Sunday, March 11th marks one year since an earthquake and tsunami slammed into Japan, causing nuclear concerns worldwide.
In response, Exelon Nuclear will be spending the month of March improving operations and upgrading equipment in its 10 nuclear plants, including the Quad Cities Generating Station in Cordova, Illinois.
In order to do that, the Cordova site is using one of their planned refueling outages, which take place every year, to upgrade the facility's technology, test equipment, and check emergency procedures.
Officials say 2,000 temporary jobs will be needed for the project. The jobs include every type of worker -- from pipefitters to welders -- from local and regional labor unions.
The flush of new jobs is also expected to have a positive economic impact on the Quad Cities. On top of the facility's 900 permanent year-round employees, officials say the extra 2,000 workers will be eating in our restaurants, staying in our hotels, and shopping in our stores.
"A lot of people don't realize, because we are out here in Cordova, that there aren't any hotels in this area so most people stay in the LeClaire area, Bettendorf, Davenport, Moline, East Moline so it is an [economic] boom that sometimes we don't recognize," says Bill Stoermer, Communications Manager.
Officials can't say when the refueling outage will take place, but it's expected to happen in the next two weeks and last until early April. Exelon customers will not be affected.
Exelon posts job opportunities on their website at this link: http://careers.exeloncorp.com/