Lycoming, N.Y. - Control room operators removed Entergy's James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant from service at 5:03 p.m. today to begin its 21st refueling and maintenance outage.

During the outage, workers will replace 184 fuel assemblies in the reactor and perform various maintenance activities, tests and inspections on plant equipment. Other major work includes a complete retube of the plant's main condenser. The plant's existing condenser tubes constructed of admiralty brass will be replaced with titanium tubes designed to be resistant to silt and other abrasive sediments found in Lake Ontario.

The new condenser tube material was selected for its long-life expectancy and resistance to environmental erosion and corrosion conditions. The life span for the retubed condenser is projected to exceed the station's extended period of operation. In 2008 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved FitzPatrick's renewed operating license allowing the station to operate an additional 20 years beyond the original license, to 2034.

"Significant capital investments are scheduled during this refueling outage that will contribute to FitzPatrick's continued safe and reliable operations," said Larry Coyle, site vice president and top Entergy official at FitzPatrick. "The FitzPatrick team has worked hard since our last refueling outage and the employees take pride in our commitment to safety first and foremost at all times."

 The upcoming work during the refueling and maintenance outage will be performed by FitzPatrick's 623 full-time employees, supplemented by Entergy employees from its other nuclear plants and contract workers, including pipefitters, boilermakers, electricians, laborers, valve technicians, engineers and radiation protection technicians.

The influx of more than 1,500 outside workers and their associated local spending provide a major economic boost to the community.

Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including more than 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power, making it one of the nation's leading nuclear generators. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $11 billion and approximately 14,000 employees.

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Entergy Nuclear's online address is www.entergy-nuclear.com.
FitzPatrick's online address is http://www.fitzpatrickpower.com.
Twitter: @ FitzPatrick_NPP
Facebook: Facebook.com/FitzpatrickNuclear

In this news release, and from time to time, Entergy Corporation makes certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Except to the extent required by the federal securities laws, Entergy undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties. There are factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, including (a) those factors discussed in this news release and in Entergy's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Entergy's other reports and filings made under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; (b) uncertainties associated with rate proceedings, formula rate plans and other cost recovery mechanisms; (c) uncertainties associated with efforts to remediate the effects of major storms and recover related restoration costs; (d) nuclear plant relicensing, operating and regulatory risks, including any changes resulting from the nuclear crisis in Japan following its catastrophic earthquake and tsunami; (e) legislative and regulatory actions and risks and uncertainties associated with claims or litigation by or against Entergy and its subsidiaries; and (f) economic conditions and conditions in commodity and capital markets during the periods covered by the forward-looking statements, in addition to other factors described elsewhere in this release and subsequent securities filings.

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