Callaway Nuclear Station Down for Refuel Outage After Record-Breaking Run

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--AmerenUE, a subsidiary of Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) (St. Louis, Missouri), has brought the 1,190-megawatt (MW) Callaway Nuclear Power Station in Fulton, Missouri, offline after a record 520-day continuous run for a refuel outage. The former record was set in 1998 after 483 days of continuous operation. This is the 16th time the unit has come offline for a refuel.

The station's architect and engineer was Bechtel Group Incorporated (San Francisco, California), and it was built by Daniel International, now known as Flour Corporation (NYSE:FLR) (Irving, Texas). The unit began commercial operation in December 1984 after more than 11 years of planning, engineering and construction.

Callaway's pressurized water reactor was manufactured by Westinghouse (Monroeville, Pennsylvania), a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation (OTC:TOSBF) (Minato, Tokyo). The reactor has 193 fuel assemblies, of which 85 will be replaced. Fuel assemblies are about 1,100 pounds and are made up of 264 round fuel rods that are each 8.5 inches per side and 12 feet long. Each rod has 380 uranium dioxide pellets. This amount of nuclear fuel can produce the same amount of power as 1.37 million gallons of fuel oil, 9.17 million tons of coal or 5.78 billion cubic feet of natural gas. After the fuel is removed from the reactor, it is stored in a pool where it loses 90% of its radioactivity in the first year of storage. The pool is projected to be large enough to keep fuel until the end of license in 2024; however, since the plant is expected to apply for an additional 20 years, it will need to apply in 2011 and have dry cask storage available before 2024.

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