PPL owned Susquehanna nuclear plant unit returns to service

PPL announced that the unit 2 at its Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant in the US state of Pennsylvania has returned to service after inspection and repairs, and generating electricity for the regional power grid.

Operators at the power station in Luzerne County had closed down the unit 2 following the need to inspect a turbine blade and repair a computer system that malfunctioned on 9 November.

The company said the malfunction was caused by the failure of a processing unit which was replaced by the workers during the outage.

PPL Susquehanna senior VP and chief nuclear officer Timothy S Rausch said, “The inspections and repairs we performed this fall on both units confirmed data provided by diagnostic equipment we installed on the turbines and give us confidence in moving forward with the long-term solutions we will install on both units starting next spring.”

During the unit 2 shut down period, unit 1 at the nuclear plant continued to operate at full power.

The Susquehanna plant is owned jointly by PPL Susquehanna and Allegheny Electric Cooperative. PPL Susquehanna operates the nuclear station.