Exelon employs virtual tour technology in LaSalle Station refueling outage

Exelon Generation said recently that it will use virtual tour technology to reduce work hours inside the plant and limit radiological exposure during a refueling and maintenance outage at its Lasalle Generating Station Unit 1, which powered down on Monday.

Exelon’s innovation group developed a web-based mapping interface it calls the Digital Plant Viewer, and workers spent the last few months mapping the facility using 360-degree cameras to create virtual tours of the plant.

The mapping interface can access radiological surveys, live video feeds, and 360-degree images to provide live video, temperature, and up-to-date radiation dose information throughout the plant. The Digital Plant Viewer pulls all of the technological systems that plant employees use to run the plant together in one place. Exelon aims to use the technology to plan for maintenance tasks, brief work teams and improve in-field execution.

“Our goal is to perform every refueling or maintenance task during the outage flawlessly,” LaSalle Station Site Vice President Bill Trafton said. “This technology will help our people to work safer and smarter because they can get more data and information about their tasks before they even enter the plant. A successful refueling outage will allow the plant to come back online and resume providing reliable, zero-emission energy to the community.”

Exelon has indicated that it intends to create a true virtual reality simulation of the plant that will improve employee training as well as other areas.

During the refueling outage, workers will conduct approximately 14,500 maintenance and refurbishment activities and replace approximately one-third of the unit’s fuel. 1,800 supplemental workers will help support LaSalle Station’s 800 employees during the outage.

LaSalle has two reactors, and each is refueled once every 24 months. LaSalle Unit 2 will continue to generate electricity during the Unit 1 outage.