Workers at an eastern Kansas nuclear power plant are working to repair fire-damaged equipment and avoid a shutdown.

The damage occurred Monday when a fire broke out in a room that houses a backup generator. Federal law requires that the generator is operational within 72 hours or the Wolf Creek plant will have to be taken offline.

Shutting down the plant would cost the utilities that own it – and eventually their customers – more than $300,000 per day.

Plant spokesman Terry Young says workers were spending Wednesday conducting testing on a transformer and cabling that were replaced after the fire.

Young says the backup generator is used only when the plant shuts down and stops making its own energy. The plant has other backup energy sources.