BUCHANAN -- Entergy plant operators safely shutdown Indian Point Energy Center’s Unit 2 late Sunday night after a malfunction with one of the plant’s two main boiler feed pumps. The pumps provide water to the plant’s four steam generators which change the water to the steam that spins the main electric generator to make electricity.

Unit 2 was to have been shut down on Wednesday morning for refueling that was to take 30 days. Workers will examine the pump and make the necessary repairs while performing other maintenance planned for the refueling outage.

Unit 3, which has been online for 327 days, is unaffected by the shut down and operating at full power.

During the maintenance and refueling outage, work crews will perform preventative maintenance on one of three low pressure turbines, inspect and the main turbine control system, replace steam piping around two condensers, modify the containment sump, as well as replacing one third of the fuel in the reactor.