The Tennessee Valley Authority has completed the scheduled refueling and maintenance outage for Sequoyah Nuclear Plant Unit 1.
Over the weekend, plant operators returned Unit 1 to its full capacity, generating enough power for 650,000 homes, according to the TVA.
Crews replaced 80 of the unit’s 193 fuel assemblies and performed detailed inspections of various plant systems.
Other major maintenance activities included replacing or refurbishing several motors, valves and other plant components, as well as several upgrades to further enhance safety and reliability.
This year, the TVA completed scheduled refueling outages at Browns Ferry Unit 1, Sequoyah Unit 1 and an extended steam generator replacement and refueling outage at Watts Bar Unit 2.
Sequoyah Unit 1 is one of seven operational TVA nuclear reactors across the Valley. TVA’s nuclear fleet is the third largest in the nation, safely and reliably providing about 40% of all electricity used by nearly 10 million people in the region.
“The entire Sequoyah team, supported by our valued and highly skilled union and contract partners, safely completed more than 13,650 work activities during the outage,” said Tom Marshall, Sequoyah site vice president. “The work the team performed puts Unit 1 in a position to continue to operate safely and reliably over the next 18-month cycle. Our employees and contract partners take great pride in completing the high-quality work needed to ensure Sequoyah continues to provide reliable, low-cost, carbon-free electricity to the people and businesses of the region.”