Technicians at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant have finished repairs on one of two sets of 11 cooling towers. And they’ve boosted the plant’s power level to 50 percent of its normal 650-megawatt output.
Power was reduced last Friday after a leak was discovered during an inspection of the cooling towers. Those towers reduce the temperature of Connecticut River water used to cool the plant before it is returned to the river.
It was the second time in less than a year that cooling tower problems have forced the 36-year-old reactor in Vermont’s southeast corner to curtail operations.
Plant officials say they’re working on both rows of cooling towers, and that work is completed on one of them.