Unit 1 at Susquehanna Nuclear Plant Shuts Down Safely

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Apr 22, 2010, 02:50 ET

BERWICK, Pa., April 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Unit 1 at PPL's Susquehanna nuclear plant near Berwick, Luzerne County, Pa., automatically and safely shut down Thursday morning (4/22) during equipment testing. The unit had returned to service late Wednesday (4/21) following its biennial refueling and maintenance outage.

"As part of the restart, several tests were scheduled at various power levels," said Jeff Helsel, PPL's Susquehanna plant manager. "The unit was operating at 30 percent of its electrical generating capacity when it safely shut down during one of those tests."

During the refueling and maintenance outage, in addition to replacing about 40 percent of the uranium fuel, workers completed a large number of equipment maintenance tasks and upgrades to improve plant safety, reliability and performance, he said. Included in the upgrades was installation of a new state-of-the-art digital control system that was being tested when the unit shut down.

"The unit shut down automatically as it is designed to do," Helsel said. "We perform these tests to ensure the safety and reliability of the unit. We expect to complete an evaluation of the shutdown quickly and have Unit 1 generating electricity again."

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