Unit 2 at the Susquehanna nuclear power plant shut down automatically Saturday morning (4/15) due to a loss of the ability to transmit electricity from the plant.

Herbert D. Woodeshick, special assistant to Pennsylvania Power & Light Co.'s president for Susquehanna, said the unit shut down at 9:07 a.m. after the plant lost its connection with PP&L's electricity transmission system.

"In association with the ongoing refueling outage on Unit 1, crews were attempting to remove one-half of a 500,000-volt substation from service. As they were doing so, the other half of the substation unexpectedly shut down automatically," said Woodeshick. "As a result, Unit 2's turbine-generator and reactor shut down automatically as well."

Woodeshick said the unit shut down as designed, without incident.

Prior to Saturday's shutdown, the unit had been operating continuously for 308 days. The two units combined early this year to break the world continuous run record for dual-unit boiling water reactors.

Woodeshick said the plant personnel will be investigating the cause of the switching problem. He said the unit is expected to be out of service for about a week as plant crews complete some maintenance work that can only be done while the unit is out of service.

Susquehanna, located about 5 miles north of Berwick in Luzerne County, is jointly owned by PP&L and Allegheny Electric Cooperative.