Ameren Missouri’s Callaway energy center is working with locals on a large scale maintenance operation. This is Ameren’s 20th planned refueling and maintenance, but this time a nuclear reactor vessel head is being replaced for the first time.
The reactor vessel head was first installed in 1984. Fulton city council member Lowe Cannell said that the new vessel head is necessary for the continued operation of the plant for the next thirty years.
According to a press release, Ameren has added 1,100 people to their workforce for this maintenance operation. Senior Director of Nuclear Operations Barry Cox said this can only benefit local community members.
“We contract some of our services out to local companies and they have personnel that come on site to help support us during the outage to do maintenance activities and things of that nature,” Cox said.
The Callaway energy center normally provides 20 percent of Ameren Missouri’s energy and will be supported by other plants during the outage. Since the project began on Saturday, all maintenance has gone as planned.