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| Rusty Bradshaw all suited up before going into the containment area. |
Rusty Bradshaw, Sun Cities editor in the Arizona West Valley
office, was part of a unique media tour of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating
Station west of Phoenix.
Selected media representatives were invited to tour the
facility’s No. 2 reactor while it was shut down for fuel rod replacement and
maintenance. Because the unit was shut down, media representatives were able to
enter the actual reactor containment area and view the area where the fuel rods
are installed. The 30-minute excursion also gave tour participants an up close
and personal look at how Palo Verde employees in the reactor unit do various
jobs.
Palo Verde officials replace fuel rods in each of its three
reactors every 18 months, staggering the work so that no more than one unit is
shut down at one time.
Palo Verde is the only nuclear power plant not located next
to a large body of water. Instead, Palo Verde’s water source is treated
wastewater from a plant in Tolleson, and treated a second time at the Palo
Verde facility. Water is essential in operating the plant to produce steam from
the super heated fuel rods that in turn powers the turbines that produce the
electricity. Water used in this fashion is then cooled and used again until it
becomes too filled with mineral deposits.
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| Media representatives get a few questions answered
before entering the plant’s No. 2 reactor. |
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| Looking down into the reactor where the fuel rods are installed. |
