Less than a month after GE obtained a $500 million order for gas turbines from nuclear power company Exelon, GE Hitachi has landed a contract worth nearly $300 million to provide maintenance and fuel services for the same company’s boiling water reactor (BWR) nuclear energy facilities. News of the contract was announced by GEH Tuesday.
 
The “integrated outage contract,” which runs through the spring of 2018, consists of an agreement that GEH will conduct maintenance work and inspections of Exelon’s 14 BWR plants – all of which were manufactured by GEH, said GEH spokesman Jon Allen. The work will be performed during planned plant outages.
 
“Outages typically occur during spring and fall, when energy demand is lower, and they are scheduled roughly every 18 to 24 months,” Allen said.
 
The contract also extends Global Nuclear Fuel’s current refueling work at six Exelon reactors through 2018 and is in addition to the four other Exelon BWRs the company also fuels, according to GEH’s news release. 
 
GEH has provided maintenance, inspection and refueling support for Exelon’s reactors for decades, the release stated.
 
Chicago-based Exelon operates the country’s largest “nuclear fleet,” according to its website. That “fleet” consists of  23 reactors at 14 locations in Illinois, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

GE Hitachi is located in Castle Hayne, on a campus that adjoins that of GE Aviation.