Stephen Burns, the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and U.S. Congressman Tim Walberg visited USA fleet member Fermi 2 on October 14, taking a tour of the plant and getting an update on the plant’s Fukushima modifications.

Burns and Walberg met with senior leaders at Fermi 2 including with Paul Fessler, the plant’s senior vice president and Chief Nuclear Officer, and Site Vice President Vito Kaminskas.

Kevin Burke, an engineer who is leading Fermi’s Fukushima-related modifications, took the visitors to a just-completed Flex building and then into the plant. In the plant, Burke discussed spent fuel level instrumentation and primary containment hardened vent modifications.

The visitors also took a tour of Fermi 1, and heard a briefing about that plant’s reactor design, its history and decommissioning effort.

Burns told local media that he is trying to visit all of the U.S. nuclear reactors, after being named chairman earlier this year. Fermi 2 is in Walberg’s congressional district.

“The plant condition looks good,” Burns told members of the media after the tour.

Walberg praised the nuclear industry as essential to energy security, saying that nuclear must be a part of the country’s energy portfolio.

Fermi 2 is in its 17th refueling outage. Burns and Walberg visited the refuel floor in the Reactor Building and also stopped to take a look at piping and valve modifications being made during the outage.

Kevin Burke, right, an engineer at Fermi 2, gives a tour of Fermi 2’s Main Control to NRC Chairman Stephen Burns, second from left, and Congressman Tim Walberg, center.