Illinois’ LaSalle Station begins refueling outage process

Operators at the LaSalle County Nuclear Generating Station in Marseilles, Illinois began powering down
the Unit 2 reactor at the facility, in order to conduct important inspections, upgrades and maintenance work
that cannot be completed while the unit is in operation.

During the refueling outage period, workers will replace one third of the fuel in the Unit 2 reactor and perform over 15,000 inspections.

By the end of spring, more than 7,000 jobs will have been created through the refueling outage.

“When supplemental workers come to Exelon’s LaSalle Station for the refueling outage it means additional business for our community,” Meg Skelly, assistant executive director of the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce, said. “Starved Rock Country and the Ottawa Area businesses welcome the additional workers, who take advantage of all the services we have to offer, whether it’s our restaurants, hotels or shopping.”

LaSalle’s Unit 1 will continue to operate during Unit 2’s refueling outage.

“The safe and reliable operation of LaSalle Generating Station is always our top priority,” LaSalle Site Vice President Bill Trafton said. “The highly-skilled professionals joining us for the refueling outage share our commitment to safe operations and will help us continue providing the region with clean energy for years to come.”

At full capacity, the facility’s two generating units produce more than 2,300 megawatts of electricity, which is enough to power more than two million average American homes.