Unit 1 at Susquehanna Nuclear Plant Returns to Service

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May 17, 2010, 10:24 ET

BERWICK, Pa., May 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Unit 1 at PPL's Susquehanna nuclear plant near Berwick, Luzerne County, Pa., returned to service Monday night (5/17).

Operators at the plant safely shut down the Unit 1 reactor May 14 during equipment testing.

"At the time of the shutdown, we were conducting required tests on a new integrated digital control system for plant equipment and on pumps that provide water to the reactor vessel," said Jeff Helsel, PPL's Susquehanna plant manager. "Operators shut down the unit when the established test limits were reached. The tests are conservatively designed to ensure that the plant operates safely.

"While the unit was shut down, we conducted an evaluation of the testing and made adjustments to the control system," Helsel said. "With the unit again generating electricity, we will continue the testing."

The new control system and new turbines to power the pumps were installed during the refueling and maintenance outage that concluded last month, Helsel said. During that outage, a large number of equipment maintenance tasks and upgrades were done to improve plant safety, reliability and performance in addition to replacing about 40 percent of the uranium fuel.

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