Limerick's twin cooling towers
LIMERICK PA – Operators safely took Exelon Corp.’s Limerick Generating Station Unit 2 nuclear reactor off-line shortly after midnight Monday (March 28, 2011) for a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage, according to Exelon spokesman Joseph Szafran.
During the outage, Limerick employees plan to replace three main power transformers. The installations “make a
significant investment for the future of … the generating station,” said Bill Maguire, site vice president. “Our team has been preparing for this outage for more than a year,” he added, “and we are now ready to execute our plan safely and efficiently.”
Workers are expected to perform about 12,000 activities on a variety of plant components and systems, Szafran said. Their tasks include replacing approximately a third of the reactor’s fuel, and performing extensive inspections. Many activities planned during the outage cannot be performed while the plant is running. All are designed to “help us to safely and reliably operate the unit during the next two years,” Maguire said.
To support its effort, the station will use the talents and expertise of close to 1,900 additional skilled workers from other Exelon sites, local union halls, from outside the area, and specialized vendors. All provide a temporary benefit for the local economy.
Limerick Unit 1 will continue to generate electricity during the Unit 2 outage.
This past Friday Limerick Nuclear Station was the scene of an unprecedented gathering of employee’s. Don’t know why but they were parking cars in the fields as he lot’s were full up. Most folks I’ve ever seen there at one time in ten years. The EPA’s RADSCAN system began to show increased KI wafting over the country as a gift from Japan. The levels of all this is miniscule and of no health concern but the gathering of the clan at Limerick at about the same time was also interesting. Your article may explain all those people.
Our people at Limerick are charged with a great responsibility and have met the continuing challenge since the plant opened. You have to commend these folks for running a safe and secure plant amidst this highly densely populated area.
In light of Japan’s challenges let’s make sure all remains well…
Keep up the good work.