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Equipment Issue Limiting Richland Nuclear Plant Power Production by Staff Tri-City Herald, July 1, 2015

Reaching 100 percent power production at the Columbia Generating Station near Richland is being delayed by an equipment issue.

The nuclear plant connected to the grid Sunday after a 50-day refueling outage and has ramped up to 65 percent power since then. It will remain at that level of production until a stuck valve is fixed, which Energy Northwest plans to work on as the reactor operates at reduced capacity, said John Dobken, spokesman for Energy Northwest.

The valve controls one of the feed water pumps and is only needed during refueling outages, he said.