Our employees, along with more than 1750 supplemental workers and personnel from other Exelon facilities, are ready to execute this outage safely and efficiently,” said Site Vice President Dave Hoots. “The work they complete will enable us to reliably operate the unit during the next 18-month cycle. The power we produce will help the environment by reducing dependence on other energy sources that emit air pollution like nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide.”

During the outage workers will perform extensive inspections, testing and maintenance on a wide range of components and equipment in addition to refueling the reactor.

A Byron outage brings hundreds of temporary workers in from outside the area to support the team, which provides a temporary economic boost for local area businesses in Byron, Oregon and other nearby communities.

While the unit is shut down, residents should be aware that one of the cooling towers will not produce a water vapor cloud. This is normal during a shutdown. Unit 1 will continue to supply electricity to Exelon customers during the Unit 2 shutdown. Byron Generating Station is located in Ogle County, 25 miles southwest of Rockford, IL.