REFORM, Mo. - The newest piece of Ameren Missouri's Callaway Energy Center has arrived, but it won't be installed until this fall.
Shipped from Spain and transported from New Orleans up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, according to an Ameren press release, the new reactor vessel head "represents one part of Ameren Missouri's significant investment to improve reliability and provide cleaner energy for our customers."
The $145 million part will replace the original reactor vessel head installed when the Callaway facility went online in 1984.
Barry Cox, senior director of nuclear operations at the Callaway Energy Center, said Thursday the new equipment "will allow us to go to the end of our operating license and the life of plant."
He said the current operating license expires in 2024, but Ameren Missouri plans to file to extend that license.
The reactor vessel head is scheduled to be installed during the nuclear plant's scheduled refueling and maintenance outage, which Cox said will take place sometime in October.