MORRIS, Ill. – Operators at Exelon Generation’s Dresden Generating Station removed Unit 2 from service early this morning to begin a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage that will bring more than 1,500 additional workers to the region and provide an economic boost to the local community.
“The maintenance performed during the outage will help Dresden Station deliver reliable, carbon-free power to more than 1.5 million customers,” said Dresden Station Site Vice President Pete Karaba. “Our skilled workforce of permanent employees, as well as the many trades that support us, will be working around the clock to ensure we continue to run non-stop through the extreme cold of winter.”
During the outage, technicians will replace nearly one-third of the reactor’s fuel and perform 7,900 inspections, tests and maintenance activities that cannot be accomplished while the unit is generating electricity. To support this work, more than 1,500 supplemental electricians, pipe fitters, welders, carpenters, laborers and other trades people have traveled to the Grundy County area for the weeks-long outage.
Nancy Norton, president and CEO of the Grundy Economic Development Council, lauded the economic boom Dresden’s outages bring to the region.
“The outage produces good-paying work for so many of our skilled industrial tradesmen and women,” Norton said. “The economic infusion of hundreds of extra workers means a boost to local convenience stores, gas stations, catering businesses and much more.”
Dresden’s outage follows similar refueling and maintenance campaigns at Braidwood and Clinton Generating Stations, capping Exelon Generation’s fall outage season in Illinois. These fall outages added 4,200 temporary jobs and infused millions of dollars into the Illinois economy.
Dresden Generating Station is a nuclear power facility located approximately 60 miles southwest of Chicago. The station’s two reactors produce more than 1,800 megawatts of carbon-free electricity at full power – enough to power more than 1.5 million homes.
