Missouri’s commercial nuclear power plant shut down earlier this morning and won’t be back on line until about June first. Ameren’s Mike Cleary says the 17th refueling since 1984 of the Callaway nuclear plant will take about 35 days.
Ameren will replace 88 of the 193 fuel assemblies. Cleary says it costs about one-million dollars to replace each of those assemblies.
Ameren’s coal-fired plants will take up the slack. Ameren says the Callaway plant usu8ally generates about 21% of the power that Ameren supplies to customers in 500 towns in 57 Missouri counties.
Ameren usually turns off the plant every 18 months to replace some of the fuel rods that have diminished in effectiveness. Cleary says the company usually refuels in the Spring and the Fall because those are times when the system power demands are at their lowest.