Oct. / Nov. / Dec. 2009 - Nebraska Public Power District

Cooper completes
refueling and
maintenance outage
Employees at Cooper Nuclear Station completed
the station’s 25th refueling and maintenance outage
on Nov. 6. The refueling outage lasted 41 days, and
many significant tasks were completed that will result
in more reliable power generation in the future. In
addition to replacing 128 fuel rods in the reactor vessel,
some of the maintenance activities included:
● Replaced four, massive feedwater heaters and
overhauled a fifth. The 10-unit system heats water
before going into the reactor pressure vessel. Eight
of the 10 heaters have been replaced in the last few
years.
● Replaced the turbine control system.
● Inspected and overhauled the high-pressure turbine.
● Overhauled the condensate booster pump and
condensate pump.
● Replaced one of two reactor water recirculation
motor generators.
● Replaced reactor protection system transfer
switches.
● Updated critical switchgear and safety-related
power supplies.
● Cleaned the service-water intake and discharge
canal that allow use of Missouri River water to cool
the reactor.
In other good news, Cooper moved into column
one of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s action
matrix. The matrix has five columns: 1) licensee
response, 2) regulatory response, 3) degraded
cornerstone, 4) multiple/ repetitive degraded
cornerstone, and 5) unacceptable performance.
Cooper had been in column two during the
second quarter. Moving up to column one means
that Cooper will be subject to the customary baseline
NRC inspections but not the additional oversight that
reactors in column two receive.
ENERGY INSIGHT • OCTOBER / NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2009 13
CNS Utility Service
Technicians Brian
Stanley and Brad
Schulenberger
prepare filter
material for the
temporary filtration
system in the
drywell.
CNS Senior
System Analysts
Kevin Fairbainks
and Dan Vice were
working far from
the computer room
during the outage.
Here they’re getting
ready to adjust
nozzle plugs in the
torus.
CNS
Instrumentation
Supervisor Dale
Cunningham, CNS
Electrician Derek
Niedermeyer
and Plattsmouth
Journey Line
Technician Kevin
Wagner were
working deep in
the pipe work of
the condensate
booster pump.
CNS Machinist
Alan Hutton drills
holes in thick steel
plates while Shift
Manager Terry
Borgan observes.