Unit 1 at Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant Returns to Service

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Apr 21, 2010, 09:31 ET

BERWICK, Pa., April 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Unit 1 at PPL Corporation's Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Luzerne County, Pa., resumed generating electricity safely and reliably for customers on Wednesday (4/21) after a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage was completed.

"In addition to replacing about 40 percent of the uranium fuel, workers completed a large number of equipment maintenance tasks and upgrades, all of it aimed at further improving plant safety, reliability and performance," said Jeff Helsel, Susquehanna plant manager.

Before plant operators shut down the Unit 1 reactor on March 2 to begin the maintenance outage, it had operated safely for 685 continuous days since startup from its last refueling and maintenance outage in the spring of 2008. During that time, it generated 19,281,000 megawatt-hours of electricity — enough to power about 1 million homes.

This year's Unit 1 outage was part of the major investment PPL is making in the future of the Susquehanna plant, Helsel said. It continued the four-year project begun in 2008 to increase the amount of electricity the Susquehanna nuclear plant can safely and reliably generate. That project is expected to conclude in 2011 after further upgrades to Unit 2 are completed.

Upgrade work on Unit 1 during the outage included installing a new state-of-the-art integrated digital control system for plant equipment and replacing turbines that power pumps that provide water to the reactor vessel.

"The upgrade is a cost-effective, safe and reliable way for PPL to increase electricity generation from existing sources that emit no greenhouse gases," Helsel said.

The Susquehanna plant, located in Luzerne County 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. Headquartered in Allentown, Pa., PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) controls or owns nearly 12,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to about 4 million customers in Pennsylvania and the United Kingdom. More information is available at www.pplweb.com.

SOURCE PPL Corporation