The Omaha Public Power District's nuclear power plant, Fort Calhoun Station, has been taken offline for a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage.

The plant was take offline last weekend. An OPPD spokesman says the outage is expected to last about 30 days.

During the outage, the list of about 8,700 scheduled activities includes replacement of one third of the fuel assemblies in the reactor core.

The plant refuels on an 18-month cycle.

Some 1,200 workers will also conduct numerous tests and perform preventive maintenance on plant equipment to ensure the plant continues to perform safely at peak efficiency.

When operating, the Fort Calhoun Station generates approximately 500 million watts of emission-free power.