Fermi 2 back online, according to DTE Energy
Nuclear plant had been down since late March for refueling, maintenance
4/21/2017NEWPORT, Mich. — DTE Energy said today its Fermi 2 nuclear plant in northern Monroe County is back online and producing electricity again after a 33-day outage.
The plant had been down since late March for its 18th refueling and maintenance outage. More than 1,200 contractors were called in to supplement DTE’s regular 850-member work crew.
It synchronized to the grid at 7:11 p.m. Thursday, the utility said.
Fermi 2 is on 18-month refueling cycles; some other plants, such as FirstEnergy Corp.’s Davis-Besse nuclear plant, can go two years between outages.
According to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission online records, the Fermi 2 reactor was operating at 51 percent when the utility reported its operating status to the government early this morning.
Operators will slowly increase power over the next several days until the plant is operating at 100 percent power, DTE said.
More then 13,000 tasks were completed during the outage. Fermi 2 Site Vice President Keith Polson praised plant employees for completing the outage on schedule.
Fermi 2 is a 1,170-megawatt nuclear power plant along the western Lake Erie shoreline, about 30 miles north of downtown Toledo.
Contact Tom Henry at: thenry@theblade.com, 419-724-6079, or via Twitter @ecowriterohio.