The Tennessee Valley Authority on Friday announced workers had completed a planned maintenance and refueling outage on Unit 2 at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant.

Plant operators are gradually raising power output so the unit can again produce enough reliable, carbon-free energy to serve more than 650,000 homes. The refueling should allow the unit to operate for the next 24 months, a release said.

“The work we did during this outage prepares Unit 2 to safely generate low-cost electricity so we can better serve the people of the Tennessee Valley in the coming months,” said Steve Bono, Browns Ferry site vice president.

In addition to replacing 288 fuel assemblies, employees conducted detailed inspections of reactor vessel components, performed maintenance and upgrades of plant equipment and installed modifications that improve safety margins and reliability.

The Browns Ferry team safely completed more than 15,000 work activities. The station’s regular staff was supplemented by more than 1,300 additional TVA and contract employees.

Browns Ferry Unit 2 is one of seven operational TVA nuclear reactors that supply nearly one-third of the electricity used by more than 9 million people across the Tennessee Valley.