Among the 2,200 temporary workers helping Exelon complete its maintenance outage at Byron's unit 1 reactor, 310 are working to refurbish its cooling tower.
In addition to refueling, inspections and reactor maintenance, crews have been replacing 2,550 1-ton fill packs in the tower. That work began in July when the existing 20-year-old packs were found to be ineffective and the plant had to bring in supplementary heat removal equipment, the Ogle County News reported Thursday. About 31,000 cubic yards of material has been removed from the tower to date, and 21,594 spray nozzles have been installed. Work on the tower is scheduled to continue even after the refueling is complete. The tower at the plant's second reactor will be refurbished during that unit's maintenance outage scheduled for next spring.According to Exelon, both towers are 495 feet tall. The plant 110 miles west of Chicago generates 2,336 megawatts, net, using two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors that entered service in the mid-1980s.
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