OREANDA-NEWS. February 26, 2016. Two nuclear industry veterans with nearly 50 years of combined experience are returning to their “home” stations to lead the teams at Exelon Generation’s Dresden and LaSalle County Stations.

Peter J. Karaba, who began his career as an engineer at Dresden Station in 1990, is returning to the station as site vice president. Since joining the company, he held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility in Dresden’s engineering, maintenance and operations departments. In 2010, he transferred to LaSalle Station, where he served as plant manager for two years before being promoted to site vice president. Karaba holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University and earned a senior reactor operator license while at Dresden. 

Karaba replaces Shane Marik, who was recently named site vice president and chief nuclear officer of Fort Calhoun Generating Station in Nebraska, which is operated by Exelon Generation.

Bill Trafton, formerly the plant manager at Exelon Generation’s Nine Mile Point Station in upstate New York, has assumed the site vice president position at LaSalle. Trafton began his career as an equipment attendant at LaSalle Station in 1983 and progressively worked his way up through the ranks, serving in various leadership positions. Prior to his role as plant manager at Nine Mile Point, Trafton was the station’s operations director. He attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., and held a reactor operator license and a senior reactor operator license at LaSalle.

LaSalle Station is approximately 75 miles southwest of Chicago near Marseilles, Ill. Dresden Generating Station is approximately 60 miles southwest of Chicago. Together, LaSalle and Dresden Stations can produce more than 4,000 megawatts of carbon-free electricity, enough to power more than 4 million typical American homes.