OAK HARBOR, Ohio — Davis-Besse’s nuclear reactor is now operating at about 90 percent and is expected to be back at full power by the evening, a FirstEnergy Corp. spokesman told The Blade late Tuesday morning.

Spokesman Jennifer Young said the plant was synchronized to PJM Interconnection’s 13-state regional electric grid at 5:32 p.m. Monday. Synchronization usually happens when a nuclear plant’s reactor is operating at about 20 percent capacity and is an important step in any restart process.  

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission online records show the plant’s operating status at 50 percent power, but those figures are typically reported to the regulatory agency shortly before or just after dawn.

FirstEnergy took Davis-Besse offline Saturday to repair a large pipe that moves hot steam through a building that’s separated from the reactor. The utility planned for a short maintenance outage last week after it found repairs were needed to piping that carries such non-radioactive steam to the plant’s main generator.

Davis-Besse continues to face a strong likelihood of permanent closure.

Unless a buyer or bailout emerges to save it, FirstEnergy plans to close it for good by May 31, 2020. The utility has said it and its other nuclear plants — the Perry plant east of Cleveland, and the two plants on its Beaver Valley site west of Pittsburgh — can no longer compete against low natural gas prices brought on by the modern era of fracking. Plans have been announced for a gradual phaseout of those plants and FirstEnergy’s remaining coal-fired power plants, which the utility also has deemed too expensive to continue operating in the long run.

Davis-Besse is Ottawa County’s largest employer, with about 700 full-time workers and dozens of contractors. It is along the Lake Erie shoreline, about 30 miles east of downtown Toledo.

First Published January 15, 2019, 5:34 p.m.