BERWICK, Pa., April 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Unit 2 at PPL's Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Luzerne County, Pa., resumed generating electricity for customers on Sunday morning (4/15) after successfully completing a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage.
"In terms of work completed, this was one of the largest outages we've conducted," said Robert A. Saccone, vice president of Nuclear Operations for PPL Susquehanna.
During the outage, which started March 3, workers replaced about 40 percent of the reactor's uranium fuel, upgraded some major plant components to prepare for a planned future increase in generating capacity, and completed thousands of planned maintenance jobs to keep the unit operating safely and reliably.
Saccone said the upgrades included refurbishing the main electrical generator, replacing the four large pumps that move water from the main condenser and replacing equipment that preheats water before it is pumped into the reactor.
PPL schedules refueling and maintenance outages for one of the two units at the Susquehanna plant every year.
The plant, located about seven miles north of Berwick, is owned jointly by PPL Susquehanna LLC and Allegheny Electric Cooperative Inc., and is operated by PPL Susquehanna.
PPL Susquehanna is one of PPL Corporation's generating facilities. PPL Corporation , headquartered in Allentown, Pa., controls more than 11,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to more than 5 million customers in Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom and Latin America. More information is available at http://www.pplweb.com/.
