PPL Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant Begins Scheduled Refueling Outage

(RTTNews) - PPL Susquehanna LLC announced that operators at PPL's Susquehanna nuclear power plant disconnected the Unit 2 reactor from the electrical grid late Friday to begin a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage. Unit 1 continues to operate at full power, the company noted.

Each of the two units at the Susquehanna plant is taken out of service for refueling and maintenance every 24 months, the company specified.

PPL schedules nuclear refueling and maintenance outages at this time of year, when seasonal temperatures bring less electricity use and the demand on the regional power grid is lower.

PPL Susquehanna LLC is one of PPL Corporation's (PPL) generating affiliates.

While the reactor is shut down, workers will replace about 40 percent of the uranium fuel and complete a number of equipment maintenance tasks and upgrades, the company added.

PPL Susquehanna said the plant also will be investing millions to upgrade equipment with state-of-the-art technology and to perform thousands of routine maintenance tasks that keep the plant in good condition.

As part of the large undertaking, plant employees purchased a significant amount of goods and services locally and hired about 1,000 contract workers, who boost the nearby economy with expenditures on lodging, food and entertainment.