Tuesday, December 16, 2014

LEAK AT PPL NUCLEAR PLANT FORCED THE SHUTDOWN OF THE SUSQUEHANNA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT UNIT 1



Leak at PPL NUCLEAR plant forced the shutdown of the Susquehanna nuclear power plant Unit 1










The Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Luzerne County. (FILE PHOTO, THE MORNING CALL)



By Sam Kennedy, Of The Morning Call




Water leak forces shutdown of Unit 1 at PPL nuclear plant Saturday.



Why did PPL have to shut down Susquehanna nuclear power plant Unit 1?



A water leak forced the shutdown of PPL Susquehanna nuclear power plant Unit 1 early Saturday morning.




PPL Susquehanna, a subsidiary of PPL Corp. in Allentown, described the problem in a press release as "a small water leak inside the containment structure" surrounding the reactor.



"Although the water leak is well within the plant's limits for continued safe operation, operators began shutting the unit down as a conservative measure to complete repairs and enhance the unit's reliability for the upcoming winter, when cold weather drives higher electricity use," PPL said.




PPL expects to quickly identify the source of the water leak, complete repairs and resume generating electricity.




The Susquehanna plant, in Luzerne County about seven miles north of Berwick, is owned jointly by PPL Susquehanna and Allegheny Electric Cooperative Inc. and is operated by PPL Susquehanna.




In September 2013, radioactive water discovered inside a room in the plant's Unit 2 reactor building led to an "unusual event" declaration. An unusual event is the first of the four emergency classifications established by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for nuclear power plants. Unit 2 was not operating when that leak was found. It had been shut down a day earlier for an unplanned inspection of the unit's turbine blades after a sensor detected an abnormality. Soon after, the radioactive water was cleaned up and the turbines repaired.