Exelon's LaSalle County station in Illinois down for regular maintenance

Exelon Corp. said Friday that its LaSalle County Generating Station in Illinois has shut down the second unit in order to perform maintenance.

The LaSalle County nuclear power facility is approximately 75 miles southwest of Chicago near Marseilles. Exelon said that at full capacity the facility is able to produce approximately 2,200 megawatts and is able to support up to approximately 2.3 million residences.

Maintenance work involves two pumps that circulate water inside the reactor. Exelon said the work cannot be completed while the unit is in operation.

The facility began operation in 1984 with Unit 1 entering operations in January and the second unit in October of that year. The Unit 1 reactor has a capacity of 1,138 megawatts of energy; Unit 2 is capable of producing 1,150 megawatts of electricity. The facility also houses a 2,058-acre artificial lake that serves as a fishery and is managed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

The facility employs approximately 800 people, largely from the surrounding Grundy and LaSalle counties. During outages, the facility also is able to support temporary contract work.

Exelon did not indicate when the second unit at the LaSalle facility would be brought back online.