More than two years after the last outage, a reactor at the Exelon nuclear power plant in Cordova, Illinois was taken offline for refueling, and it takes more than 2,000 workers to manage the process.
While the Unit 1 reactor was down for refueling, the Unit 2 reactor would continue to generate electricity.
“Quad Cities has two boiling water reactors, each of which is refueled once every 24 months. One-third of the unit’s fuel will be replaced and more than 12,000 comprehensive maintenance and testing activities will be performed,” said plant spokesman Bill Stoermer. Many of those maintenance and testing functions can only be conducted while the reactor is offline.
More than 1,500 supplemental employees will work with 800 plant employees to conduct the refueling process.