BRIDGMAN, Mich., April 11, 2000 – Yesterday, workers began refueling the reactor at American Electric Power’s (NYSE:AEP) Cook Nuclear Plant Unit 2. The first of the 193 fuel assemblies was placed in the reactor core at 2:59 p.m. Movement of the fuel assemblies routinely takes several days to complete. The refueling activities follow a number of successful system tests recently completed at the Cook plant. “This is one more indication that we are getting closer to restarting Unit 2 and getting back into the power generation business in time for this summer’s peak demand,” said Bob Powers, AEP senior vice president - nuclear generation. The primary remaining restart activities include post-maintenance testing of equipment that was serviced during the outage, completion of required documentation, and the systematic heat-up and start-up of the unit. While there is always the possibility that some minor delays could be encountered as the start-up and testing process continues, restart of Unit 2 is clearly in the home stretch, Powers said. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is planning to perform a final pre-restart inspection to monitor heat-up and start-up operations and complete any remaining inspection items or licensing actions. Workers recently completed loading of 2.9 million pounds of ice into the Unit 2 ice condenser system. The ice condenser is used to help cool the reactor containment building in the event of an accident. Refurbishment of the ice condenser was one of the largest projects ever undertaken at the plant. The project included repair or refurbishment of 1,944 ice baskets, refurbishment of 60 air-handling units, re-sealing of doors, and upgrades and modifications to insulation and piping systems. The re-filled ice baskets have been weighed and verified to meet safety specifications. Other plant safety components and systems, such as motor operated valves, service water pumps, the emergency diesel generators and the emergency core cooling system, have passed rigorous performance tests. The most comprehensive test required for restart of the unit – load sequence testing – was successfully completed last week. The test is designed to make sure all plant safety systems work together as designed. The Cook plant has not operated since September 1997 because of questions raised during a design inspection by the NRC. AEP, a global energy company, is one of the United States' largest investor-owned utilities, providing energy to 3 million customers in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. AEP has holdings in the United States, the United Kingdom, China and Australia. Wholly owned subsidiaries provide power engineering, energy consulting and energy management services around the world. The company is based in Columbus, Ohio. On Dec. 22, 1997, AEP announced a definitive merger agreement for a tax-free, stock-for-stock transaction with Central and South West Corp., a public utility holding company based in Dallas.