The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 3 started a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage Feb. 22 after generating nearly 19 billion kilowatt hours of carbon-free electricity and more than 658 days of operation.

“Outages are always important because it’s our best opportunity to do the necessary work in order to continue safely and reliably meeting the Valley’s energy needs,” said Steve Bono, Browns Ferry site vice president, in a press release issued Monday. “What’s more important is that we do this work safely and error-free to protect ourselves, the plant, and the health and safety of the public.”

There are nearly 11,000 work activities scheduled for the outage, including loading 312 new fuel assemblies and a major upgrade of an important digital control and monitoring system, TVA said. Other outage work includes maintenance and upgrades of plant equipment, inspections and repairs of reactor components and testing valves and electrical components, according to the press release. The tasks are expected to prepare Unit 3 for the next two years of generating electricity.

To complete the work, Browns Ferry’s regular staff will be supplemented by more than 900 additional TVA and contract employees.

Browns Ferry Unit 3 is one of seven operational TVA nuclear reactors. With the completion last year of an Extended Power Uprate on all three Browns Ferry units, the station is able to generate an additional 465 megawatts of electricity. That’s enough energy to power an added 280,000 new homes, increasing the total number of homes supported by Browns Ferry to 2.2 million.