US-based energy and utility company PPL announced that it has shut down unit 2 of its Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant, as part of a planned outage.
The nuclear plant located in Luzerne County about seven miles north of Berwick, is co-owned by PPL Susquehanna and Allegheny Electric Cooperative and is operated by PPL Susquehanna.
The unit 2 reactor was closed to carry out planned refueling and maintenance services. During the outage, the company will replace 40% of the uranium fuel and complete equipment maintenance tasks and upgrades at the plant.
Workers are also expected to carry out inspection at the unit’s turbines and replace several pieces of the unit’s turbine assembly.
PPL Susquehanna senior vice president and chief nuclear officer Timothy S Rausch said the modifications will solve the turbine blade problems.
“After the refueling outage, we will continue to closely monitor the turbines throughout the next two years to confirm the modified equipment is performing as expected,” Rausch said.
Unit 1 at the nuclear plant will continue to operate at full power, while Unit 2 undergoes upgrade.
Operators are planning to perform modifications on unit 1 turbine assembly once it completes the refueling and maintenance work on Unit 2.