Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant returns to service with $70 million in improvements

After a planned shutdown of just over one month, Entergy’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, returned to service on Tuesday having received $70 million in upgrades, replacement and overhauls, as well as robust inspections of the plant’s equipment.

The largest projects undertaken by the plant's employees and nearly 1,200 contract workers brought on for the outage were a water heater replacement, safety upgrades made necessary in the wake of the Fukushima incident, and condenser boot seal replacements.

"Our 2015 refueling outage (RFO) was a great success," Pilgrim’s Site Vice President John Dent said. "Between months of planning and the careful execution of those plans made by our well-trained and professional employees, RFO-2015 will go down as one that not only resulted in a safer and more reliable plant, but demonstrated the ability of the whole Pilgrim team to do a great job."

The plant, which operated at 97 percent capacity throughout 2014 and was New England’s most reliable power producer, generates 680 megawatts of environmentally friendly electricity, which translates to powering roughly 680,000 local homes.