FirstEnergy has begun a $600 million steam generator replacement at its Davis-Besse nuclear plant in Ohio. While elsewhere in the Midwest, federal regulators have approved uprates for five other reactors.
At Davis-Besse, the Toledo Blade reported that roughly 2,300 additional workers are joining the plant's staff of 700 to replace the steam generators and refuel the unit. The steam generators were manufactured by Babcock & Wilcox in Canada, and their installation at the plant near Toledo will inject an estimated $108 million into the local economy.
Meanwhile, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Monday that DTE Energy and Exelon received approval to increase the power of five other reactors in the region. At unit 2 of DTE's Fermi plant south of Detroit, regulators approved a 1.6 percent power uprate facilitated by more accurate means of measuring feedwater flow. The NRC also said it granted permission for similar uprates to boost the power at Exelon's Braidwood and Byron plants in Illinois. The plants' four reactors will be allowed to increase their power by 1.63 percent, according to an NRC release. Together, the five uprates announced Monday will add nearly 100 megawatts of generation capacity to the grid.