Missouri legislators tour Callaway Energy Center

Provided with an inside look at the nuclear plant during Refuel 25

Refueling a nuclear power plant only occurs every 18 months, at most US plants, so it's not something that happens very often. What's even more rare is for visitors to be allowed to tour Ameren Missouri's Callaway Energy Center during a refueling and maintenance outage and to see inside the plant's reactor building.

But that's just what a small group of Missouri state legislators got to do on April 14. Sen. Jason Bean (R-25, Dunklin County), Rep. Ed Lewis (R-6, Moberly), and Sen. Bean's chief of staff Ryan Gill dressed out in protective clothing and entered the plant's reactor and fuel buildings. They were accompanied by Callaway staff, and Rick Eastman and Zach Monroe from Ameren Missouri's Government Relations department. 

"This tour is something I have wanted to do for some time," said Bean. "It's truly a remarkable way to make electricity and the fact that this plant has been operating since December 1984 shows how safe and reliable nuclear power is as an energy source for our state. I would like to see more nuclear plant proposals in the state of Missouri. They are an important part of providing clean, carbon-free around-the-clock energy that is needed to support all of the new wind and solar generation that's coming online."

"As a former high school chemistry and physics teacher, I understand how nuclear fission works," said Lewis. "But to see it built and operating at this scale is impressive. Equally impressive is the amount of safety protocols and precautions we had to adhere to as part of our tour."

"This was a very informative and educational tour," said Gill. "It's impressive to see the size of the equipment in the nuclear plant up-close and to learn more about how it operates in order to provide enough electricity to supply the needs of 800,000 average households."

Since the Callaway Energy Center refuels every 18-months, this is the 25th time the plant has been shut down for a refueling and maintenance outage in its 38 years of operation. A refueling outage is when the nuclear plant is temporarily shut down to not only refuel the reactor, but to have crews perform thousands of maintenance activities that typically cannot be performed when the plant is generating electricity for hundreds of thousands of Ameren Missouri customers.