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Byron Nuclear Employees Light Up the Holiday Giving Season During Station's Final Refueling Outage

BYRON, Ill. – The top priority for employees in the recently completed refueling outage at Exelon Generation’s Byron Station was to safely refuel the Unit 2 reactor and perform maintenance to ensure an uninterrupted run through the coming winter months and beyond. A second goal for employees was to raise money for a deserving non-profit organization during the station’s final refueling outage.

“For our final refueling outage our employees wanted to make a big splash for a very deserving organization,” said Cory Lance, an engineer at the plant and president of the “Goodwill Committee” at the Byron nuclear facility. “Selling outage t-shirts and donating the proceeds to charity is an honored tradition at the plant. We chose the Rockford Rescue Mission to benefit from our fundraising because we know many in the community have been hit hard by the pandemic.”

Rockford Rescue Mission is recognized as the region’s primary provider of assistance to the homeless, near homeless, addicted and working poor in the Rock River Valley. Rockford Rescue Mission CEO Sherry Pitney said the donation comes at a time when help is needed most.

“We are so blessed by this compassion and generosity. It is evident that the employees at Byron Station and the company itself care for the hurting, hungry and homeless in the Rock River Valley,” Pitney said. “It’s a great feeling to know that we can count on our community to wrap their hearts and arms around us during this challenging time.”

Byron Station Site Vice President Mark Kanavos said while the company continues to highlight for stakeholders and the public the importance of carbon-free, reliable nuclear energy, charitable giving continues to play a vital role in the community.

“Our employees live in these communities, raise families, join clubs and organizations, spend money at local businesses and give their time to charitable efforts,” Kanavos said. “Though our carbon-free power is important for the region and state, our sense of community and goodwill is vital to many organizations in the area.”

Exelon announced in August that it would prematurely retire Byron Station and Dresden Station in Morris in the fall of 2021 due to ongoing economic challenges. 

Byron Generating Station is in Ogle County, Ill., about 20 miles southwest of Rockford. With both units at full power, the site produces almost 2,500 megawatts, enough electricity to power more than 2 million average American homes.

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