Constellation's Braidwood Generating Station marks nearly perfect performance over hottest summer on record

Sep. 23—Constellation Energy's Braidwood Generating Station ran 99% of the time during the hottest summer on record, Constellation said in a news release on Thursday.

While wildfires, hurricanes and extreme heat battered Americans from coast to coast during the hottest summer in Earth's recorded history, Constellation's carbon-free nuclear units ran nearly 100% of the time, powering more than 15 million homes and businesses.

Constellation's 21 reactors at 12 sites from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast operated at 99.4% during the months of June, July and August. That near-perfect reliability helped Constellation power the equivalent of 15 million average American homes through a growing number of extreme heat days — all without adding any harmful emissions to the environment.

To prepare for the summer heat, technical experts performed tens of thousands of tasks at Constellation nuclear plants during spring refueling and maintenance outages designed to ensure all reactors would run uninterrupted through the peak summer heat. Among more than half a billion dollars spent during spring outage activities, the most important tasks were technology upgrades, major component refurbishments, and the loading of new fuel — a task already beginning for the fall maintenance season.

"As the quantity and severity of these extreme weather events increase, Constellation's clean energy centers continue to play a vital role in providing reliable and affordable carbon-free energy to American homes and businesses," said Bryan Hanson, Constellation's executive vice president and chief generation officer. "As the summer storms and excessive heat wane, we're shifting our focus to a comprehensive fleetwide winter preparedness campaign, to ensure that we are equally prepared for extreme cold temperatures."

Constellation's nuclear fleet in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast U.S. includes Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Calvert County, Maryland; Pennsylvania facilities Limerick Generating Station and Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in Montgomery and York counties; and New York facilities Fitzpatrick Nuclear Power Plant and Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station in Oswego County and Ginna Nuclear Power Plant in Wayne County. Its Illinois nuclear fleet includes Braidwood Generating Station in Will County, Byron Generating Station in Ogle County, Clinton Power Station in DeWitt County, Dresden Generating Station in Grundy County, LaSalle County Generating Station, and Quad Cities Generating in Rock Island County.

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