Unit 1 at the Susquehanna nuclear power plant near Berwick returned to service Saturday (5/6) after a 43-day outage for scheduled refueling and maintenance.

Herbert D. Woodeshick, special assistant to the president for Pennsylvania Power & Light Co., which operates the plant, called the outage safe and successful. PP&L replaced about one-quarter of the unit's fuel and completed some 3,000 planned maintenance jobs.

"Effective maintenance — both during and after scheduled outages — contributes greatly to safe, reliable operation," he said. "Unit 1 is in excellent material shape and is ready for a good run in the next 18-month cycle."

Before this eighth refueling outage began in late March, Unit 1 operated for a PP&L-record 427 consecutive days. It is the first PP&L generating unit to operate continuously between scheduled maintenance outages without a shutdown.

This outage was the first conducted under a new approach to managing maintenance in ways that maximize plant safety and reliability. All planned work was completed safely within the challenging 45-day target, Woodeshick said.

During the outage, modifications were completed that will enable the unit to generate about 5 percent more electricity for PP&L customers.

"We will conduct extensive testing over the next three weeks that demonstrates our ability to operate Unit 1 safely at the higher power level," Woodeshick said.

Last year, PP&L became the first utility in the country to successfully complete such a project. The output of Susquehanna Unit 2 was increased by more than 53,000 kilowatts. Currently, Unit 2 is operating at full power. Its next scheduled refueling outage will begin in September.

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