Unit 1 at the Susquehanna nuclear power plant near Berwick returned to service Thursday (10/15) following repairs to non-nuclear equipment at the plant.

Work crews repaired an electrical contact on a transformer that provides electricity to monittoring instruments for the unit's main generator.

"The transformer is part of a system designed to protect the generator, a large piece of rotating equipment, from damage," said Herbert D. Woodeshick, special assistant to the president of PP&L, Inc., operator of the Susquehanna plant.

The plant's nuclear reactor shut down safely as designed on Oct. 3 when the faulty electrical contact caused the generator to stop producing power, he added. During the outage, in addition to repairing the electrical contact, plant personnel did other maintenance work that only can be done when the unit is shut down.

Unit 2 at the plant continued to operate at full power.

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