NRC to meet AEP Thurs. to discuss Mich nuke re

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

NRC to meet AEP Thurs. to discuss Mich nuke restart

NEW YORK, March 22 (Reuters) - American Electric Power Co. Inc. (AEP) 
<AEP.N> will meet Thursday with Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 
staff in what the company said is one of the final steps needed 
before going ahead with the proposed April 22 restart of Unit 2 at 
its Cook nuclear plant in Michigan. 

The 1,090 megawatt (MW) Cook Unit 2 has been shut since September, 
1997, for extensive upgrades after an NRC inspection raised safety 
concerns over the plant's design. 

"We're in the process of performing a system start up and testing of 
plant equipment. The NRC has closed the Confirmatory Action Letter 
(CAL) which was the 10 identified items that they said we needed to 
do before restart," an AEP spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday. 

"Additionally, they have an NRC process manual for restarting plants, 
and they have some key specific items that we're working on 
completing prior to restart. At last count we were somewhere in the 
neighborhood of having 25 out of 36 of those completed," he added. 

There will be at least one more meeting with the NRC some time in 
April, but not yet scheduled, prior to restart, the company said 
previously. 

In late February the company pushed back its planned April 1 restart 
of Unit 2 until April 22 due to "issues encountered during testing of 
equipment necessary for core reload and power operations." 

The company said at the time it still expected the unit to be online 
in time to meet peak summer electricity demand. 

The two reactors at shuttered Cook power station, near  Bridgman, 
Mich. have an overall generating capacity of 2,110 MW. 

AEP has targeted September 1 as the restart date for the adjacent 
1,020 MW Cook Unit 1. 

An NRC Regional Administrator will hold a news conference at the Cook 
plant after the 1:00 p.m. EST meeting with AEP. 

Both the NRC and AEP have said they do not expect a major 
announcement to come from tomorrow's meeting, although traders 
concerns are not so easily allayed. Concern over the plant's changing 
restart dates have been pushing around summer electricity prices in 
the Midwest for the past several weeks. 

AEP, based in Columbus, Ohio, provides electricity to three million 
customers in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, 
and West Virginia. 

In December 1997, AEP agreed to merge with Central and South West 
Corp. <CSR.N>, a public utility holding company based in Dallas, 
Texas. CSW's U.S. operations serve 1.7 million customers in Texas, 
Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas. 

The companies are awaiting approval from the Securities and Exchange 
Commission. Upon completion of the merger, the new company will be 
called American Electric Power. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
ICN Biomedicals, Inc.				E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  		E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          	          
Costa Mesa, CA 92626                                      

Personal Website:  http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com

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