Operators safely shut down the Unit 1 reactor at the Susquehanna nuclear power plant near Berwick Saturday (9/7) to begin the unit's ninth refueling and maintenance outage.

The refueling and maintenance outage is expected to take about five weeks. About 30 percent of the unit's uranium fuel will be replaced, said Herbert D. Woodeshick, Pennsylvania Power & Light Co.'s special assistant to the president for Susquehanna.

Among the projects to be done while Unit 1 is shut down is an inspection of one of its three low-pressure turbines. During the inspection the turbine will be completely disassembled and all of its components inspected.

Included will be ultrasonic testing of the turbine's 14 sets of 14-foot-diameter rotor blades, Woodeshick said.

In all, about 2,500 work items will be completed while Unit 1 is shut down.

Effective outages help ensure that Susquehanna safely generates the maximum amount of electricity at the lowest cost for PP&L customers, Woodeshick said.

Since returning to service in May 1995 from its last refueling outage, Unit 1 generated about 11,588,800,000 kilowatt-hours. A kilowatt-hour is enough electricity to power a 100-watt light bulb for 10 hours. An average PP&L residential customer uses about 10,000 kilowatt-hours a year.

Unit 1's capacity factor since its last refueling was 89 percent. Capacity factor, a measure of reliability, compares a unit's output to the amount of electricity it could generate if it ran continuously at full power.

PP&L schedules Susquehanna refueling outages in the spring and fall, when demand for electricity is lower. Each unit is taken out of service for refueling every 18 months.

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