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.