Ameren Missouri's Callaway Energy Center started a planned refueling and maintenance outage on Saturday, Oct. 11. Ameren customers' service will not be affected by the planned outage, according to an Ameren press release.
Refueling outages occur every 18 months at the Callaway plant, a 1,190-megawatt nuclear facility. This particular planned maintenance is one of the largest in the plant's history and will require more than 1,100 additional workers. The original reactor vessel head that was installed when the plant went online in 1984 will be replaced.
Ameren's press release stated, "As a critical replacement, the approximately $150 million part will ensure the continued safe and reliable operation of Callaway, which is recognized as one of the safest and highest performing non-carbon producing generating centers in the United States."
Operators will also replace 84 of the 193 fuel assemblies in the reactor core during the refueling. A fuel assembly is a square bundle of long metal tubes with ceramic pellets of uranium dioxide fuel.
The Callaway plant produces about 20 percent of the electricity for Ameren Missouri's 1.2 million customers. The energy it would normally generate will be replaced by other plants while the Callaway plant is out of service for maintenance, according to the press release.
The plant's regular workforce - about 800 employees - and the more than 1,100 additional workers being brought on to help with the maintenance will do various other tests and safety inspections of the plant during this planned outage.