Nuclear Plant’s Restart Delayed For Testing

The state’s only commercial nuclear power plant’s return to operation, scheduled for Friday, will be delayed until next week to perform extensive tests.

The testing is needed because of a change in instrument settings designed to increase the total power output, the Washington Public Power Supply System said Thursday.

Plant No. 2 began its annual maintenance and refueling outage April 22.

“These few extra days provide us the opportunity to wrap up maintenance tasks and complete necessary paperwork during a time when power from Plant 2 is not critical to meeting the region’s needs,” said Rod Webring, acting general manager of Plant No. 2.

The supply system delivers power to the Bonneville Power Administration.