Reprieved Illinois plants to be uprated
22 February 2023
US utility Constellation has announced it will invest USD800 million in new equipment to increase the output of its Braidwood and Byron nuclear power plants in Illinois by some 135 MWe. They were among the Illinois nuclear plants saved from premature retirement by passage of the state Climate and Equitable Jobs Act in 2021.
The Braidwood and Byron projects involve replacing the main turbines at the two facilities with state-of-the-art, high efficiency units. The work on the uprates will be carried out in stages during scheduled refueling outages. Constellation expects to see increased output at the plants as early as 2026, with the full uprated output available by 2029.
