Arkansas Nuclear One Plans for Unit 2 Restart

NEW ORLEANS, April 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Entergy officials are making plans to restart Arkansas Nuclear One's Unit 2, a process anticipated to take several weeks. The unit has been offline since Sunday when it shut down automatically after a 550-ton generator stator fell as it was being moved out of the turbine building, a non-nuclear area of the plant.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120913/MM74349LOGO)

The Unit 1 generator stator was being moved for replacement, and a new stator scheduled for installation is already staged at an offsite location. The move of the generator stator was associated with Unit 1 refueling outage, which began on March 24, 2013.

"Ultimately, we are committed to restoring both units at ANO to full power operations," said Jeremy Browning, ANO site vice president. "We have augmented our team with both corporate staff and outside experts for the methodical process of inspection and assessment to ensure we fully understand what happened over the weekend, and that our restart is conducted safely."

Further evaluation will be needed for Unit 1, Browning added, where damage evaluation, repair estimates and rescheduling the unit's refueling activities will take more time.

Both units remain in a stable, shutdown condition. Unit 1 is receiving power from diesel generators, and work is under way to restore off-site power over the coming days. Unit 2 is receiving off-site power.

The industrial accident resulted in the fatality of one worker and injuries to eight others, one of whom remains hospitalized. All were contract workers supporting Unit 1's refueling activities. There was no radiological release and no impact on public health and safety.

"Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the families of these individuals," said Browning. "In addition, counseling services are being provided to employees at the plant."

Entergy Corporation, which celebrates its 100th birthday this year, is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including more than 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power, making it one of the nation's leading nuclear generators. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $10 billion and approximately 15,000 employees.

Entergy Operations, Inc.'s online address is entergy-nuclear.com.

SOURCE Entergy Corporation