Operators safely shut down the Unit 2 reactor at PP&L, Inc.'s Susquehanna nuclear plant near Berwick, Pa., on Saturday (3/13) to begin the unit's ninth planned refueling and maintenance outage.

About 35 percent of the unit's uranium fuel will be replaced during the outage, according to Herbert D. Woodeshick, PP&L, Inc.'s special assistant to the president for Susquehanna. This partial replenishing of the fuel will enable Unit 2 to operate for 24 months before another refueling.

Last April and May, Unit 1 at Susquehanna underwent a similar refueling and maintenance outage. PP&L, Inc.'s Nuclear Department schedules these outages for the spring because the demand for electricity is lower than compared with other times of the year.

"Refueling and maintenance outages are a crucial part of the operating cycle at Susquehanna," said Woodeshick. "The plant's reactors are partially replenished with fuel, and selected plant equipment is inspected and adjusted as necessary to maintain peak operating condition," he added.

Some 2,300 work items will be completed while Unit 2 is shut down.

Among the projects to be done are: the replacement of 280 fuel bundles; inspection of the main generator; inspection and maintenance of the control rod drive mechanism; and equipment modifications and testing of many plant components.

Effective outages help ensure that Susquehanna safely generates the maximum amount of electricity, according to Woodeshick.

"The outage is a controlled and well-planned series of events," he said, "and the four key ingredients of every job performed are safety, communication, quality and productivity."

Unit 2 has run for 253 consecutive days since an outage last summer to repair a drain line on the non-nuclear side of the plant. Since its last refueling and maintenance outage two years ago, Unit 2 has generated about 16,530 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. A kilowatt-hour is enough electricity to power a 100-watt light bulb for 10 hours. An average PP&L, Inc. residential customer uses about 10,000 kilowatt-hours a year.

Unit 2's capacity factor since the last refueling and maintenance outage was 92.4 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.

The Susquehanna plant, jointly owned by PP&L, Inc. and Allegheny Electric Cooperative, Inc., is located about five miles northeast of Berwick, Pa., along Route 11.