Unit Two out for re-fueling

A nuclear unit is not designed to churn out electricity endlessly. Occasionally, it requires refueling. And that’s exactly the case at Oconee Nuclear Station, where Unit Two has been taken off line temporarily. “Oconee Unit Two is currently in a re-fueling outage. This is the time that occurs every two years when we take out part of the nuclear fuel to put in new nuclear fuel so it can keep running for an additional two years,” said B-J Gatten at Duke’s World of Energy. The job means additional workers brought in from the outside nuclear world, so many that Duke uses shuttle buses to transport workers to outside parking spaces. Meantime, Oconee’s other two units—#s 1 and 3—are running at full capacity. In fact, Gatten says, both are on record runs.