The head lamp of Fermi 2 journeyman mechanic Duane Gritter illuminates the work area for Bob Boes (left) and David Jones (right), who are replacing a drain valve on a Steam Jet Air Ejector system at Fermi 2.

Boes, from D.C. Cook, and Jones, from Palo Verde, are at DTE Energy’s Fermi 2 nuclear power plant as part of the Utilities Service Alliance personnel sharing program. Boes works in mechanical maintenance at his home plant and Jones is on his plant’s valve services team.

Fleet members often share personnel during refueling outages — as a way to save money and to bring additional skilled nuclear workers to site.

Fermi 2 is in the first week of its 16th Refueling Outage. In addition to replacing about a fourth of the fuel in Fermi 2’s reactor during the outage, workers like Gritter, Boes and Jones will complete more than 15,000 different activities, including equipment maintenance and inspections.