Utah refinery takes another step to full ope..

Woods Cross • Refinery exploded last November.

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A Utah oil refinery says it's preparing to reopen a crude oil processing unit that blew up a year ago and damaged dozens of nearby houses with an air blast.

Silver Eagle Refining Inc. says it's taking steps to gradually restart the unit and other parts of the refinery after the U.S. Chemical Safety Board cleared the way for repairs.

Refinery spokesman Mike Smith says no date has been set for the reopening of the damaged crude oil processing unit and the company continues to carefully check a lot of plumbing. Two other crude oil processing units were unaffected by the blast, and one of them was reopened last February.

Silver Eagle has been fined more than $1 million by Utah regulators for equipment, safety and record-keeping problems.

Utah refinery takes another step to full operations since blast