After generating power to the city of Waukegan for almost 100 years the plant stopped coal fired generation on May 29th 2022 at 5:04am. Unit Operator, Eric Smally took Unit 7 offline for the last time, after Unit 8 had been shut down earlier in the month. Waukegan station started suppling power to the city of Waukegan in 1923. As the city grew, so did it’s need for reliable power, thus the station had to grow to keep up. By 1963 there were 8 running generators at the site. In 1958 Unit 7 came online as the world’s largest generator at 326.4 Mega Watts. At the time of closing, the station was producing 700 MW’s from coal and another 100 MW’s from the Peaker jets that were installed in 1968. The plant is located in the Northeast corner of the city on the shore of lake Michigan. The warm water discharge at the site was known to be some of the best Trout and Salmon fishing year-round between Racine WI, down to the city of Chicago for a number of years.
Nuclear Fuel Handling Transfers
Local 15 V.P Ben Busser, Business Rep Brian Daniels, and Chief Steward Russ Ruettiger have been discussing transfers with the Nuclear Fuel Handling Management team. 5 Fuel Handlers had put in transfer forms. On 5/17/22, a conference call was held and all 5 accepted the transfers.
Nuclear Maintenance Transfers
On 4/27/22 Local 15 V.P Ben Busser, Business Rep Brian Daniels and Maintenance Stewards worked with Labor and Human Resources to successfully complete Maintenance lateral transfers. The list started with 14 individuals that were interested in transferring to another nuclear site. At the end of the meeting 7 accepted and 7 declined the opportunity. The seniority dates were set by Local 15 and a release date of 1/9/23 was determined by the Company.