“To keep Sequoyah nuclear unit 2 generating low-cost, carbon-free energy, the team at the plant is performing a scheduled maintenance and refuelling outage,” plant owner and operator Tennessee Valley Authority said on social media.
“During these trying times, additional safety procedures are in place, including social distancing and wearing masks.”
Last month TVA said it had taken the “precautionary step” of delaying planned outages at Sequoyah-2 and Watts Bar-1 by two weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to a March 20 letter from the Nuclear Energy Institute to the US Department of Energy, a refuelling outage for the 1,139-MW Sequoyah-2 unit was originally scheduled to start in late March while the 1,123-MW Watts Bar-1 unit was set to begin an outage in the middle of April.
TVA operates seven commercial nuclear plants at three nuclear stations: Sequoyah and Watts Bar in Tennessee, and Browns Ferry in Alabama.