completing a Life Cycle Management (LCM) project. Life Cycle Management replaces and upgrades various systems and components with equipment designed to support the additional life of the plant. In many cases, new technologies improve reliability and operating safety margins. Many of the replacements are extremely large components weighing tens of tons and require multi-year planning horizons and equipment fabrication lead times as long as five years. The Michigan Public Service Commission and Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission have both approved these projects as reasonable and necessary.
Indiana Michigan Power originally announced plans to build a power plant on a 480-acre site in southwest Michigan in 1959, although it had not yet determined what fuel source would be chosen. A construction permit request for a nuclear power plant was filed eight years later, in 1967, with the Atomic Energy Commission, the government predecessor to today’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The construction permit was granted in 1969. Construction cost for both Cook units was $1.3 billion.
Indiana Michigan Power is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Electric Power (NYSE:AEP).
