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Piping Industry Critical to Davis-Besse Steam Generator Replacement Work

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More than 300 members of the Northwest Ohio Piping Industry are part of the workforce responsible for a $600 million project at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor that has far-reaching impact on the economy in Ottawa County and the entire State of Ohio.

Considered the biggest project at Davis-Besse since it was built in the 1970s, work started in February to install two new steam generators. These components are 74 feet long by 12 feet wide and weigh a whopping 470 tons each.

Steam generators handle radioactive reactor water, working as heat exchangers, producing super-hot steam that spins the plant’s turbine generator to produce electricity.

Bechtel Power Corporation was awarded the contract to provide the engineering, procurement and construction services to replace the two steam generators. Numerous members of the Piping Industry are part of the Bechtel team on site.

A number of other contractors that work exclusively with Piping Industry members are also on site, primarily handling critical path specialized welding.

The scheduled maintenance at Davis-Besse is expected to bolster the local economy by $108 million, and $150 million in economic benefits statewide, according to research by Applied Economics, a Phoenix-based consultant hired by the plant’s owner, First Energy.

Located along Lake Erie in Ottawa County, Davis-Besse is 35 miles east of Toledo. It was the first of two nuclear power plants built in Ohio.